It's That Time Again

It’s that time of month again. You know what time that is. No, not that kind of time! It’s time for an update of my long term goals. I seem to have missed the update in April; I think this means the update is a bi-monthly instead of a monthly thing. :-)

Okay, first a reminder of what my goals for the year are:

Design a book database
Organize my poetry
Lose 30 pounds by August
Read 52 books
Find a job
Finish a draft of one of my WIPs
Finish edits on DIF
Figure out Twitter
Figure out my iPod
Journal

And here’s what I’ve accomplished so far:

Design a book database
Organize my poetry ~ done 01/2010
Lose 30 pounds by August
Read 52 books ~ ongoing
Find a job ~ done 22/02/2010
Finish a draft of one of my WIPs
Finish edits on DIF ~ ongoing
Figure out Twitter
Figure out my iPod
Journal

Not bad I guess, I’ve got 4 out of 10 goals crossed off my list and a couple of them are ongoing.

The weight thing? We’re not going to discuss the weight thing.

I’m doing pretty well on the book reading. It says I’ve read 22 books in the side bar, but I’ve read 3 more since then. I’ve slowed down from the beginning, which is only to be expected, what with having to work for a living. :-)

I’ve been working on the edits for DIF but it’s slow going because I keep moving stuff around and adding scenes. There’s one scene that I cut from the beginning with the intention of moving it somewhere else, but it hasn’t found a home yet. I don’t want to delete it entirely, but I need to work out some logistics problems to successfully move it.

Twitter . . . you want to know the truth? I don’t do well in crowds, and Twitter feels awfully crowded to me. It’s like this world-wide chat room, only bigger. Have patience with me my fellow Tweets, I’m working on it!

The updates in my journal are still a little sporadic, but there’s been enough of them I feel justified in crossing it off my list. If I start to slack off I’ll just have to uncross it.

Can you believe it’s May already? Where’d April go?

Has anyone else out there set some long-term goals for the year? If so, how are you making out so far?

Goals Update

I'm sure somewhere, in a previous post, I mentioned something vague about doing a monthly update for the goals I posted for the Year of 2010. This is the problem with long term goals, I post them in January and then I have the whole year to work on them. And since I have mastered the art of procrastination, and a year is a very long time to a procrastinator, I tend not to feel any urgency towards working on those goals.

However, that being said, I do have an update.

Just as a reminder, my big goals were: 1. design a book database, 2. organize my poetry, 3. lose 30 pounds by August, 4. read 52 books, and 5. find a job. And, to keep myself honest, my little goals were: figure out Twitter, figure out my iPod, and journal on a regular basis.

So, how am I doing so far?

1. Design a book database. Have not designed the book database, but I did begin an Excel spread sheet to catalogue the husband's vinyl record collection. One shelf done (450 entries), two more to go. I want to do the book records in Access so I don't forget how to use it. That's the problem with a lot of these programs. If you don't use it on a regular basis then you forget how.

2. Organize my poetry. I have rather a lot of it and it was the only way I could keep track of it all. I typed out about 20 or so poems that I didn't have on the computer, and then printed out the whole works to neatly store in a binder. New poems get printed out as I finish them and added to the collection. Now I have both a hard copy and a computer copy of all my poems and I can pencil notes on the hard copies (things like where I've sent them and whether or not I've read them to the CPW).

3. Lose 30 pounds. Not doing so great in this department. I've only lost a couple of pounds so far, not that I've been working real hard on it. It might help if I'd get off my lazy butt and get some exercise, but . . . Sorry, dozed off for a minute there. :-) Actually, I have several workout VHS/DVDs that I've been considering, I just have to settle on one and start doing it without thinking about it so much. Or maybe I can just pick a different one to do each day for the variety. Hmm. That actually might work . . .

4. Read 52 books. Okay, so when I set that goal I seriously underestimated my reading addiction. The side bar shows I've read 11, but it's more like 14 so far, I just haven't got around to changing it. There's only so many hours in a day for self-indulgence so I've substituted reading for computer games. So far I have to admit I'm not missing the games so much.

5. Find a job. Working on it. Seriously working on it. I've decided that although working takes a big chunk out of the day, I'm happier working than not working. For me, having too much free time is a bad thing.

As for the little goals: still clueless about Twitter; have official charged up my iPod using the connecting cable to my lap top; and have made a couple of entries in my journal, but not on what you might call a regular basis.

Considering this is only the second month of the year, I'd say I haven't done too badly.