My 2016 Resolutions

Last year I tracked my resolutions for the first time and made a really good attempt to accomplish them. I met my weekly goals between 60% and 70% of the time, and met both of my large goals as well.

This year, I'm stepping it up a notch.

BIG RESOLUTIONS

Resolution #1: Finish the first draft of DSF.

I'm almost done outlining and plan on starting in January.

Resolution #2: Query TGITP

In order to do this, I need to meet some mini goals.

• May 31st: Send edited draft to beta readers
• Aug 31st: Make changes based on comments, send to new round of beta readers
• Nov 30th: Make changes based on comments
• Dec 31st: Send query

This is by far going to be the hardest goal to meet. 

Resolution #3: Read 70 Books

This seemed to be a good number for me last year. Challenging, but not too crazy. If it's easier this year then next year I'll bump it up.

DAILY RESOLUTIONS

Resolution #4: Write Once A Day

This includes editing and outlining/research as well, and there's no specified time limit. So as long as I sit down to work, even if just for 5 minutes, then that counts.

What does not count is reading articles or blogs about writing, or rewriting books and studying their structure. It must be something directly related to TGITP or DSF.

Resolution #5: Clean Up for 2 Minutes Every Evening

This is a resolution I've been thinking about for awhile. I know the difference that even a small amount of time can make, but I'm always so tired at night that I don't get it done. I'm going to anchor this resolution and the next one together to make sure they get done each evening. More about that below.

Resolution #6: Do 3 Pull Ups a Day

I felt like last year I didn't really accomplish what I wanted to with this resolution (to be stronger) and part of that was because 5 pull ups a week wasn't enough to really affect my muscles. I tried to bump it up to 25 a week, but that was an overwhelming number. So I'm going to start this year off with 3 a day.

As I was saying above, I plan on anchoring this habit to make sure it gets completed. The time this year that I was most successful at this habit was when I anchored it to getting ready in the morning, arriving home from work, and getting ready for bed. This year I'm going to anchor it to brushing my teeth.

How this will look: After I finish brushing my teeth at night (and washing my face, etc), I will immediately pull out my phone and set a timer for two minutes. During that two minutes I'll do anything that cleans up the apartment, from picking up and hanging clothes to sweeping the floor.

When the timer goes off, I'll immediately do 3 pull ups. And that's it! Hopefully anchoring these habits to an already established one will ensure they get done.

Resolution #7: Do One Good Deed A Day

I toyed with the wording on this resolution for awhile, because I want it to be very broad. I want it to cover everything from letting someone in front of me in traffic, to doing the dishes for my boyfriend even if it's his night, to asking someone about how things are going in their personal lives.

I think this will be a hard resolution to achieve, because it's not the same thing every day and it's not a habit I can anchor to something else. It's more of a mindset. I also think it will be one of my most interesting resolutions this year. I plan on tracking whether or not I complete this resolution on the same paper as the others, but I'm thinking that I'll also need to record what good deed I do every day. I might record this in a journal or maybe on the computer, I haven't decided yet.

And that's it! Here's a screenshot of the spreadsheet I plan on using to keep track of my daily goals.

I have each week of the year on the sheet, and for every week I have each day listed, as well as a space next to it for a check mark. At the end of each week I'll write in the bottom corner how many out of 7 days I met my goal.

Revisiting my 2015 Resolutions

At the end of 2014 I made some resolutions for 2015.

Let's look at how successful I was. 

Resolution #1: Finish the first draft of TGITP

I did it!!! Now I'm rewriting and editing. 

Resolution #2: Read 70 books

Finished, just barely in time! I think I'll keep this resolution for next year, 70 was a challenging number. 

Resolution #3: Write at least 1,000 words a week

This one kind of morphed once I finished the draft of TGITP and wasn't writing regularly. The 1,000 words sometimes represented the amount of time spent editing or outlining my new novel, DSF. Out of 53 weeks, I met this goal 32 weeks (school starting in September really killed my streak). 

That means I met this goal 60% of the time. Not bad, but not awesome either. It gives me something to beat with this year's writing goal, which will be in a post tomorrow. 

Resolution #4: Play an instrument once a week

About a month ago I decided I wasn't getting as much out of this resolution as I wanted, so I decided to start taking piano and guitar lessons again. It's so much more motivating to practice when you have someone experienced guiding you! Therefore this won't be a resolution for me next year, mostly because as long as I'm taking the lessons I'll automatically be held to practicing (especially since it costs so much $$$). 

But how did I do this year? Out of 53 weeks I met this goal 37 of them. That means I met this goal 70% of the time. Still not awesome, but much better!

Resolution #5: Do 5 pull-ups a week  

Yikes. This one did not do so well. Out of 53 weeks I met this goal 34 of them. Huh. Better than I thought. That means I met this goal 64% of the time. I wasn't planning on making this one of my goals for next year, but now I'm thinking maybe I should...

So there it is! I think that having a printed out, paper and pencil chart really helped me keep track of my resolutions. I'm planning on doing the same thing next year, but a little more detailed since I have some daily goals. More about that tomorrow, January 1st, 2016!

My Write Club

In honor of New Years, my critique partner Megan introduced me to this awesome website I wanted to share.

It's called My Write Club, and it's a place where you can create and track writing goals, as well as connect with friends and watch them meet their goals too. 

My username is jessicawrites if you want to connect with me!