Projects 2023 (Goals) Recap

Projects 2023, Goals

Every year, I set goals in January for the new year. Those goals revolve around larger projects that can be broken down into smaller, more manageable projects to work towards and complete the goal.

A few years ago, I started posting my goals and then the results at the end of the year on my blog, both as a reference for myself throughout the year, and to share ideas for others as people set goals for the New Year. You can find the original post for 2023 here: 2023 Goals

My goals and the results for this year:

1.Writing.

• By December 31, 2023, I will have organized my series more and finished up some of the books in it.

I’ve made a lot of progress in this goal. I’ve got some writing done in several of the books, and I’ve organized most of the characters into a slide show. I still have some work I want to do on it, and I have a lot of writing left to do, but the organizational piece is well under way to being completed. I’ve also built a regular writing routine, which should help as I continue to write through the series. 

2. Birdwatch

• By December 31,2023, I will have spotted and photographed at least 120 different birds (average of 10 new birds per month) and completed my own Michigan Big Year.

This year, I identified 91 species of birds. I didn’t quite meet this goal, but saw a wide variety of species and was able to get in several bird-watching trips. 

3. Habits:

• By December 31,2023, I will build routines around the areas of music (piano/guitar), hobbies, chores and fitness.

I did ok with building a routine around fitness. There is certainly room for improvement, but I made progress. I also built a routine around arts and crafts hobbies, and completed more art projects than I’ve done in a long time. The rest of the routines around music and chores were not as successful. I think it was too many goals at one time. 

4. Blog Regularly:

• By December 31,2023, I will blog regularly, based on a schedule I create.

I was able to blog more than I have in a long time, and created a podcast for one of my blogs as well, completing two seasons due to a technical glitch. I didn’t quite follow the schedule, but found a rhythm that worked well for me. I am looking forward to Season 3! 

5. Learning

By December 31, 2023, I learn new skills, such as HTML programming, natural dyes, herb growing, and other skills that come up throughout the year. 

Although I haven’t learned something new every day, which is what I was hoping to do, I have learned a wide variety of new skills since January, including some tech skills, education skills for teaching students, new recipes in cooking and gardening skills, and how to dye with tumeric. All in all, I would say this goal went very well.

Moving forward:

In tracking my goals, I’m learning I can realistically only cover 2-3 goals per day. The way I calculate percentages for my goals is to track the goals daily, add them up, and then divide that number by the number of days in that month. For example, if I write for 20 days in the month of February, with 28 days in February, I would be writing 71% of the time.

However, in looking at my goals, the reality is I don’t expect to do every goal every day because it’s just not realistic. I work full time. I have chores I need to do, I write daily and blog several times a week, then try to include my hobbies in between as well. It becomes just too much for one day, and really, too much even for the year. Instead of calculating goals based on 7 days a week, I will be calculating by the total number of times I should be meeting the goal that week, for a more accurate percentage. I will also be doing fewer goals next year. (More on the new goals in an upcoming blog.)

There are only so many hours in a day. That’s not to make excuses and just try to get out of doing things, that’s looking at the number of hours in a day and knowing that I can only accomplish a certain amount within those hours. We all have a certain amount of time we can accomplish things throughout the day, and this generally varies for everyone. For me, I can work 8+ hours at my full time job, and complete about 3-5 hours of work before and after that in a given day. Beyond that, it’s just too much and I start to get burnt out.

The System I Use:

Sometimes people ask about the system I use for tracking goals and building routines and habits. You can read more about that system here: On Setting Goals and Reaching Them. I also recommend the following books in the New Year for setting and reaching goals!

1. Start Finishing, by Charlie Gilkey
2. Atomic Habits by James Clear