The Twenty-Something Series: How my goals for 2019 are going so far

Well, we're into April now, and I... feel like I’ve had a weirdly productive year so far. 

Far from wondering where the time has gone, I’ve been checking in with myself at the start of each month and realising how much I’ve got done. 

I posted back in January about a few of my goals for the year – so I thought it was about time I looked at how that’s going!

1. Read more

By the end of last year, I felt like I hardly read anything – but I resolved this year to read more, including some more non-fiction on adulting. So far, I’ve managed to read four and a half fiction books and one and a half non-fictions – which might not sound like much, but honestly, it’s way more than I’d read by this point last year, so I’m very happy with how this one is going!

2. Secure a permanent job at work

OH. OH, how naïve I was! We’re currently going through a period of… uncertainty. With a lot of redundancies going on. The internal job I applied for at the end of last year no longer exists. It’s all a bit up in the air, really. My contract is up in September but I’m still really enjoying my job, and still love working for this company, so I’m holding out hope that something will come up. And, hey, if not, I’ve got my CV polished! (Despite the writing all kind of taking off at the minute, I still want to hold down a day job and work in IT.)

3. Finish my latest Work In Progress by Valentine’s Day

I set myself this deadline and it was looking a bit hazy by the end of January, where I’d only made it to 57,000 words (of my rough goal of 75,000). I managed to smash out the last 17,000-odd words, finish the first draft, and send it off to my agent on Valentine’s Day, though! I'm so happy to be able to tick this one off the list.

I love a deadline. I really do.

4. Get back into the blogging game!

I said I wanted to blog more, after months of near-radio silence, and I’d say I haven’t done too badly on this one! 21 blogs uploaded so far this year, including this one, and more in the pipeline. 

5. See my friends more

This has been a bit of a tough one to keep. Not only is it hard to find a weekend where we’re all free to meet up, and work out travel plans, but I’ve had three different book projects I’ve been working on already this year, plus several visits home or from my sister. 

However! I have managed to have a pretty decent social life (at least, by my standards!) with a few nights out with people from work, a few trips seeing different friends, and a few more plans in the diary. It’s definitely helped not having to move again in March this year. (I'd moved every six months with this job to complete placements, but luckily, staying put for now.)

Seeing my friends was something I was always going to do anyway, but adding it to this list has just made me a little more determined to persevere with making a plan that works for both/all of us.

All in all, I don’t think I’ve been doing too badly!

And given that these have all been going pretty well so far – or I’ve even managed to check them off completely – I wanted to share a couple more goals I have for the rest of the year.

6. Finish a draft of a new book

I’m wary of saying too much about this one (other than that no, before anyone asks, it is NOTHING TO DO WITH THE KISSING BOOTH) – but I have an idea of where I want it to go, and I already have the first couple of chapters sketched out in my head. I’ve been putting off starting it while I’m on deadlines for editing, but hoping to have some space to get started very soon! I’d love to finish a first draft this year.

I've also got another book I want to start work on. Ideally, I'll also finish that this year, but I don't want to push myself too hard on this front. Counting this, I'll be working on six different books this year. So no pressure, haha!

7. Do more events!

I’ve done one panel and one school talk so far this year, and would love to do some more of these… They're just such a great opportunity and a lot of fun. I can't take time off work to do them often, but I'm hoping to do more over Skype to compensate for that.

If you’d be interested in having me along for an event/panel/similar, I have more info on my Work With Me page. 

8. And finally for this post... BUDGET!

One of my goals for this year was to set a budget and stick to it. I figured out a way that should work for me at the end of March, and I've just started using it now. I just need to make sure I stick to it! I'm trying to track all of my spending as part of this budgeting activity, so we'll see how that goes. (I've got a whole separate blog post already part-drafted to post at the end of this month and see how it actually works out!)


I have plenty of other goals for myself (from 'cooking something new' to 'learning all the songs from The Greatest Showman perfectly on my flute') but I only wanted to talk about a few of them on here - and especially the more bookish and career-focused ones! 

I'll probably post again in a couple of months as another check-in on how these are all going - but in the meantime, wish me luck!

Also, I'd love to hear how your resolutions from the New Year are going, or if you've met any of your personal goals already! Let me know in the comments, or Tweet me @Reekles.