Blogmas Day 1 // Goals for the end of 2018

It’s that time of year again. *sings the Most Wonderful Time of the Year in an off key voice* It’s December 1st, which means it’s the first day of Blogmas. Blogmas is a period during the festive season when bloggers post content to their sites every day. This doesn’t have to be Christmas-related, it can be on any topic, but a lot of people choose to do seasonal posts because they’re fun. It can also be any length of time that you want, but most people seem to stick to three schedules: the first 12 days of the month, the first 24 days, or the whole 31 days.

I did the first 12 days for Blogmas last year and really enjoyed it, so I’m taking part again this year for the same length of time. My posts will mainly be festive, but I’ll also be posting my usual weekly features like Top Ten Tuesday, as well as a few reviews.

For today’s post, I’m discussing some goals I want to achieve before the end of 2018. I only have a month left to do it, so y’all have to hold me accountable.

1 . Hit my Goodreads reading goal
I’ve been behind on my reading goal since January so it’s going to be a (legitimate Christmas) miracle if I actually achieve this. But I want to try and hit my target of reading 80 books this year. I still love reading as much as ever, but I’ve not been very proactive in picking up books in my free time recently. I think this is partly due to me socialising more (I have a social life?), but it’s also down to the fact that I don’t actively dedicate an hour to sitting down and reading very often; instead I’m busy blogging or trying to catch up on emails/admin. So pray for me friends, as I try and hit my Goodreads goal by reading 8 books this month.

2. Start my novel???
I talked a little bit in my NaNoWriMo post about the fact that I’ve been feeling more inspired to write recently, but I didn’t capitalise on this during November. Yay me. I have ideas milling around in my head, and I’ve been feeling some serious writing energy (What I mean by this is when you see other people writing and feel excited to write yourself. Is that even a thing?) but I haven’t made the time for it. In December, I’m going to Germany for Christmas to visit family, and I’ll have about 10 days work. This means more time to actually begin writing at least one of the stories I’ve been mulling over. Even if it ends up a short story and not a novel, it’s all good practice and I’ll be happy to get back into the swing of writing fiction.

3. Hit 900 blog followers 
I’m thrilled by how much my blog has grown the last year, and I’m hovering at around 850 followers at the moment (thank you all so much). I would love to hit 900 followers before the end of 2018, so if you fancied recommending or boosting my blog I’ll send you virtual cookies and be forever in your debt.

4. Read two more poetry anthologies
I’ve had a sneaky peak back at the goals I set myself at the beginning of 2018, and the only one I’m really behind on is reading more poetry anthologies. So for the last four weeks of the year I’m going to try and read at least two more poetry anthologies. It doesn’t matter if they’re not the ones I’d originally planned to get to, as long as I read two, I’ll be happy. Side note: I’ll have a full post going up later this month about whether or not I hit my goals for 2018 that I set myself in January!

5. Promote the people I admire in the book community
I love shouting out other people, but I realised that I haven’t done so in the last few months. So whether it’s on Instagram, Twitter, or here, I’m going to try and boost more people in the book community who deserve recognition.

What are your goals for the last month of 2018? Are you taking part in Blogmas?