Tag Archives: goals

Annual Review

Q1 2021 Mini Goals and Habits

Posted on by
1

I’m trying something different this for goals this year. I wrote up a bunch of yearly goals like I usually do, and it just didn’t feel quite right. Instead, I’m just picking out some tasks to complete, habits to build, and things to work on for the first quarter of the year. This fits better with the idea of being underambitious to make progress easier and help new habits stick, and also committing to actually making progress on a smaller number of things.

Somehow, we’re already halfway through the first quarter of the year, but fortunately I’d been starting to chip away at things even though I hadn’t published them yet ;)

give myself More space to rest and room to recover

small room with orange wall, tan low couch, rocking chair, two coffee tables with books, and black and white pillows

My new hangout space for reading and lounging away from my bed

  • Take off one day a week (Sundays) from writing with the intention of relaxing, recovering, doing fun things, making my home nicer, spending time with DH, and doing things that use my body – I’m still working out exactly what to do with these days, and have found myself doing other creative work (writing on the blog for example) and reading on Twitter
  • Build an evening routine to wind down for bed, at a space away from my bed – I’m trying to make a cup of chamomile or Sleepytime tea, light a candle, and read on my new couch

Finish my book

January 2021 writing tracking with iridescent star stickers

I get a star sticker on days I write

  • Write 30 minutes a day on weekdays
  • Do 1-2 writing Caves on the weekends (2.5 hours)

Take Care of Myself

  • Exercise 75+ minutes each week, plus 2 strength workouts

    calendar showing January 2021 with lighting bolt stickers indicating days I exercised

    I’m visually tracking my workouts with lighting bolt stickers on a calendar by my workout space

  • Keep a short daily “journal” with a few bullet point notes of what I did and how I felt – I’m doing this inconsistently, so I need to find a way to fit it in daily so I don’t have to try to recall the last three days
  • Go to therapy to work on insomnia – starting with this CBT for insomnia self-guided course
  • Do more things just for fun – so far had a burger making date night with DH and carved Valentine’s Day block prints, plus we’re doing weekly brunch on Sundays

Make Our House More Comfortable

cat sitting on rocking chair next to small white side table with magazines and books and candles, up against an orange and ecru wall with art

My cat has discovered my rocking chair hangout spot is good for keeping an eye on me and looking out the window

  • Create a sanctuary for myself to spend time and relax – done! At least version 1.0 is ;)
  • Clear out the “storage space” where we just started stashing crap – almost done! We need to find homes for a few more things, and sort through our camping equipment to purge stuff and store it better
  • Create a workout space
  • Clean out the random extra bedroom
  • Do twice-weekly downstairs team tidy-ups to keep up with chores and split the work equitably – about every other week, I’ve been making a list of everything that needs to be done downstairs because I seem to be more aware of all the tasks piling up, and if I just do them myself I wipe myself out and feel like I’m doing more than my fair share
  • Hang curtains in my new space – I have the curtains and rods, just need to charge the drill

Annual Review

2020 Personal Review

Posted on by
Reply

2020 was not an experience I ever expected to have. I’ve long been haunted by the 1918 influenza pandemic, but never truly believed I would live through anything like it. It’s one thing to read articles that we’re unprepared for catastrophe, another to watch our government flail and give up and sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives to political expediency and self-aggrandizement. Adding to the oddness, I’ve been writing a novel for the last three years that centers on a deadly virus and the heroine being forced into quarantine.

I worked my last Emergency Operations Center shift on March 31, and started telecommuting. I’ve been staying home for 245 days, as of this writing. More than eight months since I’ve seen my friends and family. In that time, I’ve been inside eight businesses, plus my work office three times.

I live a life of great privilege that allows me to offload my personal risk of contagion onto others. I am furious that our leadership has put us in a position where the wealthy can avoid risk while those in the lower class are forced to expose themselves because they need money. The callousness of Republican leadership this year has been despicable, appalling, and yet not unexpected for a group of people who revere capitalism and whose worldview centers on controlling others and feeling superior to them.

Every day of this pandemic, I’ve been so, so grateful that this didn’t happen eight years ago, when I was depressed, we were renting a condo, and I had no friends. My friends have gotten me through this tough year without falling into depression, despite my high anxiety levels and struggles with insomnia.

Highlights of 2020

Continue reading →

Annual Review, How To, Productivity

Complete a Creative Annual Review to Improve Your Work

Posted on by
7

How to complete a Creative Annual ReviewYour boss makes you do an annual review at work to make sure you’re doing your best and constantly improving — why wouldn’t you want to complete a creative annual review for your own work?

Every December, I set aside several hours (generally spread out over several days) to complete a creative annual review and set goals for the following year, loosely based on Chris Guillebeau’s method. I assess all aspects of my creative life — creative work, process, skills, relationships, business — for what went well and what could be improved.

This creative annual review guide can be used by creatives of all types, from graphic designers and illustrators to writers and photographers. You can also download my free goal-setting and planning workbook to help you identify and prioritize your goals and develop habits or process goals that will help you achieve them.

Why complete a creative annual review process?

  • Refresh yourself on the creative work you completed over the past year, looking at it “from a distance” so you can see the body of work.
  • Recognize areas for improvement.
  • Appreciate how your work has changed and improved.
  • Accountability for your long-term goals and career aims.

Overview of the creative annual review process

  1. Review your creative work and processes from the previous year
  2. Set and prioritize creative objectives for the next year
  3. Set and prioritize creative tasks associated with each objective for the next year
  4. Take a step back and identify a theme for the year in your creative life, encompassing your creations, practice, and reputation / exposure.

See my 2018 creative annual review, evaluating my writing and illustration work and practice, and outlining a 2019 work plan for revising my novel and illustrating a 32-page comic.

Article last updated January 2020.

Continue reading →