Alright, I realize that New Years posts are a bit of a cliche…but I think there’s something nice about having an excuse to assess your goals, and reflect on things. If it has to be a bit of a cliche, then so be it.

I try not to do “resolutions” because they seem too inflexible, but I like setting goals. I’ve been in a bit of a slump for the last year, and I think I could use some goals to liven things up. So, lets get to it!

Create More

This is my big goal for 2017. More specifically, to create things that I can share with people. I’ve done plenty of writing over the last few years, but everything is in very rough-draft format; I’ve not done anything that’s really polished enough to share with people. And that’s fine; those projects are coming along nicely, and I’m not unhappy about where they are. But I miss that joy of sharing projects with others.

On the blog, I’m going to continue the Great Ouran Analysis, because honestly that’s been a ton of fun, and we’re still just barely getting going. I got kind of derailed this Fall (work in retail, and you know the true pain of the Holiday Season), but I’m hoping to bring this series back and start updating more frequently.

Part of this is, I feel I’ve tried to compartmentalize myself a bit too much. I started this blog in grad school, in the height of my obsession with YA books (just as the genre was becoming a big, talked-about thing), and I still feel like this should be a book blog, primarily. But it’s not. It’s just not. I love books, and I love reading, but I haven’t felt much like reviewing things recently, and I’m not getting through books nearly as quickly as I was in grad school. That’s why I made the subtitle of this blog “with occasional detours into Movieland, Televisionland, and Gameland.” I want this to be a pop culture blog, and a bit of a catch-all for the things I care about. Now, I need to put my money where my mouth is, and actually blog about those things.

Write More [Often]

Ok, this could be part of “create more,” but I thought it deserved it’s on spot. I’m not concerned so much with quantity or quality; I’m concerned with frequency. My goal is to make daily writing a habit. I’ve challenged myself to write at least 300 words a day. That’s, like, 10 minutes a day. I really have no excuse for not doing that almost every day.

I don’t think writing daily is absolutely required to be a writer, but I’ve found that when I work on a project daily, even for just a little bit, it keeps my mind in the project. I don’t have to sit down and reread what I wrote during the last session; I can launch straight in where I was. It keeps me more consistent, and it keeps me mindful. That’s one of my favorite parts of Nanowrimo, and I want to be able to keep it up year-round, even just in small amounts. Of course, ideally I’ll end up writing more than 300 words most days, because usually starting is the hardest part.

Cook More

This is more of a personal goal, but I’ve been trying to assess my eating habits, and work on eating a better balance of all the good things. Not a diet per se, because I kind of hate diets, but just a focus on what I’m eating, not necessarily how much. The easiest way to control this is to cook more. I enjoy cooking when I get in the habit of it, but it quickly feels like a chore when I get home from work and just want to relax, sew, write, or get on with the things I need to get done. But it can be relaxing. And it can help save money. I’m tired of eating a steady diet of ramen, quesadillas, and leftovers.

I have two ways I’m going to tackle this goal. The first is that I’m going to push myself to cook new meals. I have this cookbook I love, the Healthy College Cookbook, and it’s great for healthy meals that are also pretty easy, and from what I’ve seen so far, pretty tasty. I’m going to try picking a new recipe a week, and see where we go from there.

The second thing I’m going to do is go to the damn grocery store once a week. I hate grocery shopping. The stores are always too busy, and the lines are always too long, and I get major stressed out when I don’t know where to look for something. But, it’s mainly big shopping trips that stress me out. If I go once a week, I’ll only be buying stuff for that week’s meals, and stocking up a bit on staples, but I should haven’t to do any huge, hour-long trips. Hopefully this will make it easier to cook (because I’ll always have enough ingredients on hand), and will help make both things more of a habit.

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Well, that’s it for this year! Three goals that I think should be pretty easy to keep up. So far I’ve been doing really well on the daily writing; I usually miss a day a week, but I can handle those odds. We’ll see how the other things pan out!