Dream Devourer

2019 New Year Resolutions

Joanna -

Whoa! Is it January already?!

I guess it's time to check back on last year's post and setup some unrealistic expectations once again...

Last year's goals

Since I made a handy list last year I can easily check my level of fail. 😂

✔ join the GoodReads book challenge again, 52 book goal like last year

I joined, I read listened, made decent progress. I might have not reached the ambitious 52 books, but pretty happy with the 27 I ended up with.

🤦‍♀️ note down daily events/achievements, but moving to pen & paper

Okay, I did some note taking, but not as much as I planned. Definitely not daily. Though December has been quite good as I discovered Everyday - great, super simple app for tracking habits. I also started tracking my project work with Makerlog. It does mean I have less to note in the paper journal, but it always felt a bit odd to get down into techy details on paper.

✔ cook more from scratch

Okay, I'm not reaching Domestic Goddess™ levels here, but definitely did more than the year before. I've got a few staples now I can do in the slow cooker without having to consult a recipe. Still needs more work though...

❌ exercise besides walking places

This is a big fail. Ooops. Tried getting back into yoga and martial arts, but willpower reserves were a bit low and baby did not cooperate when I tried to incorporate him into a routine. 😂

❌ edit and publish The Valentine's Day romance

❌ re-write & re-publish Dragon Scorned

❌ finish writing & publish Feral 2

❌ writer & publish Hellena: Origins

Nope. Pretty much all of the writing & publishing goals got put on hold so I could focus on obtaining citizenship and WriterPA.

✔ launch WriterPA

Woo hoo! 🎉✨🎈 The app went live just as the year was coming to a close.

Yes WriterPA is only in alpha, yes, it's still full of bugs and missing features, BUT it is live and I will be adding first (test) users in January.

❌ design at least one pre-made cover per week

Another casualty of having a day job and on-problem-at-a-time approach to side-projects...

❌ write one blog post per week

Given there's only two posts between this and last year's New Year's resolutions 😂 I haven't done so well, but that's more than 0.

Last Year Overview

I've touched on some things in the goal dissection above, but as usual I've been a tiny bit overoptimistic at the beginning of the year.

Going back to work forced me to rethink some things. After a year on maternity leave returning to work part time has been the best of both worlds. I have time with my son and am able to continue working which is great both socially and financially. But squeezing in writing and publishing projects between work and parenting proved a nearly impossible task. So something had to give, especially when I still wanted to spend time playing D&D on a nearly weekly basis...

But I did get some big milestones in. I've now successfully completed the UK citizenship application. Brexit is still shit, but at least it's one less direct worry once I get my passport. And I've already mentioned WriterPA going live.

We had an amazing family holiday abroad thanks to my sister's awesome organizing skills. My parents got to spend lots of time with their grandson and enjoy their first holiday in years. Unfortunately with my grandfather's health deteriorating near the end of the year we might not be able to repeat the adventure this year 😢

Speaking of adventures we started a new campaign in Eonika (a homebrew tabletop rpg system). And so far each session has been better than the previous one.

I've also dipped my toe into two communities: Twitch and Women Make. So far I've mostly been watching streams in Science&Technology, but I'm slowly building up courage to stream some coding myself. When it comes to the maker community, like Women Make, I'm still struggling with a bit of an impostor syndrome. After all it only took me like 7 years to ship WriterPA 😂 But I do make book covers a bit more often that that, so there's that...

What's Next?

As is tradition here's some outrageous goals for 2019:

  • lead a more balanced life (sleep more, work less)
  • join the GoodReads book challenge again, 52 book goal like last year
  • exercise besides walking places
  • 30 paying clients for WriterPA
  • launch Cobundle
  • lose 12kg
  • publish Vampires on the Train anthology
  • re-write & re-publish Dragon Scorned
  • finish writing & publish Feral 2
  • create a plan of action for the recipe site