Today’s prompt from The Broke and the Bookish is “Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2014” — which don’t have to be to do with books. Still, most of mine probably will be to do with books. Let’s see what I can do…

1. Never impulse-buy a book. Always always wait a day or two, or make sure it’s been on the wishlist for a while, etc. I mean, geez, self: it’s very rare you’re ever going to come across a book where this is the only copy you ever have access to.
2. Read every day. Even if it’s just five minutes before bed. I always feel better when I do, more like myself, and yet often I don’t make the time for it.
3. Bed before midnight. I was starting to get into this habit, and then I stayed up reading. Which doesn’t contradict #2, I swear.
4. Up before ten. Up before eight, preferably, but I figure I can stick to ten even when I wanna give myself a lie in.
5. Buy only one book from a series at a time. Even if I know I’m gonna love it. See also #1!
6. Post something to the blog every day. I’m already pretty much achieving that, but I’d like to get better at having a buffer of posts ready to go live as well.
7. Comment on at least one other blog every day. It’s a nice low bar to set, and it encourages me to be social.
8. Tithe 10% every month. I did this in 2014, too. It wasn’t always easy to keep up, especially when my earnings were pathetic, but it’s something I’m proud of doing.
9. Do 100 hours volunteering. I should manage this easily, if I volunteer the same amount as I did in 2014, especially now I’m a committee member for the library and not just a volunteer librarian. But it’s good to pledge a solid number; makes it easier for me to keep rolling out of bed on a cold Friday morning, or walk into the clinic on a warm sunny day. If it’s not meeting the target, it’s by how much can I beat it?
10. Review all new books from Netgalley/bookbridgr/Edelweiss within a month of receiving access. I’m still struggling to catch up with books I was approved for over a year ago; obviously, I’ve lost access to a lot of them, so I’m borrowing them from libraries or buying them so I can fulfil my promise of reviewing them. It would be better all round if I just reviewed them in time, though!

An odd mix of book, blog and general life, I know, but if I have a secret eleventh goal it might be “stop being so obsessive about lists”. I love lists, goodness knows, and they’re helpful, great, fun, etc, etc. But sometimes I let myself get a little too caught up in organising a list and not in doing what’s on it, or I get so obsessed about getting a list done that I neglect everything else.

Maybe the by-word for this entry should be “happy mediums”?

As for how I’m going to stick to it, I’m planning to figure out a way to fit the ten resolutions above into the habits/dailies sections of HabitRPG. It’s a great way of gameifying your life and making yourself accountable, and it’s pretty flexible for whatever goals you need to set. It’s pretty much trained me to remember to floss every day, from never flossing at all, for example — and it keeps track of when my library books are due back. There’s nothing like the cute pixel art for a reward for getting stuff done, for me, and you can set up custom rewards too. If anyone’s on the site already and interested in figuring out some kind of book related challenge, let’s put our heads together and come up with something!

Anyway, I’d love to see everyone else’s goals and resolutions, so please leave me a comment — I’ll visit everyone who comments, and leave comments back as long as technology permits.