Tag: readinggoals

My Reading & Writing Goals for 2022

It’s 2022!

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Happy New Year! It’s that time of the year where I share my reading and writing goals for 2022.

These are some of my favourite posts to write. I love creating goals, especially ones surrounding reading and writing. And I love to share them!

Without further ado, let’s start by looking back to a year ago when I set my goals for 2021. What did I accomplish? What didn’t I accomplish? I will cross off each one I accomplished and then give a quick wrap-up at the end before diving into my 2022 goals.

My Goals for 2021

Writing

  • Finish writing The Obsidian Butterfly so it is ready for editing
  • Keep up blog schedule of posting once a week to each blog
  • Outline 2nd The Obsidian Butterfly novel

Freelancing

  • Have freelancing become my part-time job (get between 20-25 hours of work)
  • Create a social media/creative agency (make a website and new social media accounts)
  • Continue learning about digital marketing through online courses
  • Continue taking editing and writing classes (you can never stop improving!)

Reading

  • Read 30 books
  • Actually read all my assigned readings for school (I slacked a little last semester, I won’t lie)

Lifestyle

  • Travel locally more (if things get better, obviously)
  • Keep up my workout routine of going to the gym 2-3x per week
  • Get back on track with school (last semester, I only took 2/5 classes so I want to make sure I am doing full semesters from now on)
  • Prioritize my mental health (this means continuing counselling, focusing more on self-care, etc.)
  • Save more money
  • Develop a repeatable morning routine (it doesn’t have to be a crazy 1 hour routine, but it could just be reading first thing when I wake up)
  • Spend less time online (since it’s my job to be online, I want to cut down my screen time when I’m not working and spend more time outside or reading)
  • Meditate and journal almost every day

Overall, I did fairly good for 2022. Especially business and lifestyle-wise, however, in 2022, I want to re-centre my focuses on writing and reading, as well as lifestyle. These are the things that light me up from the inside yet I neglected them a lot this past year.

My 2022 Goals

Writing

  • Finish writing The Obsidian Butterfly draft 1
  • Finish writing The Obsidian Butterfly draft 2
  • Write every week

Freelancing

  • Gain 2 more clients
  • Keep up with sending one new email newsletter every month (If you’re an author, sign up for my newsletter HERE to get monthly social media marketing and book marketing tips AND 30 content ideas to grow your brand awareness)
  • Post 4x per week to Instagram
  • Post every day to TikTok
  • Launch my first digital project in August
  • Take a new marketing course once per month

Reading

  • Read 15 books
  • Read more about Aztec mythology

Blogging

  • Post twice a month to this blog
  • Post twice a month to my author marketing blog (check it out HERE!)
  • Post twice a month to my travel blog

Lifestyle

  • Meditate 5x a week
  • Workout 3x a week
  • Go on a walk 2x a week
  • Keep up my morning routine
  • Read 10 pages a day
  • Continue travelling locally
  • Plan Seattle trip
  • Prioritize mental health

I feel really confident in my goals for 2022. They are things that I am excited about and have already kept up in 2021, like working out consistently, getting back on track with writing (even though I didn’t accomplish a single writing goal from 2021), and keeping up a good morning routine.

When creating goals, it’s important to ensure they aren’t unrealistic. Otherwise, they are unproductive and damaging to your mental well-being. And that’s exactly what I’ve gone on to do.

Always, always set SMART goals!

What are your goals for 2022? Let me know in the comments below!

Check out my last blog post: My Top 4 Favourite Books of 2021

My Goals for 2021

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With 2021 around the corner and me being on my holiday break from work, I’ve finally taken the time to map out my goals for the new year and now, I’m here to share them with you!

I have a pretty lengthy list of goals, but a lot of them don’t have a solid end goal or point. Most of them are just activities or things I want to spend time working on throughout the year. Anyways, before getting into my goals, let’s chat about some tips for creating and achieving your goals.

5 tips for achieving your goals.

  1. Create S.M.A.R.T goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant & Time-Based)
  2. Make sure your goals reflect your intentions for the year (for example, my main goal is to grow my freelancing business so a lot of my goals are continuing to study social media marketing, etc on my own time, develop a marketing plan for my business, etc.)
  3. Develop an actionable plan for each goal
  4. Write them down
  5. Revisit them at the end of every month

My goals for 2021.

Writing

  • Finish writing The Obsidian Butterfly so it is ready for editing
  • Keep up blog schedule of posting once a week to each blog
  • Outline 2nd The Obsidian Butterfly novel

Freelancing

  • Have freelancing become my part-time job (get between 20-25 hours of work)
  • Create a social media/creative agency (make a website and new social media accounts)
  • Continue learning about digital marketing through online courses
  • Continue taking editing and writing classes (you can never stop improving!)

Reading

  • Read 30 books
  • Actually read all my assigned readings for school (I slacked a little last semester, I won’t lie)

Lifestyle

  • Travel locally more (if things get better, obviously)
  • Keep up my workout routine of going to the gym 2-3x per week
  • Get back on track with school (last semester, I only took 2/5 classes so I want to make sure I am doing full semesters from now on)
  • Prioritize my mental health (this means continuing counselling, focusing more on self-care, etc.)
  • Save more money
  • Develop a repeatable morning routine (it doesn’t have to be a crazy 1 hour routine, but it could just be reading first thing when I wake up)
  • Spend less time online (since it’s my job to be online, I want to cut down my screen time when I’m not working and spend more time outside or reading)
  • Meditate and journal almost every day

See? I have a pretty long list of goals for 2021 which I don’t always recommend. However, a lot of my goals are small things to implement into my days or weeks or even months. I am really excited to work towards achieving these goals because they help keep me on the path I want to be on for the next year. Like I said, I really want to focus on growing my freelancing business but I also have a lot of lifestyle goals because I definitely neglected that aspect of my life in 2020.

Make sure you check out recent blog post and follow me on social media; the links are all down below. Also, don’t forget to let me know what your 2021 goals are! Thanks for reading 🙂

Last Blog Post: My Post-NaNoWriMo Plans

Need a freelance editor, blogger, or social media manager? Visit my website HERE.

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September Goals

All the reading and writing goals for September!

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Goal setting has not been going great for me lately. My life has felt all over the place and because of that, I have not been seeing the progress in my own projects and goals that I have hoped for.

However, as a student, September feels like the start of a brand new year (more so than January 1st) and I am going to use this month as a reset. While it is going to be hectic month with the start of online classes, full-time work, etc, etc…I am determined to continue reading, writing, and of course, blogging.

Before I get into today’s blog post, I wanted to let you all know that today is the LAST DAY to get 10% off any of my editing services on my freelance website. Check out what I offer HERE because I’d love to work with you 🙂

Anyways, enough of the rambling. Here’s to a productive month!

Reading

  • Finish Vicious by V.E. Schwab – I started my re-read of this amazing book a few days ago and while once upon a time, I would be done it already, I’ve been in a reading slump for a looong time. However, I am determined to get it read before the end of September so I can dive into Vengeful, the sequel! I am already flying through this book so I have high hopes I will achieve this goal.
  • Beloved by Toni Morrison or The Round House by Louise Erdrich – I don’t know which one of these I will be reading first because they are for my American Lit class (which I hopefully will stay in and not drop). Regardless, I haven’t read anything by either of these authors so I am excited to see how my experience is with them. You would think by now my course outline for the class would be released since I have less than 2 weeks till class starts, but nope! I still have no idea what is going on for it, let alone which book we are starting the year off with.

Writing

  • Post on Blog 1x Per Week – I was really hoping to keep up with posting 2x per week on here, but I’ve made a list of all my commitments for September and realized it wasn’t practical. I’m determined to post at least once a week and keep up with connecting with you all and providing content you want! I will be keeping my Monday posting day (but instead of posting at 12pm PST, I will be posting at 8am PST) but not Fridays unless I have the time and have something I really want to post.
  • Write Article for Flanelle’s Print Edition – I think I was supposed to have drafted this already, but July and August were so hectic that I am going to work on this in September instead. I can’t reveal what the topic is, but I’m curious to see what I come up with for Flanelle’s October print edition. It’ll probably be at most, 1,000 words which shouldn’t take my too long! If you want to check out some of the articles I’ve written for Flanelle, check out my portfolio on my freelance website HERE!
  • Write 17,000 Words – Once again, I am working on The Obsidian Butterfly and re-entering it into the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future writing contest on September 30th. I don’t know if I mentioned this, but my last version of this story got a Silver Honourable Mention so that has really inspired me to work on the story more, re-write it, and then re-submit it. It will be a bit challenging trying to get a polished draft ready to go in my busy month, but I love this story and am determined to do so.

That is everything I have planned for the month of September and let’s cross our fingers I can check off 80% of this at least. The thing is with my goals is they are rarely things I want to get done but rather things I HAVE to get done (give or take a few). They are all goals I genuinely want to achieve, however, and I am looking forward to keeping busy.

Last Blog Post: Beginner’s Guide to: Roman Mythology

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August Reading + Writing Goals

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Happy Friday!

It is that time of the month where I share all my reading and writing goals for August, and go over what I got done in July. To be honest, it was not a lot! Life got in the way as it always seems to do when I attempt to be productive, but c’est la vie.

August is going to be a crazy month no matter what. I have some traveling I am doing (which is completely following the rules of my province), I start my brand-new full-time job as a Communications Development Lead, and I am launching a secret business! There is a limit to what I can do alongside all of this, so this will be a very practical goals list.

TIP: Write down everything that you MUST get done that month and then plan your goals. This way, you know what your main focus(es) are but also how much time you have to dedicate to other projects.

Here is what I wrote and read during July.

Writing

The Obsidian Butterfly – This is my Camp NaNoWriMo project and my goal for the month was to reach 25k. However, I ended up only writing 6,704 words. I am not too bummed about it because I was dealing with a lot of things for the last half of July. Overall, this is a good start and I’ve decided to take a break from the novel version of this story anyways (more on this later).

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Flanelle Magazine Interview – In July, I got a really exciting project for the magazine I write for (Flanelle Magazine) and it was an interview with Zonnique, a 24-year-old, Atlanta born singer. This was a cool project because I’ve never done an interview before. I will link it once it is live on the website!

Reading

Daisy Jones & The Six: A Novel: Reid, Taylor Jenkins ...

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid – Even in a reading slump, this book never fails me. While this was the third time I’ve read this book, I zipped through it in only 2 days. I adore this book, the characters, the story…everything about it is just so addicting. It follows the rise and fall of this band from the 70s, and it was inspired by Fleetwood Mac so what is not to love? 5/5 stars

Kingdom of Souls (Kingdom of Souls, #1) by Rena Barron

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron – This took me a bit to get through, but overall, I really enjoyed the mythology, the characters, and the overall story. It didn’t blow my mind and I didn’t love any of the characters specifically, but it reminded me of my own book and it helped inspire me to work on it throughout July. Kingdom of Souls is inspired by West African mythology and follows a girl who year after year, has not been able to find her own magic. When the story takes a dark twist, she finds magic but it is not in the way she wanted or expected. 3.5/5 stars

Here is what I want to write and read in August…

Writing

The Obsidian Butterfly (Novella Version) – In March, I wrote a novella version of my novel idea, The Obsidian Butterfly, and submitted it to the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest which I received a Silver Honourable Mention for. I’ve decided to re-write this story because I feel it was missing some things that really held it back. My goal is to get 7,000 words done in August because the word limit is 17,000 (which being the overwriter I am, I will reach). Since the deadline is October 1st, it should give me enough time to finish it even with all the other things I’ve got going on.

Reading

Eliza and Her Monster by Fransesca Zappia – Yes, this is a re-read but apparently I am in the mood for re-reading my favourite contemporaries. Eliza and Her Monsters is an all-time favourite of mine, especially because the main character suffers from anxiety and how she feels and eventually copes with it is something I strongly relate to still. With everything going on, my anxiety has definitely spiked. I’ve been the most anxious these past few months that I have ever been in my entire life, but I’ve found re-reading my favourite books has helped.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell – I have an unofficial tradition of reading this book every summer, or in the fall, before school starts. I am going into my second year of university and Cath, the main character, is in her first and we follow her as she experiences it. This book is also another one that is so easy for me to read. I have no doubt I will fly through it in less than a week!

Those are all the things I want to write and read during August, and also what I got done back in July. I swear, the months are flying by and I can BARELY keep up. But, I am doing my best and despite everything, this has been a productive quarantined summer.

Don’t forget to check out my last blog post as well as my social media accounts which are all linked down below! I will be announcing my secret business on there first, so follow my Twitter, Instagram, AND Pinterest.

Thanks for reading 🙂

Last Blog Post: Beginner’s Guide to: Aztec Mythology

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June Reading + Writing Goals

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Happy Friday!

Both April and May have flown by, and now we are right on June’s doorstep which is crazy, but also why I am here with my reading and writing goals for June. I am keeping the load light however because once I finish my current projects (which I should in early June), my mind and body need a break from my computer.

Besides, May was very productive work-wise for me! However, I did not stick to any of my original May goals because a bunch of unexpected opportunities arose that I could not pass up. In order to take them, I had to set some of my own projects to the back burner because of it, but that’s okay. I know I will pick them up sometime this summer. Nonetheless, May was busy and productive and I am hoping to carry that into June.

Anyways, onto my June goals!

Finish Re-Typing

Deadline Goal: June 12

This is a 344-page project I have been working on for a client since May 7th, and it has definitely taken me a lot longer than I expected. However, I am trying to re-type 15 pages a day which will let me finish when I hope to…as long as I don’t stray too far from that daily page goal. Sometimes I can’t hit that goal though. Last night, I had a lot of troubling focusing so I only typed 10. I am not too worried because in the past, I’ve been able to catch up and I know I can do it again. Regardless, I am excited to get this done.

Finish Outlining Act III of “The Obsidian Butterfly”

Deadline Goal: June 14

I am horrible at finishing outlines, which is why I want to sit down and just finish this novel idea. I already have Act I and II done, so why didn’t I just finish Act III? No idea. To be honest, I do not know where Act III will take me which is probably why I haven’t planned it out yet. I want to end this story differently in the novel than I did in the novella version since I will have more room to expand the ending and I want to explore all the possibilities.

Write 10,000 Words Towards “The Obsidian Butterfly”

Deadline Goal: June 30

My goal was to write 50,000 words of this back in May and yeah, that did not happen! I think I made it to around 7,000 though, so at least that is something. In June, I would really like to make some more progress in this story. If I could get just 10,000 words down during June, that’s 2,000 words per week which in my mind, is a reasonable amount. However, if I don’t get that much, I just hope I finish outlining it!

Write 2 Articles for Flanelle Magazine

Deadline Goal #1: June 14

Deadline Goal #2: June 30

Last month, I only contributed one article to Flanelle Magazine which is a magazine I write for if you didn’t know (check it out HERE). They do not take me that long to do so I want to aim to get two out this coming month. Really, I just spend one day planning it out and then pitch the idea to my editor-in-chief. When she emails me back the following day with the okay, I write the first draft and go over it several times before sending it back to her. Overall, the process is two to three days. I love writing for this magazine and want to make sure it doesn’t fall to the side of all my other projects!

Read 3 Books

If you read my May Wrap-Up + June TBR (click HERE to read it), you will know I had a horrible reading month! In June, I really want to get back into the swing of reading and knock some books off my TBR, but I also don’t want to overwhelm myself. I am thinking that three books is a good goal. It is not too many books, but also not too little. Fingers crossed this is an easy goal to check off the goal list!

Those are all my goals for June and I hope you enjoyed reading through them! Hopefully, they inspired you to map out some goals you have for June. If you already have some goals outlined, drop them in the comments below because I’d love to know what they are.

Don’t forget to check out my last blog post as well as my social media accounts which are all linked own below.

Thanks for reading 🙂

Last Blog Post: May Wrap-Up + June TBR

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Reading & Writing Goals – March + April 2019

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I did not start the new year off on a strong note…the only goal I achieved within the first two months of the year was to apply to two scholarships. So yeah, we are going to try and pick up the pace these next two months. April is Camp NaNoWriMo which means during March, I will be prepping like mad (and also writing) so stuff will definitely get done. Anyways, here are my goals!

  • Write + Edit Fantasy Story – This is a story I’m writing for a contest, but I’ve also been working on this story for a while now. This is my push to just finish writing it, and also polish it up as much as I can. The maximum word count is 17,000 so I definitely got my work cut out for me!
  • Plan Out Camp NaNoWriMo Stories – I’m aiming to write about four short stories/essays for upcoming scholarships and contests during Camp NaNoWriMo. This also includes editing and polishing them up because a lot of them are due on the very last day of April!
  • Read 10 Books – Once again, I’ve changed my reading goal. At the beginning of the year, it was 70 (5 books less than last years goal), but I saw how I was already struggling to keep on track so I lowered my goal to 60. Now I only need to read 5 books a month and I’ve been keeping up with that pretty well so far.
  • Post 12 Blog Posts – Since I’ve cut down on how many blog posts I post every month, I’m hoping it will make it easier to achieve the other goals that I listed above. I like posting “creative” content only twice a week rather than three times and then posting my update on Sunday. It definitely helps minimize any stress I feel surrounding it.

I feel like I’m forgetting some goals but this covers the overall idea of things I want to achieve this month. I hope you enjoyed reading all my goals, and make sure you comment down below all the goals you plan on achieving in the next month or two because I’d love to know! Don’t forget to check out my last blog post and my social media accounts which are all linked down below. Thanks for reading 🙂

Last Blog Post: Using Philosophy To Become a Better Writer

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My Reading & Writing Goals for 2019

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Happy Friday!

We have only 10 days of 2018 left so it is time to discuss all of my reading and writing goals for the new year! I love these type of blog posts, videos, etc, because it gets me so motivated for accomplishing my goals in the new year and hopefully, it does for you too. I’ll have my 2018 goals wrap up out at the beginning of January so stay tuned for that! Anyways, let’s get into it.

Reading

  • Read 70 Books – This is 5 books less than my 2018 reading goal because I know I’m not going to have as much time to read as I do this year…however, 5 books less isn’t a dramatic drop but that is because I plan on doing an entire degree in reading (English Literature) and plan on taking quite a few classes that include reading so I’m sure I will still read a lot.
  • Read At Least 10 Classics – Since I want to do a degree in English Lit, I will be reading a lot of classics. Not only that, but I do really want to branch out my reading tastes from YA (I still want to read YA all the time obviously) and make this a goal for 2019.
  • Read At Least 30 New Releases – Sometimes, I get caught up in re-reading books which I love and is the reason I buy books instead of borrowing them. However, I can get caught up in doing that and forget to read new releases so I want to make sure at least almost half of the books I read are new releases.

Writing

  • Submit to 5 Literary Magazines – I spent most of 2018 writing new stories and while they still need some editing and I want to write a few more, I really want to make sure I focus on sending them out instead of hoarding them. So yeah, I would like to submit to at least 5 but it would be great if I sent out more.
  • Submit to 3 Writing Contests – Again, I want to get my voice out there and just keep sending out my work.
  • Write 3 NEW Short Stories – As for sending out pieces of writing, I also want to make sure I write a few new ones. However, since I’m starting my first year of university in September 2019, I might not have time to write more than 3 so I am setting my goals low since my only free time between then and now will be summer break.
  • Write 1 Creative Non-Fiction Piece – After spending a month or so on creative non-fiction in my writing class, I realized this genre of writing excites me and is something I want to keep exploring in the new year by writing at least one CNF piece.
  • Write Draft 3 of Project Mystic – I feel like I haven’t touched this project in forever when really, it has only been 2(ish) months. I do want to get back to it sometime in the new year though and attempt draft 3 though because I’m itching to return to the world.

Blogging

  • Post At Least 3x a Week – Even with the chaos of school, I want to make sure I am still constantly posting and uploading content. I love blogging and want to make sure it is something I am always doing. Currently, I publish 4 blog posts a week but that could get a bit much in the future so I wanted to lower my expectations a little bit.
  • Upgrade Plan – Currently, I have the WordPress personal plan but I really want to upgrade to the premium plan so I can make my blog even better! I’ve been blogging for almost 3 years now, and want to keep moving forward.
  • Set Up a Newsletter – Along with upgrading my blog plan, I will then be able to start a newsletter which is something I have always wanted to do but can’t with a personal plan. Since my plan expires in early January, hopefully, I will have this plan in motion within the next few months.

Anyways, those are all of the goals I have for 2019 and I realize I have quite a lot, but they are pretty broad and manageable I think. Don’t forget to comment below some goals you have for 2019 because I would love to know! Also, make sure you check out my last blog post as well as my social media accounts which are linked below. Thanks for reading 🙂

Last Blog Post: Festive Christmas Book Tag!

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