My Personal Goals for 2023
I’ve been doing this annual goal setting since the end of 2018. I’ve found it good way to keep track and more effective than New Years Resolutions.
TL;DR: Most targets from 2022 rolled forward, two removed and two added.
>> Read 50 books. [No change in target]. Last year I read 44 books, which was the first time I’ve missed this target in 4 years. Reading a book a week on average still feels like the right balance between an achievable target vs making it another burden. I’ve adjusted my Sub-targets this year:
Read twoVictorian classics. I had a target to read three last year and read zero, so toning it down a bit. Hardy and Elliot still need some attention according to my tracker.
Read three books to educate myself more about race. This is the same target as last year. This reading list from Strand Book Store continues to be a good source of material.
Finish the Biography of Ceasar that has been neglected for about three year, so much so that it doesn’t even appear on my “currently reading” log each week. This was on my target last year and I made zero progress. Persevering again, but decided this is the last year I’ll have this on if I fail.
>> Summarise 100% of non-fiction books read. [No change in target]. I’m still finding the three-sentence summary useful when I’m trying to remember which book said what thing.
>> Cycle 4000 miles. [No change in target]. This still feels like a stretch target for a normal year. I’ve also started playing 6-a-side football in a league with my sons, and finding that these days I have to decide if I’m cycling or playing footy on a given day, so that will impact on miles this coming year. But I’ve decided that this is a narrow window where a) my boys want me to play in their team and b) I’m just about fit enough to do it and c) they’re around at home and so I’m seeking to relish every opportunity.
>> Cycle a Gran Fondo each month [No change in target]. A Gran Fondo is 100km. Last year I did 14, but there were some months when I didn’t do one and in May I did 5.
>> Cycle to Work 3 times a month [New Target]. From mid-Jan I’ll be at a new job, which is much closer to home and therefore in a theoretically acheivable commutable distance. It will take me a while to get into a working pattern in the first few months, so setting this target quite low for starters.
>> Write 10 Blog Articles. [No change in target]. 10 still feels like a stretch on top of week notes.
>> Get 3,000 Twitter Followers. [Increase in target from 2,500]. This is a completely pointless and arbitrary target, and may be academic if Twitter continues to go down the pan.
>> Get to my target weight. [No change in target]. Having got nearer to my target weight during the year, but then slipped back again, the target feels ok. I’m too vain/embarrassed to actually declare the value of this target.
>> Write weeknotes. No target (intentionally). This year marked four years of weeknoting. I wrote a reflection about it.
>> Write two “Thought” Pieces. [No Change in target].
>> Do Some Substantial Research. [New Target]. I have two or three ideas of research I’d like to do in my own time. Some of it will require sending out a load of FOIs and trawling websites.
Targets Removed. For transparency and accountability I need to declare two targets have been removed from 2022’s list:
- Write 10 Blog Articles. I’ve never defined what I mean by blog articles and ended up confusing myself if an update on my personal goals counted as a blog article and if I counted “thought” pieces in the same total.
- Write some software. I achieved this last year. I’ll still do a bit of dabbling, but have decided I want to use some of my discretionary time in doing some research this year.
The End
Next update — April 2023…
