Bookish Babble: Setting Goals for 2017

Do you set goals for yourself at the start of each year?

I find that setting goals at the beginning of every year helps to keep me motivated throughout the year.  I am so big into making goals, that I not only make yearly (“long term goals”), but also monthly (“short term”) goals.  That’s right, I love goals!

In this post I am going to give some helpful hints for setting your bookish goals for 2017, and also share my own goals for 2017.

Here are a few tips when setting your goals (bookish or otherwise) this year…

» Make your goals achievable

I know everyone likes to “reach for the stars,” but you also need to be realistic with your bookish goals.  Look at the previous year(s) and see what you accomplished, then adjust from there.  For example, if you read 20 books in 2016, setting your goal to read 100 books in 2017 is probably a little ambitious.  A more realistic goal would be 30ish.  If you are a inactive blogger and your goal is to become more active, set your goal to post 2-3 times a week, not every day.  Don’t set yourself up to fail.

» Write your goals down

When I say write them down, I mean write them down some place you will be able to see them often.  Seeing your goals often will help keep you motivated and inspired to keep working towards achieving them. Post them to your fridge, hang them on a bulletin board, keep them in your office, etc. etc.  I like to write my goals for the year in my planner.

» Create a plan

My favorite way to do this is to give myself monthly goals in order to reach my yearly goals.  For example, if you want to read 60 books in 2017, you should set a monthly goal to read 5 books every month.  You can even go one step further and plan out exactly which books you will be reading each month.  For a blogging example, say I set a goal to post 5 book reviews every month.  I would write a check list out every month of each book review I want to write.

» Track your progress

Tracking your goals is an important way to keep yourself motivated and on task.  For reading goals, the Goodreads challenge is a fantastic way to track progress.  Goodreads even tells you if you are ahead or behind your goal.  For blogging, I use a planner to keep track of everything.  I keep track of when I post, what I post, what I will be posting, etc. etc.  Also, check lists are my best friends!  I have also seen other bloggers who like to use excel or google sheets to track their blogging data.

» Share your goals

Tell people your goals!  Join the Goodreads challenge, post them on social media, write a blog post on them, tell random people walking down the street… whatever you have to do to spread the word, which will help keep you accountable.  Studies show that people who tell their friends/family their goals are much more likely to achieve them.

Speaking of sharing your goals…

My Bookish Goals for 2017:

» Read 90 books

This one is pretty self explanatory.  I read 82 books in 2016, so I definitely think this goal is achievable.

» 80% feedback ratio on NetGalley

If you have been following my blog for a while, you may have read about my dilemma with NetGalley.  When I first discovered NetGalley back in March 2016, I did not know what I was doing.  Long story short: I requested an insane amount of books not thinking I’d get approved and ended up being approved for 75 books.  Lesson learned.  My NetGalley books are my #1 priority in 2017.  Currently I’ve read 17 of these books.  Only 58 to go!

» Read & review more children’s books

I am a bookworm and a mother, so children’s literature is very important to me.  For 2017, I am planning on expanding my Kids’ Corner feature and making it a bigger part of my blog.  I want to start reviewing picture books and more middle grade books.  I know that this isn’t going to appeal to all of my followers, as many of you are not yet parents, but I hope to reach a new following of parents who are looking for books to read to their young children or books to borrow/buy for their middle grade readers.  This isn’t to say that I am not going to be reading and reviewing adult and YA books, just that I will be adding to the mix.

» Continue to read more diversely

This is not just a goal for 2017, but a goal moving forward.  This is also going to play a factor in my goal to read & review more children’s books.  Diversity in children’s literature is just as (if not more) important than it is in young adult and adult books.  If anyone knows of any book reviewers (bloggers, booktubers, bookstagramers) who focus on diversity in children’s literature, please let me know!

» Plan & draft posts ahead of time

This one is huge.  Since I started blogging I’ve been a “post as I go” blogger.  I really need to work on getting ahead of the game.  As you can see, this post probably should have been posted BEFORE the new year, but it is going up now.  Obviously I am not doing too well with this goal.   I really need to work on planning my blogging weeks and months out in advance.  I think this will help with my blogging stresses.

» Make a dent in my physical TBR

After my NetGalley books, the books I already own are my second priority.  I’d like to knock out at least 20 of these books this year.  Seriously guys, it has gotten out of control.  I have two floor to ceiling bookcases and one of them is completely filled with unread books.  I’m going to say there is probably 200+ books in this bookcase…. My name is Amanda, and I hoard books.

» More active on Instagram (@Cover2CoverMom)

I absolutely love taking pictures of books for my blog posts, but for some reason I am horrible at remembering to post them to Instagram… I mean I have tons of pictures that I could upload, I am not sure why I don’t?  I think it stems from the fact that the pictures I take are first and foremost for the blog, whereas people who are big into Instagram take the pictures FOR Instagram… Did that logic make any type of sense to anyone?  No?  I don’t blame you.  Also, now that I take my pictures with my camera and edit them on my computer, it is a real pain in the butt to email them to myself so I can post them from my phone… In other words: I’m lazy.

» Participate in a reading challenge

I am definitely going to be participating in Naz’s (@Read Diverse Books) reading & reviewing challenge.  If you haven’t heard about it, you can read more about it here → Read Diverse 2017 – A Reading And Book Review Challenge For Bloggers!

Also I am going to participate in the Diversity Bingo 2017 challenge.  If you haven’t heard about it, Aimal @Bookshelves & Paperbacks is co-hosting.  You can read more about it here → Diversity Bingo Announcement & TBR.  Don’t forget to use the hashtag #DiversityBingo2017 on twitter if you participate in the challenge.

I really like that these challenges are ongoing throughout the entire year AND I can knock out two goals (read more diversely and participate in a reading challenge) at once!  Is that cheating?

What are your bookish goals for 2017?

Comment below and let me know!