Posts Tagged ‘goals’
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March 2011 Challenge Goals
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Short and sweet this month (and a week late. I know! I know!)
There are a few big challenges on the horizon this month which involve goals across a few different areas.
In March I am going to challenge myself by:
- Attending the Aussie Bloggers Conference. A weekend in Sydney meeting with 100 other bloggers, learning about how to make a blog work and networking my little heart out. Can’t wait.
- Finally getting all the paper work organised so that I can start my wardrobe and style makeover with Alison Triffet of Style Counsel.
- Consulting with Adele Blair of Blair Lifestyle Management (and Green Apple Organising) to put a plan into place to help me clear the clutter. Adele says it is possible and I’m looking forward to working with her to bring some order to the chaos.
- Starting up a new blog called ‘Organised Chaos’, where I will be blogging my experiences as I work through the clutter and chaos.
Right. That should be enough to keep me busy and off the streets for the next month.
Do you have any goals for March? What areas in your life are you planning to work on over the coming month?
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February 2011 Challenge Goals
1Well, so much for my first of the month challenge updates. In my defence, it was so hot last week that I didn’t really achieve anything at all. Nothing. Unless you count sitting quietly in a corner, sobbing and praying that it would start to snow. I did quite a bit of that.
Now that the kids are back at school, I really need to refocus and concentrate on getting back into a more productive routine. Over the past few months I have turned procrastination into a full-time occupation. Honestly, if they brought it in as an Olympic event, I could procrastinate for Australia.
So, here is my February To Do List. I’m all fired up for a very productive month (even if I am 8 days late getting started).
February 2011 To Do List
Comfort Zone Challenge – Declutter wardrobe and complete profile for personal stylist (I’m trying to get out of the daggy mum fashion rut that I’m in. I won’t be abandoning my collection of Dr Seuss T-shirts, but I am hoping to update some of my blah-brown clothing with something a little bit less blend into the background-ish)
Financial Challenge – Complete 2009/2010 tax return
Personal Challenge – Create a vision board
Organisational Challenge – Clean up spare room
Blogging Challenge – Organise tabs, categories and tags
Mental Challenge – Visit Lumosity each day and complete training program
Family Challenge – Organise pocket money for the kids
Writing Challenge – Establish a writing routine and writing planning calendar
Health Challenge – Visit the gym twice a week
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Bloggiesta Update #1
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I’m feeling quite proud of my Bloggiesta achievements so far.
Mini-challenge at My Friend Amy – Blogging Goals
Earlier this month, I actually posted about my blogging goals for 2011, so I’ve got a head start on this challenge. I really liked Amy’s reminder about writing the kind of blog I like to read. I also like Amy’s timeline for her blogging goals, so I’ll do the same.
Main Goal #1: Write a blog I’d like to read – chatty, clever, amusing, interesting
Main Goal #2: Be more involved with the blogging community – visit blogs and leave comments.
By March: Chat with my new blogging and writing buddies (found after I posted my blogging goals in early January). Discuss ways we can support and encourage each other.
By April: Have a posting schedule in place including taking part in some regular blog memes.
Mini-challenge at Word Lily – 10 Things Bloggers Should Not Do!
My ratings for the 10 points (1 = bad, 5 = good)
- Don’t Expect Results Overnight – 5/5
- Don’t Ignore Your Readers – 3.5/5
- Don’t Scrape Other Blogger’s Content – 5/5
- Don’t Expect Success without Promoting – 4/5
- Don’t Copy Other Bloggers – 4/5
- Don’t Fail to Update Your Blog Regularly – 2/5
- Don’t Ignore SEO – 3/5
- Don’t Ignore Networking – 3/5
- Don’t Have an Unreadable Site – 4/5
- Don’t Throw Mud – 5/5
My total score is 38.5/50. I’ve probably been too positive with my marks, but I’ve started making improvements in a few areas already this year so I’m feeling generous.
I’ve been posting more regularly and I have been putting more effort into networking and connecting with the blogging and writing community via Facebook, Twitter, visiting blogs and participating in blogging networks like Aussie Mummy Bloggers and Blog This. I’ve got my ticket booked for the Aussie Bloggers Conference in Sydney in March as well and I’m looking forward to meeting many of the bloggers I regularly chat with online and finding ways of networking more effectively with them.
Mini-Challenge at Teach Mentor Texts – Using Mr Linky/Linky Tools
I’ve used Mr Linky and Linky Tools before so this challenge is another tick. I used Linky Tools earlier this month to create a place for other bloggers to link to the 2011 Reading Challenge update posts.
Updates from my Blogging To Do List
- Updated blog menu bar to include a drop down menu in some sections, a new TBR page and some new categories, which I am planning to post articles in soon.
- Posted a ‘Books I’ve Read in 2011’ list that I will update through the year so that I can see just how many books I manage to read this year.
That’s probably enough for this update. Time to get back to work!
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Blogging Goals for 2011
1As part of my New Year, New Focus mantra, I want to fine tune some things here at Reading Upside Down. I want to be more motivated and productive in my writing efforts on several fronts this year, including here at my blog, but it is hard to be motivated when there is no clear plan in place.
Bree at The Blog Stylist is suggesting establishing blogging goals and finding a blogging buddy to share them with. Sounds good to me. Sounds suspiciously like a plan, actually, which is what I said I needed. Excellent.
Blogging Goal #1
I need to find a voice for this blog. It started out as a book blog, but that isn’t really my focus here anymore. I love including reviews of my favourite books, but I’m having much more fun with the general chatty posts than I expected and I want that to be the main focus of the blog now.
The trouble is, I have a bad case of blogger envy. What I really want is to write awesome posts like TheNDM, but can’t because, well, she’s doing that already. Imitation may be the highest form of flattery, but I’m not sure that applies in this case. Being NDM-ish is unfortunately not enough. *sigh* Back to the drawing board.
I’d love to write with the cheeky, witty, irreverent style of Bern at So Now What? or Cate from I’ll Think of a Title Later, but I’m afraid I’m too uptight to have that kind of relaxed fun. For example, if I’d written a summary post of my 2010 mishaps I would have called it 2010 Mishaps and Misadventures. Cate called hers 2010 Fuckups and What I Have Learned from Them. See what I mean?
There are so many other witty bloggers out there. I love Jenn Thorson’s clever use of words at Of Cabbages and Kings and Al Tait’s take on life at Life in a Pink Fibro. I could go on (and on and on). So many great bloggers out there. I want to be one of those clever, amusing people.
There. It’s taken four paragraphs to get to the point. I want to be clever and amusing. Perhaps what I really need is a blogging buddy who is a ruthless editor.
Blogging Goal #2
Regular blog posts. Not three days of frenzied activity then two weeks of silence. I need a writing routine.
Blogging Goal #3
I need to visit more blogs and actually comment.
Blogging Goal #4
Find a Blogging Buddy. Anyone interested? Anyone? Anyone?
That’s probably enough introspection and planning for one post. That whole ‘clever and amusing’ thing obviously isn’t working for me at the moment, so I should call it a day.
Do you have a blogging or writing buddy? How did you find each other and how do you help each other to achieve your goals? Looking for a blogging buddy? Comment here or go to The Blog Stylist and read Bree’s post about blogging buddies. There are heaps of great bloggers over there looking to team up with someone to help them achieve their blogging goals in 2011.
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Books in 2011
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I tend to get a bit carried away when it comes to books. In the past few years, the opportunities I’ve had to receive review copies of books have only fuelled my book obsession. No matter how many I have, I just don’t seem to be able to resist the siren call of books at department stores, bookshops and the library. ‘You can never have too many books’ is my personal motto.
This year, as I’m trying to pull several areas of my life back into some resemblance of order, I’m forcing myself to include books in the list of Things I Must Not Over Commit Myself To. For the past few years, I have recklessly signed myself up to a host of reading challenges, which I may or may not have completed. I really don’t know, as I have failed completely to follow up in any way.
I’m not signing up to any new challenges in 2011. Instead, I’m going to try to update the perpetual challenges that I am already signed up for and stick to those. This should help me clear some of the unread books I have on my bookshelves at home. The review books I receive keep me on track for reading new releases and new authors, so between the two – perpetual challenges and reviewing – I should have a well-rounded, eclectic reading year ahead of me. I’ll keep track of the books I read in 2011 here.
So that you can all hold me accountable, here are the perpetual challenges that I’m already taking part in. I’m hoping to update my progress so far in each challenge over the next week or so. The first two are hosted here at Reading Upside Down, so please feel free to sign-up and join me.
- Indigenous Literacy Project Book List Reading Challenge
- Popular Penguins Reading Challenge
- Book Around the World
- Banned Books Reading Challenge
- 1% Well Read Reading Challenge
Have you posted a personal book list for 2011 or a summary of your challenges for the year? Feel free to add your link below or simply leave a comment.
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More to Life than Chit Chat?
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Ever wish your life was Bigger! Greater! More Amazing!
I know how you feel.
After declaring 2009 “The Year Best Forgotten”, I am determined that 2010 is going to be a much better year – a time for new beginnings, achieving goals and aspiring to greater things.
The trouble is, I’m having some difficulty defining exactly what my goals are and finding time in my schedule of everyday life commitments to fit in activities that are inspiring, uplifting and encouraging.
After almost 11 years as a full-time stay-at-home mum I’m starting to feel a little type-cast. Not that I regret my choice. I’ve loved every minute of being at home with my kids – well, not the toilet training bit, but most of the rest of it. I have worked from home over the years, initially as a contract specialist medical typist and more recently as a freelance writer, but generally I have simply spent each day keeping my family and friends motoring along.
My youngest child started school this year and I’m starting to feel like I’ve been painted into a corner socially. A corner labelled “loves to chat about her kids, cooking, cleaning and the supermarket” where I’m likely to be listening to someone extol the virtues of the latest cookbook giving advice on how to hide artichokes and pumpkin in chocolate chip cookies so that kids get their daily vegetable intake.
I have recently ventured back to uni in an attempt to once again broaden my horizons, although this seems to have backfired a little with the textbook apparently the result of an English to Academic Psychobabble Google translator. I’m starting to wonder whether I’ve spent too long in the don’t-think-too-hard wilderness and my brain is no longer capable of intelligent thought.
So, I’m wondering how to balance focusing on everyday life and social chit-chat with establishing connections with people who enjoy thinking about things more deeply. I do have friends that enjoy the kind of conversations that I do, so perhaps it is more an issue of adjusting the balance to allow for more time talking with these friends.
Maybe my problem is that I’m a little bit too much ‘jack of all trades, master of none’. I know a little bit about a lot of things – books, music, science, politics, social issues, education, religion, photography, history. Eclectic tastes ensure a wide and diverse range of interests, but don’t necessarily result in a passion to pursue any one interest in particular. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that I want to passionately pursue all these interests, so I end up trying to go in 10 different directions at once and therefore don’t go anywhere.
Anyone else out there feeling the same? Wanting more from life, but not quite sure how to get more without losing some of the great things that you already have? I’m open to advice, sympathy and even gentle constructive criticism, so feel free to leave a comment.
