I am indeed talking about my challenges and goals for 2020 in April.

What? Is that too late?

Come on guys, 2020 has been rough and if the start of the year is anything to go by (and certainly the past couple of weeks) then the rest of the year is going to go slow so I’ll have plenty of time to catch up on these things.

Now I am slowly getting out of my book/blog/life funk I felt like it was the perfect time to set some goals. I rarely set New Year's resolutions and I don’t like setting goals for the sake of setting goals. But I do like to set some targets to help keep me motivated. I know that sounds like the same thing but what I mean is I like to set little goals and small things I can keep track of. I think it’s why I like having a habit tracker in my bullet journals and why I find to-do lists so satisfying for my day. There’s nothing better than marking when you’ve done something and feeling like you then deserve to do the fun stuff after.

So, since I want to set little goals I have some very simple things I want to do throughout the year:

I need to stop spending so much damn money. I have so many unread books (so many, it scared me how many books I realised I hadn’t read when I began trying to organise my shelves following my move. It scared me, even more, when I looked at all of the books I’d got in the first three months of this year. I don’t even realise how many it is until I see them all laid out in front of me. It made me realise that I need to start employing a little self-control, which would have been far easier if lockdown hadn’t have happened and now all I have is time for browsing and online shopping. Nightmare, time to really test my self-control.

I’m not going to set myself a book buying ban just yet, though. We all know they don’t work and I don’t stick to them. I was actually going to do this where I have a monthly budget of like £15, maybe even just £10 and I can’t spend more than that. I was going to do it twofold, though. I have the budget (so must create a spending spreadsheet or create a page in my bullet journal) but I was also going to physically place that money in a jar from my purse. Unfortunately, because of this whole crisis, I’m not carrying around cash like I usually do so that second part of my plan is a little more difficult. I wanted to do that because I am a visual person. yes, keeping track on a spreadsheet is great but when I can see that cash building up each month in a jar? I’m gonna think twice before spending it. It was also going to be a great way to save a few coins to pay into my bank account in time for Christmas. I might still do something like that, maybe when this is all over I can draw out the cash I’ve spent and pop it in a jar later?

This is a simple goal. I pay for Kindle Unlimited each month and have access to a decent library. I want to start using them both and help use this to stop me buying so much. Yes, Kindle Unlimited does not always have the books I want but it has loads of books and I know there are good ones on there so I need to start using it more or just cancel it already. I also need to use my library way more. I have started taking advantage of the fact is finally got Overdrive so that’s been great, but I need to go in and renew my library card. It expired a year ago now and I’ve made excuses not to renew it so I can still borrow eBooks but I can’t borrow any physical books at the moment or make reservations online. It’s an issue. That’s my goal for when this is all over now, though.

A little while ago I wrote down all the unread arcs I have on Netgalley in my bullet journal. There are a lot and some of them I’ve bought since getting an ARC. It’s about time I try and get through them all. I may not read them all, I’m sure some will be DNFed as a few are rather old and my tastes have changed since I originally requested them, but I think it’s time to get my shit together on the ARC front. I am trying to request less but it’s hard to see what you’ve got to read when you have so many old ones left on your Netgalley shelf. I’m not saying have no books at all on there, but I want to clear out the ones which are over 3 months old. It’s time to get serious about them and stop ignoring them (I ignore a lot of things).

Look, I’m never going to be one who has posts sorted three months in advance (if any of you do do that I am impressed, well done you) but I need to stop writing a post the day before it’s due to go up. I think that’s half the reason I ended up stopping for so long, it’s way too stressful trying to stay on top of everything. I am not having a set day I have to post on but I am going to try and plan in advance what’s going up next week. Sometimes I might have 4 posts ready and some weeks might be a 2 post week but no more staying up late to get that post sorted. Fingers crossed this one lasts because it would save me so much blog stress.

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And those are my goals for 2020. I might be being a little ambitious with clearing my Netgalley shelf but honestly, shouldn’t you always have one or two goals which push you a little bit further and try a little harder? Goals shouldn’t all come easy. I’m hoping these goals will help me be a bit more sensible with my money and book buying. I’m not bad with money, I’m actually pretty good, I managed to buy a house after all. But I am definitely guilty of impulse purchasing that bit too often. Now is the time to face the consequences and start clearing my shelves. I can then make 2021 my bitch because this year is already a write-off. Coronavirus made sure of that.

What goals did you set for yourself this year? And am I alone in thinking that you can set goals any time, why should the new year be so special?