2020 Review/2021 Goals
/Reading this post I wrote back on January 20th of 2020 is weird AF. Like all of us, I had no idea what I was in for last year. Let’s all just take a second to breathe. 🤗 <— Look, there’s no sigh emoji. This is the best I can do, and it’s way more positive than this one 😤, which feels applicable, but I’m trying to keep things positive here.
So let’s look at that post from last year and recap, reflect, and look forward (sorry, I couldn’t think of an R-word for that).
2020 ~ General Review
sushi and bubbly FTW!
Yup, still an over-caffeinated draft horse. I didn’t really get better at that. But I did get a little better at rewarding myself for successes. At least, I have a special thing I do now—sushi and bubbly. I make sure to treat myself with this goodness when I hit a goal.
You should also be sure to treat yo’self when you have a win. Even a small one. You earned it.
Accounting. Welp, I was doing really well with that. Until the world tipped onto its side. Ironically, I got a part-time job back in November of 2019 to help pay for all the travel I had coming up.
Yeah, that didn’t go to plan at all. But I’m loving the job and still doing it. It’s a grocery store gig, so job security. Also risk. But anyway, yeah, I completely fell off the accounting bandwagon, but I haven’t really been doing a lot of business spending, so it’s also not a huge issue. When I do my taxes next month (which I imagine will be a lot easier this year) I’ll review stuff then^.
^I want to take this moment to say, under normal circumstances, I think I would consider this a massive fail. But last year was anything but normal circumstances. I’m being really gentle with myself here and you should be too. With yourself, I mean. Last year was really hard in so many ways. Let’s be cognisant of that and react accordingly.
I also put too much pressure on myself in regards to social media again last year. And, just like in 2019, I got burned out on it. This year, I’m determined to not put pressure on myself to be clever with it and just have fun.
Honestly, having fun has become my mantra, but more on that later.
2020 Wins
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Despite the dumpster fire that was 2020, I actually got a lot accomplished.
While the book that I had been editing for (hopefully) traditional publishing got set to the side again^^, I finished a new HTP first draft, which will be edited this month.
^^I’ll get back to that book eventually, but it has a lot of problems and I don’t know that I’ve got the writing chops to take it on just yet. One day…I also managed to write a new Broken Gears first draft. It’ll get edited later this year. As for release, not sure yet. One thing I’ve learned is not to rush book publishing, and it’s currently a hot mess (as all first drafts are), so we’ll see.
I would like to say how extremely proud I am of my NaNoWriMo word count from which the new Broken Gears book was born. Just under 63k words in November! Woohoo!!! I really earned my sushi and bubbly with that one. Too bad it also broke my brain for a little while 🥴.
And the two audiobooks I wanted to produce are done and out in the world now! Into the Fire and Across the Ice are available most everywhere you get your audiobooks!
These are the biggies. In my latest Patreon post, though, I included a more detailed list of last year’s wins if you want to check that out.
2021 Goals
This part feels harder. After last year, I’m gun-shy of laying down hard goals. So instead, I’m trying toward improvements. Specifically in…
Time Management ~ Remember that mention of being an over-caffeinated draft horse? Well, I know I said this before, but I really would like to find some balance. Therefore, all this week I’m just going about my work (not pushing myself extra hard or anything) and seeing how long things take me to do. Eventually, I’d like to have my days time-blocked and build in time for relaxation. I work well with schedules, so hopefully this is a good method for me.
You remember I did an entry on using Trello as a planner back in the autumn. I’m still doing that and plan to continue to use Trello. That’s one of the things i like about it; it’s really versatile. The look just might change a bit.
Habit Tracking ~ I meant to start this back on the first and haven’t done great with it so far, but we’re only a few days into January. Annoyingly, I can’t find the notebook I specifically bought for this 😑. Looks like I’ll be adding that to Trello too. What gets measured gets managed after all.
Social Media ~ Like I said above, I want to be better at keeping up with this, so I’mma focus on having fun with it.
Get Out More ~ I don’t know why, but I never think to go for walks when I’m inside. And, like Elizabeth Bennet, I do so love to walk. So that’s something I’m gonna try to do more this year.
Have Fun ~ This is it really. Last year, that was my mantra for writing the two first drafts I completed. And I loved it. So that’s my new guiding arrow for 2021.
Friends, last year was rough. Here’s to a better one in 2021 🥂.
Take care. Be gentle with yourselves. And thanks for reading.
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