Monday, December 31, 2018

End of Year Update on Goals

It's a bit odd having an end of year update on goals, given that I deliberately only set one for the year (and haven't achieved that). However, since one of the other purposes of this post is to set goals for next year, I'm sticking with the format.

So, firstly an update on the goal:

Books: My stated goal for the year was to complete my reading though the British section of The List. Despite having made some significant progress, this goal fell short - there still remain five books on the list to be read. That's somewhat unfortunate, but not a disaster.

I have, however, managed to read 60 books this year, and have also completed all but one of the normal sub-lists I would set (I've read fewer books from The List than I would prefer). So that's a bit of a result.

Next, some thoughts on things that are not quite goals:
  • Weight: I have ended the year basically where I started. That's slightly disappointing, but also not a disaster - especially given that I recent trip to the US played havoc with things.
  • Gaming: This has been an odd one this year, in that I've been involved in a game at work, which was unexpected but quite nice. Otherwise, it has been a year entirely devoid of gaming, which is unfortunate. Indeed, this year is probably more notable for my starting to get rid of some of the cruft from my gaming collection, and also scanning and shredding my old paper notes, than it is for actual gaming.
  • Blogging: As usual, my semi-formal goal has been to post an average of 10 times a month here and a further 5 times a month over on the Imaginarium. Despite a fairly lengthy drought on the latter, I've actually exceeded both those targets, which is nice.
  • Work: I can't say too much here, but it has been a successful year at work - the much hoped for promotion finally happened, which is nice.
  • The To-Do List: There have been a large number of tasks around the house that have needed done, and these have mostly been completed. I'm particularly pleased with the redecoration of the main bedroom, which has come together nicely. I think I'd still quite like to get the study redecorated, and there's still a few bits and pieces of decluttering to do, but that's not too bad.
So, that's how things have panned out over the past year. What about goals for 2019? I'm going to propose four:
  • Books: The usual goal of 60 books for the year. As in 2018, I'm stating a goal of getting the British segment of The List done. Other than that, it's going to be an odd year for reading - I only have three sublists, two of which won't run for the full year. The rest will be made up of a mixture of books, unless and until I hit on a new theme.
  • Weight: In 2019 I'll need to get back to work on this. The target is to end the year 20 pounds lighter than I start.
  • Blogging: Time to formalise the informal goal of past years: 120 posts here, plus 60 on The Imaginarium.
  • Redecorate the Study: When we moved in we identified two rooms in the house as needing redecoration - the main bedroom and the study. Having redone the main bedroom in 2018, it is now the turn of the study.
And that's it. Part of me would like to set a goal to get some gaming done in 2019 (outside of the context of the work game), but I'm really not sure how realistic that is. I think, therefore, it's best to leave that as a nice-to-have for this year.

#59: "A Song of Stone", by Iain Banks #60: "Pathfinder: The City Outside of Time", by Amanda Hamon Kunz

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