It’s March, and by this time we’ve all remembered exactly how hard it is to keep up the initial fire that inspires you to make tons of blogging resolutions. I imagine Cupcake Dog is having a New Years resolution dilemma right now too.
Well, this is the first year that I actually announced my blogging resolutions and seriously decided to pursue them. Here’s a little update on each one:
2016 Goals
- Check/tweet on Twitter at least once a week
- Update: I’ve been doing a pretty good job of checking Twitter. So far, I’m posting much more on it than I did before, and I even took part in the #k8chat on Anime and YA.
- Grow my Tumblr (http://elimadison.tumblr.com/)
- Update: I would say this hasn’t been as successful as Twitter, mostly because I’m not a huge fan of Tumblr’s platform, so I’ll still be working on this one.
- Go to Book Expo America
- Update: Tickets have been bought and I’m ready for BEA! Here’s a compilation of BEA posts for if you’re new or looking for new tips and ideas on BEA 2016. There’s also a BEA group on Goodreads. If you’re going, be sure to let me know! Looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones.
- Host a read-a-long or a twitter chat for at least 50 people
- Update: No plans made for this yet, but I’m working a few different events, so I’ll try to sneak this into one of those :3
- Comment on 365 blogs that I haven’t visited before
- Update: This one has actually been my most successful! I’ve had a ton of fun with this challenge, and shoutout to Nori for coming up with it. I’m 81 blogs in.
- Make a bookish difference in my community in real life (more information on this to come!)
- Update: A few plans made for this, but I’m waiting to hear back from several people so that the ball can really get rolling.
- Hit 2,000 pageviews in a month
- Update: Working on it, but January and February have been great for TSW, so hopes are high.
- Work with all of the YA Sweet Sixteens at least once
- Update: In case you didn’t see my 16 Most Anticipated Debut Authors post, I realized this was an obscene goal as there is a ridiculous number of YA Sweet Sixteens. It was unachievable at the scale that I wanted to promote these authors at. However, I narrowed the list down to around 16 authors whose books I’m really excited for, and I’ve got a bunch of plans to actively promote those authors.
- Release a project that I’m working on (follow me on Twitter to keep up with all the info)
- Update: Plans are in the works! This project has changed a little bit over time, but I’m pleased to announce that it’ll include all of the authors on my 16 Most Anticipated Debut Authors post!
- Participate in at least 20 Top Ten Tuesdays
- Update: I’ve come to really enjoy the Top Ten Tuesday feature (so far, my favorite is probably Top Ten Songs that I Wish Were Books), as well as the Mondays Musts, and I’m confident that I’ll reach at least 20 TTTs by the end of the year.
- Create at least 10 custom lists (such as this one)
- Update: This one has been less successful than with Top Ten Tuesdays, mostly because so many of my lists consist of around 10 books and can used as TTTs, but this one is slowly but surely progressing.
I’d like to think that I’ve done reasonably well so far in my blogging goals, and I was happy to find that I still think all except one (that I’ve since changed) is a realistic goal for The Silver Words. So how do I try to stay on top of my blogging goals?
I didn’t know about this cute little website/app until about two months ago, but it’s helped me a lot since then. I tend to check email, calendar and todos obsessively, and the problem with regular todos is that I get tired of using them and almost always end up writing my lists on paper (because there’s something way too fulfilling about using a Sharpie to slash a line through a todo).
But with Habitica, I don’t get bored of typing out my todos. I even (almost) don’t miss the Sharpie satisfaction at all. Habitica breaks down your todos into three categories: habits, dailies and to-dos. There’s also a rewards column.
For every habit, daily or todo that you check off, you obtain coins, experience and the occasional animal egg/hatching potion/food.
With coins, you can buy the rewards, some of which you make and set the price of yourself (such as watching a dog video for 5 coins or spending time on Facebook for 10).
With animal egg, food and hatching potion drops, you can hatch eggs, which turn into animals, which turn into loyal steeds with enough of the right food.
Once you’ve got enough experience, you’re bumped up a level and all your health is filled up.
However, if you don’t complete all your dailies, then your health will be deducted, you’ll go down a level and you’ll lose a piece of equipment.
The whole thing is really fun. There are lots of different aspects to the program, including to-do quests and challenges, and it keeps me from getting bored with my list of things to do. It also helps me to break down my challenges and resolutions, which you can see an example of in the first picture.
In Habitica, if you break down a todo, then you get more money and experience from it. Instead of hitting the comment habit every single time, I wait on the points until I’ve commented on ten blogs, and then I claim the points. This keeps me focused on approaching my resolutions through small goals. Habitica also keeps me from getting discouraged when going toward my goals; I’m too busy focusing on how I’m not going to die today.
Habitica also allows people to join in different guilds or different fighting parties, and while I haven’t tried this system with anyone else yet, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with Habitica in the future.
Have you tried Habitica? What do you do to stick to your blogging resolutions?
