Tuesday, January 1, 2019

2019 Reading & Blogging Goals


Hello friends! Happy New Years!! I don't know about you, but I am anxiously excited for my goals for 2019. Most of them I've had for a couple years. Some of them are new. All of them are goals I hope to accomplish. Without further ado, let's jump right on it.

Reading Goals

1. Read/finish more series - I absolutely need to finish a couple series that have been on my TBR for years, most notably Candis Terry's Sweet, Texas series. I'm going to take it slow. Maybe one or two a month depending on how many series I want to finish. Or at least make a dent in if it's a longer one.

2. Electronics curfew - I feel like this is an important goal because I am a nighttime reader. If I don't carve out time to read, then I'll run out of time every night and that's just not helping. I'm going to start easy with only Thursday and Friday, then go from there.

3. Read more paperbacks - I have accumulated a handful of paperback arcs and finished books from publishers in the recent years that I need to read. For me to get caught up, I have to read more paperbacks.

4. Read more genres - It's not a secret that I'm a contemporary lover. I do want to try other series, especially historical and paranormal romances. That's pretty much it.

5. Find a new way to track challenges - I love my planner and my blog notebook to keep track of and plan out posts, but in a year where I want to simplify things, I've come to the conclusion that notebooks aren't the easiest way to track challenges. Whether it's on Goodreads or through Google Docs, I'm on the hunt for an easier method.

Blogging/Reviewing Goals

1. Raise Netgalley feedback ratio by at least 10% - While I didn't reach this goal last year, I still think I did a good job at my request/review ratio. I have my starting ratio written down and my goal is to get that number up by 10%. 

2. Post at least 4 days a week - This is a bit of a flexible goal. It could be 4 reviews or 3 reviews and a wrap-up, the only thing that matters to me is getting at least 4 blog posts up each week.

3. Stick to the Monday-Wednesday-Friday review schedule - This definitely not as flexible as posting 4 days a week. My priority is reviews on Monday-Wednesday-Friday. If those are the only posts I have done for the week (in addition to a wrap-up), I am okay with that. There will be an occasional extra review, especially if I want that ratio number to go up.

4. Be more creative with reviews - Honestly, I feel like one of the reasons why I got into the huge reviewing slump last year was because my reviews tend to sound the same. Therefore, I want to be more creative with my reviews. It could either be a letter to a character, the author, or even a letter to my past self that's about to start the book. I just want to mix things up a bit. And I have a feeling it's going to start with Jenny Holiday's book in a couple weeks.

5. Post at least 2 discussion posts a month - I really enjoyed doing more discussion posts last year, but I think I burnt myself out on them a bit. So I'm going to slow things down a bit and commit myself to two a month. I may do more, I may stick to 2.

6. Organize blog files and keep up with blog maintenance - My blog files are messy AF. My review archive hasn't been updated in a couple months. Both need to be cleaned and maintained on a normal basis.

7. Build Instagram presence - If I'm being honest, Instagram intimidates me. So, I'm going to start slow and hopefully build up my IG game this year.

Let's Chat

Those are my goals for 2019. I also have a handful of goals for my crafty blog/website. Let me know if you'd like to see those and I'll share them hear. In the meantime, what are your goals for the year? Let's chat!

2 comments:

  1. Great goals, Crystal! Good luck on them, I know that you're going to knock it out of the park!

    Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete