Personal Goals Review 2019 #1
At the end of 2018, I set out some personal goals for 2019. One of these was to review the goals 4 times a year, so here goes for review #1.
Here’s the TL;DR summary from the spreadsheet I’ve set up. I’m on track!
>> Read 50 books. Exceeding target. 17 read. I’ve managed to read quite a few books already, not least as part of my prep for the new job starting shortly. I also sorted my study out early in the year which has arranged things in a better way. This has visibility has helped me a) restrain myself from buying (too many) more books — basically I can now see I’ve got 100s I’ve not read already on the shelves and b) have a better view when agonising see what I want to read next.
>> Summarise 100% of non-fiction books read. On target. 8 non-fiction read, 100% summarised. For all books, I’ve added a three sentence summary to the index cards I use as a bookmark when reading. For some of them, I’ve gone further and jotted down some key things in a word document. Having looked through the cards to work out which one to take a photo of, I can see that legible handwriting still remains a distant target!
>> Cycle 4000 miles. Exceeding target. 1256 miles in the legs (the total in the image below also includes walking/running miles if you’re wondering about the difference).
>> Write 10 Blog Articles. Under target. 1 published. I have written another 2, but they’ve been left in draft for now, and may see the light of day at some point. On a similar vein to the benefits I’m finding from weeknoting, I’ve found even the action of writing about the two situations very helpful to reflect on, even if they never get published.
>> Cycle LEJOG. Not yet due, but getting the miles in to be ready, so feeling ok. More info our our plans at our JustGiving page.
>> Get to my target weight for LEJOG. On target. Have got to 50% of the loss I was aiming for. Still too vain to say what that is and I’ll still be miles heaver than Giles who is doing the ride with me.
>> Write weeknotes. No target (intentionally), but finding it a really useful technique for reflecting on each week, regardless of whether anyone else reads them. Have managed to do one every week this year so far.
>> Find some decent podcasts. I’m still listening to WB-40, which has grown on me, not least when they used my book review of Managing for Happiness in episode 101. Have also been listening to Safe for Work and Inside Science. Listening to two or three a week is about all I can cope with — I have tried listening to it whilst out cycling, but recently the wind has been so strong that I’ve not heard much!
Conclusion — I’m doing ok against the goals I set in 2019. The real test will be the next few months as I start my new job. However, I’m hoping that these things have become a habit that means I’ll continue with them regardless.
