My 2022 Goals | Reading, Writing, Blogging and Personal Goals

(Last Updated On: )

After reflecting on my 2021, it’s time to talk about my 2022 goals. Be warned, this is a long post! I have a lot to talk about so buckle up. We’re talking everything reading, writing, blogging and personal and I’ll let you in on some of the ways I’m trying to hold myself accountable.

If you’d like to easily navigate this post and the different areas of my goals, you can use the table of contents to get around! Now let’s get into those sweet and ambitious 2022 goals, shall we?

Reading Goals

I’m starting off with all things reading and books because this is a book blog after all! I’ve managed to whittle them down to a tidy ten goals I want to pursue this year.

1) read 33 books

This has been my base reading goal for the past few years! I usually read more than 33 books, but I like to set it as my starting point for three reasons. Firstly, it’s a fun number. Second, it’s an amount of books I know I can comfortably read in a year. And third, it removes some of the pressure of setting a numerical goal while still giving me something fun to work towards. Ultimately, I tend to increase this goal once I’ve hit the 33 but using this number in my written goals gives me an easy win!

2) read 50% from my owned TBR

Ah yes, my screaming TBR pile. Last year, I set myself the vague goal of “reading more of what I own” without defining what “more” meant. This year, I am aiming to have half of my reading be from my pre-2022 TBR. It’s an easy metric to track in the spreadsheet I’m using. Plus, if I abandon the more intricate spreadsheet at some point during the year (like I did in 2021), I can still easily check which books I own. Admittedly, I have a feeling that hitting that 50% is going to be harder than I think, but I’ll do my best!

3) read one book from my death books collection every month

Last year, I vowed to read 12 death books. My collection sat untouched and grew and grew. This year, I’m trying basically the same goal, but framed differently. I am not picking specific books. Instead, I am simply trying to read one book about death or forensic science a month. To my brain, that seems totally possible!

4) reorganise my shelves

This is a constant effort because my shelves are in constant chaos. And by shelves, I mean both my physical and digital ones. Nobody look at my Goodreads, please. Because towards the end of 2021 I was very stressed and depressed (really a winning combination), I never got around to working on my goals for #Goodreadance2021! I want to make time for all that sweet bookish spring cleaning this year.

5) read at least 5 translated books

Same goal as last year, baby! I have enough translated books on my TBR to be able to hit this goal, so I’m hoping reading from my owned books will help me.

6) read at least 3 German books

Last year, I had a goal of reconnecting with German literature. I’m incredibly out of touch with what’s being published here and often find myself thinking that there isn’t anything for me. Obviously, that can’t be true! Sure, the German publishing industry is different from the US or UK one and I am noticing a real lack in diversity (or at least a lack in the marketing of diverse books). But I am determined to find the corners of German books that I love to read. They have to be out there!

7) Read 5 books with disability representation by disabled authors

Another repeated goal, with a change! As I mentioned in my 2021 recap, this was a goal I was really mad at myself for not reaching. So to make it easier for the second attempt, I modified it so that I have a clear metric of success! 5 books is a number that should be easy to accomplish within the amount I usually read. It gives me a starting point and something to track, which hopefully makes me more likely to seek out disability representation and keep an eye on 2022 releases with it.

8) DNF liberally. Life is too short for bad books!

This is less of a goal and more of a mindset I want to adopt. No more pushing myself through books I don’t enjoy just to have finished them! Not every book is for me and not every book enters my life at the right time. Finishing every book I start does not make me a better reader so I’m going to stop doing it! I’ve been known to start books and put them away again “for later”. This year, I’m giving myself the freedom to recognise when a book isn’t working for me and let it go. Be free, little book!

9) update my owned books tracker

Ah yes, the tracker. You see, if there’s one thing I am really bad at it is keeping up with long-term projects. And then the longer I wait the worse it gets. My tracker is not up to date and I don’t even know how many books are missing! So in 2022, I am going to schedule monthly sessions to update this bad boy!

10) check in on my goals in my monthly wrap-up

Finally, I want to keep myself accountable! I write monthly Wrap-Ups and they’re the perfect recurring task to force me to reflect on how I’m doing with these goals. So from now on, every Wrap-Up is going to have a little section dedicated to a progress report of some kind. I’m genuinely very excited to share it with you, it seems like a fun way to not just forget my goals and to invite you to share some of my life with me!

Blogging and Social Media Goals

Moving on, I’ve also formulated some goals for blogging and social media! To be honest, writing down numbers I wanted to hit was very tempting! But I don’t have any control over the number of followers I have. All I can control is the content I make and the amount of time and work I put in.

1) aim to publish a blog post once a week

I haven’t been super consistent with this last year due to mental health and overall life shenanigans. This year, I want to improve my consistency! With a little bit of planning this should be totally doable, I think. It’s also a super easy goal to track! But no worries, I won’t be too hard on myself if it doesn’t end up happening, Life gets in the way sometimes and that’s okay.

2) create a template with prompts to help me write reviews

Ah reviews, the bane of my existence because I can never get them right! As a 2022 goal, I want to develop a template for myself to help me write better reviews and do it faster. I want to eliminate staring at a blank document because all I have to say about a book are incoherent screams of excitement. That’s not telling you why you should read it! To be honest, I’m not quite sure what this is going to look like, but I’ll keep you updated!

3) find and support new blogs and keep in touch with my favourites by setting aside 3 days a week to blog hop for 20 minutes

Oh look at this, she’s attached a specific time to a goal! How sexy of her. This goal is self-explanatory: I want to be a better member of this community! And to make it easily trackable for myself, I’ll be aiming to blog hop on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays! The days might change depending on the schedule, but the aim is to check in during the week. I’m super excited to find new bloggers, so if you are a book blogger and want me to come say hi, please link your blog so I can visit you!

4) post on Instagram 3x a week and get creative with my photos!

I wish I was the kind of bookstagrammer who posts every day and has insanely beautiful photos. Unfortunately, my skills, circumstances and time don’t really allow for that! So my goal is to post at least 3 times a week and experiment a bit more with my photos. I’ve done a few simple edits in the past and really enjoyed the creativity, so it’s time to lean into that. This is also your friendly reminder to come check out my Instagram account if you don’t already follow me!

5) figure out a Pinterest schedule that works for me

I’m gonna come out and say it: I don’t get Pinterest. Don’t get me wrong, I love it as a user. But as a creator? It’s a mystery to me. I have no idea what best practices are, how often I should pin and what and it’s all a little overwhelming to me. So my 2022 goal is to learn from other bloggers and eventually arrive at a schedule and strategy that is sustainable for me.

6) possibly restart my booktube channel?

Finally, I am thinking about restarting my booktube channel! This is a goal that’s very much up in the air because as much as I love filming and editing videos, being on camera makes me super anxious. It’s just not something I’m very good at. My goal with starting my channel back in 2020 was to exposure therapy my way out of that anxiety…which didn’t fully work. But I have some fun ideas I want to try and make so if all goes well I’ll try again! But I am also allowing myself the freedom to not be on YouTube anymore, at least not talking to the camera. Mental health comes first!

Writing Goals

1) set aside regular writing time every week

We’re back to the theme of consistency! While my word of the year is “gentle” (I carried it over from 2021 because I’m not done with it yet), I really want to work on being more consistent. Over the past years, I’ve basically only written during NaNoWriMo. If I ever want to get past writing shitty first drafts, I have to write the other 11 months of the year, too. So this year, I am attempting to set aside an hour every week to work on my writing projects. This hour can be split however I want it to and can include planning, brainstorming and actual writing. I’m not picky, I just want to make it a habit.

2) outline either one of my WIPs

Moving on from that, I want to crack either one of my WIPs. Right now, they’re half-cooked messy drafts from NaNo 2020 and 2021 respectively. I want to get one of them to a point where I actually know what the fuck is supposed to happen. Because right now, it’s all vibes, no plots. And I like the vibes, but if I ever want to write “The End”, I need more than vibes. If anyone has advice for how to figure out the plot that belongs to an idea…please help me. Sincerely, a desperate writer.

3) finish a full first draft

This might be a bit overboard, but in an ideal world, I would love to write a full first draft of either WIP! It’s unlikely to happen, but I am going to try! I just need more than what I have now and I’d like to cover at least all the fundamental story beats, once I know what they are.

4) write something new for NaNoWriMo

I’ve done NaNoWriMo for 5 consecutive years now and I love it! The joy of coming up with a new idea to explore is one of the highlights of my year. So I’m going to do it again! I don’t know what I’m going to write yet, usually, I forget November is approaching and panic the night before NaNo. Maybe this year I can be a little earlier than that!

5) participate in Escapril again and write 30 poems

This is a bit of an odd one because I’m not a poet! Well, I guess I am occasionally. That occasion being Escapril only! Escapril is a poetry challenge hosted by Savannah Brown mostly on Instagram, and it’s super fun! I’ve participated twice, abandoning the second year after a week or so. In 2022, I’m trying again! Most of the poetry I’ve written is terrible but there’s a few poems I genuinely like and that’s a very cool feeling. I doubt that poetry will ever be my favourite medium to write in, but in 2022 I want to get out of my comfort zone creatively.

Personal Goals

Now truly finally, let’s get into some of my personal 2022 goals! These aren’t all of them because there are a few I want to keep private or assume you won’t care about. So I’ve chosen a few that I thought might be interesting for you to follow along with over the year!

1) establish a consistent meditation practice

I’ve been trying to build a meditation practice for years now. It’s never really stuck. In 2022 I’m trying again and I am setting the bar on the ground. Headspace has a one-minute breathing meditation. One minute. My goal is to do that every day. That’s the minimum I hope I can build from. Maybe I’ll try different styles of meditation, experiment with setting up my space in a fun and special way or try meditating outside. All I know is that my brain and body would greatly benefit from some more mindfulness.

2) complete a 21-week anatomy class on Future Learn

Oh look, a lonely education goal amongst my 2022 goals! I love taking online classes but my nature of struggling with long-term projects has made this very hard. In particular, I’m interested in a few classes on forensic science on Future Learn which I’ll hopefully get to. But the main one I want to finish and get a certificate for is a 4 part, 21-week anatomy class! Why am I, a student of media and theatre studies taking an anatomy class? Good question! For the same reason I fought my way through biochem last year. Despite Brexit basically ruining my dream of studying forensic anthropology in the UK one day, I still want to set myself (and my CV) up for success in the future. The future being either whenever Scotland gains independence and rejoins the EU, thus making tuition affordable again, or me suddenly being rich. I think one of those is much more likely than the other, but maybe I get lucky.

So while I can, I want to make sure to take online classes and use the opportunities my university gives me to prove to future decision-makers that they should absolutely let me get a degree in forensic anthropology. Pretty please. Now, this anatomy class is going to be no joke and I’m honestly unsure how I’m going to fit it into all my final year work…but I can figure it out, right?

3) go somewhere interesting with my camera every month and take photos

I’m usually more of a video girl and was very tempted to put “make more videos” as a goal here. But I am also trying to cultivate new creative hobbies (another one being collage art, btw). And I don’t really understand cameras, either. So this year, I want to get into photography! It doesn’t have to be anything big or fancy. I don’t have any plans for what (or who) to take photos of. All I know is that once a month, I want to take a day to take photos. Maybe I’ll choose different themes, styles or places throughout the year!

Some Closing Words

And those are my 2022 goals! They might seem ambitious to you, they might not. Honestly, with how the world is throwing us curveballs, I’m not sure how much of this I’ll actually accomplish. My priorities might change, new goals and ideas might come up. I’m open to that because if these past years have taught me anything it’s that there are things you just can’t plan for. If I make it through 2022 somewhat intact, I’ll consider that a success. But I also look forward to try new things, find joy in unexpected corners and actively shape the life I want. And I can’t wait to let you in on that journey!

What are your 2022 goals? Do you like to set specific and numerical goals or go with vibes?

I hope you have a lovely day,

If you like my work and would like to support me, you can buy me a coffee!