Book Blogger New Year’s Challenge – Day 1

Posted January 1, 2014 by Emily in bookish challenges / 3 Comments

Rachel @ Parajunkee had this awesome idea of a New Year’s Challenge for book bloggers.
You can check out more details about the challenge at Book Blogger New Year’s Challenge.

Today’s challenge is…YOUR BLOGGER RESOLUTIONS

My blogging goals for 2014 are…

Organize
I had some many ideas last year and I feel like I just kind of put them out there, but didn’t really do anything with them. I started a lot of “features” that I only ended up doing once or twice. To add on to that, some of them weren’t very thought out either. My goal for this year is to organize the mess of ideas my brain spews out and make it more understandable and to utilize them more.

Another place where I have to work on organization is my post schedule. That wasn’t really thought out either.

Work on Time Management, Procrastination, and Prioritizing
One of the biggest issue is my poor skills of time management and my tendency to procrastinate. This probably really contributed to why the blog seemed like a mess and why some posts felt rushed – because they were. I had these plans, but weren’t able to carry out with some of them because lack of time. I would get distracted or underestimate the time it would take me to finish my homework. Add on a job, and things get even more complicated.

So for 2014, I am going to work on managing time better. Maybe setting a schedule? And to set deadlines for myself to avoid procrastination. Plus a reward system? I don’t know. YouTube (and Twitter) is one of the things that I find “waste” my time the most. Speaking of a sparse amount of time, I also need to prioritize and focus on finishing the most important things first, instead of trying to finish everything (that never works).

Work on the Design
Another thing I want to do is work on the design. I have most of the major things done, but I specifically want to work on the header (adding the penguin graphic) and the menu bar. The menu bar has been kind of driving me crazy. I spent a lot of time in 2013 trying to figure out drop down menus in blogger because I have more pages I want to put up without increasing the height of my current menu. Blogger has not made that very easy.

Improve Content
2013 was a big year for both me, and the blog. It was my first full year of blogging and I tried really hard to figure out to juggle blogging and school. I have some of that figured out? I’m not sure. However, I am sure that my content suffered because my skill of procrastination. I want to work on content and work on putting more care into the posts I write instead of just posting them for the sake of posting.

More Reviews
This is something I really, really have to work on. I SUCK at this. I read quite a few books in 2013, and did not post reviews for half the books I read. Why? Well, I was either didn’t feel like it or didn’t have the time to (reviews take a while). I also want to work on the way I write reviews and refine that skill a bit more. I will definitely focus on posting more reviews this year as opposed to other (easier to post) content.

Reply and Comment Back More
Even with taking the pledge at Readers in Wonderland, replying and commenting back on comments was something I struggled with. Right when I thought I was getting the hang of doing so, my workload always piled up and prevented me from doing it. This year, I will try to at least reply to comments on my blog first and them try commenting back once the comments come in. This way I won’t have 50 comments I don’t know what to do with – reply and comment back or just forget about them (something I really don’t want to do)?

Be More Social
I guess you could describe me as an introvert. I have a hard time making the initiative to talk to new people. So this year, my goal is to take the initiative to make some new friends. But hey, if you want to be friends, just hit me up on Twitter. I’m friendly, I promise, just a bit shy…

With socializing comes interaction. Something I need to work on also. I mentioned I have trouble taking the initiative in making friends, well the same can be said about interaction. I usually wait to for people to talk to me first to talk to them, especially when it comes to important people like authors and other bloggers. You probably can guess my goal for this problem. Hint, it’s almost the same as the one in the paragraph above.

Have More Fun

I’m not going to lie, there were some times that blogging felt like a chore and an obligation. It would be like “Ugh, I have to write a post…” Not fun. Not the way I want it to be. So this year I am going to try to have a more relaxed outlook on blogging and of course, have more fun.
What are your blogging resolutions for 2014?
What do you think of mine?
Tomorrow’s prompt is pro and cons of blogging.

Emily

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3 responses to “Book Blogger New Year’s Challenge – Day 1

  1. So, um, I completely relate to the “being more social” thing. I think I actually talked about this briefly in my most recent post. I feel like everyone in the book blogging world has all these blogging friends and even on the internet I’m the one curled up in a corner with a book and maybe some tea.

  2. Quote: “Be More Social”
    One of my top priorities as well. I want to reach out to more fellow readers and bloggers, feel finally part of a community. Like you, I’ve been blogging for a little more than a year without getting there yet.

    Quote: “Have More Fun”
    I hear you on this too. It’s not so simple to ease the pressure, but it has to be done. So…let’s try :).

    Good luck on your resolutions!

  3. Fantastic resolutions! I agree with all of these and many are the same as mine. Time management and socialization are really big with me this year! Here is to a great New Year!