It's been a couple months since my last life update and we're nearing the end of the year, so it's time to set my intentions for the next year. Why I think this is a good idea, I'm not sure, because it never works out as intended, but I've got plans and I'm working at a job where keeping them at least feels feasible right now. So let's get into it.
For starters, next year I hope to get back into participating in some weekly memes. The one's I'm most hoping are still around are Top Ten Tuesday, Stacking the Shelves (Saturday) and the Book Bloggers Hop (Friday). Those were my favorite memes to participate in on a regular basis. But I know I need to do some serious hard work to rebuild my blog exposure, and those help.
I also want to create more discussion question posts. This means I need to think about coming up with discussion questions while reading on a more regular basis. Some books really lend themselves to those questions, while others don't, but I know that having those posts available online can really help in a pinch if you're hosting a book club and are having trouble thinking of your own questions. Those have also been my most consistently organically popular posts.
I'm also thinking about starting a B-movie Monday feature where I watch a low budget movie for review. It would be similar to my #31DaysOfChristmas movie reviews, but only one a week because the Christmas movie reviews make me feel overwhelmed before the month is over, and I'd really like the things I post to continue feeling fun and not so much like work.
I also have goals for Netgalley. If you read my previous update post, you know that I set a goal for myself to get my feedback percentage up to 25% before the end of the year. Well, I did it!!! I officially hit 25% on December 27th, with days (and a few already written reviews) to spare. Sure, I did it by reading and reviewing a LOT of children's books, but I did it. Next year I'd like to get my percentage over 50%. I actually plan on continuing to read and review children's books to help with that goal, but I also intend to start knocking books off my list that have been there for a while. My current plan is to review one children's book a day, and then read longer works as they're coming up on their publication date or as I can fit them in between upcoming releases. We'll see how long I manage to stick to that.
Now for my actual life outside of the blog. I've started working out again, at home, being a crazy person waking up early and working out before I go to work. It's not something I could have possibly done at the last job with my inconsistent schedule, but I've been pretty successful so far and it's been about three weeks. Because I had a pretty serious mental health induced backslide in my weightless progress, I have less than a year to lose a little over 60 pounds to meet my goal, which is still absolutely doable, but I know I need to do it with small changes that I can maintain. While I'm less physically active at this job than the last one, I'm in a position to eat less more often, which I'm hoping will help me reboot my busted metabolism. I don't actually know if that's how it works, but I have to believe convincing my body it doesn't need to hold on to every calorie because it's getting more in pretty short order would probably be beneficial.
Now it's just a matter of finding a good balance between working, blogging, and being present with my family. I wonder if I can convince them to watch my B-movies with me once a week...It's certainly worth a try, but getting the kids to stick around for an entire quality movie is hard enough. It's almost like they're in middle school or something (they are).
But that's where I'm at right now and what I plan for the new year. Feel free to make bets on how long I stick to all of these goals and plans in the comments. (Really, doing it out of spite for your lack of faith in me may be the only way I stick to things.) - Katie
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