2017 Blogging Resolutions

Every year (I missed the last couple) I try to put together a list of things I want to do to maintain my blog and/or reading habits. So here is that list. My blogging resolutions are a bit different this year than previous years. I am actually trying to shiftaway a bit from all the reading/blogging because other areas of my life have been suffering a bit from the obsessive reading.

When I am stressed or upset I go and read (I suppose I could have worse habits). Reading is my ultimate comfort thing and my ultimate form of relaxation as well. Although this blog allows me to use my reading to give back some, I feel like sometimes it pulls me away from other life experiences. I am absolutely obsessed with stories and how they influence both people and society. However, I have decided maybe it’s time to focus a bit on my own story…my life and experiences.

So this year I am actually trying to read a bit less and focus more on other aspects in my life. I am trying to do more gaming (video games and board games) which is something that really brought me and my husband together initially. I also want to focus more on some of the programming things and blog design I started doing last year. Additionally I want to get back into doing more volunteer work both for science outreach and at my son’s school. For some reason last year I dropped a lot of this and I think my life has been a lot less rich because of that.

Lastly I need to focus more on my health. I have been having some issues that are preventing me from being as active as I want to be and this year I need to focus on the strength training and flexibility training that will allow me to get back to running and biking as much as I want to again. I will admit that the whole moving thing we did end of 2015 really put a wrench in my routine and then that was followed my some work issues (layoffs and program cancellations) that sent me into a bit of a depression. However, that is no excuse…I’vehad a year and I need to get myself back into a good place.

Okay so all that baggage aside and without further ado my blogging resolutions:

1.  Keep My Review Pile Under Control.   I was really really good at this last year. I never had more than five review books at a time and always reviewed them before their release date. I have been very very good at getting picky about which books I request and about passing on review books I get that I didn’t request and don’t want to read. I hope to continue that this year.

2.  Reduce my TBR Pile.  I did a really great job on this last year.  My TBR pile was under 200 books for the first time in I don’t know how long.  See chart below.  I want to continue to drive this number down.

3. Read less books this year.  Does this seem counter-intuitive?  Well for my overall life goals it’s not.  I read 251 books last year.  This year I set my goal at 200.  I have many other hobbies and things I want to focus on and reading less books with help with that.

4. Expand on the theme of this blog.   I am not sure yet how I am going to do this.  Maybe it’s by posting more discussion posts?  Or posting more posts about what’s going on with me personally?  Let me know your thoughts if there are things you’d like to see and/or read about.