‘A goal without a plan is just a wish.’

I was talking to a colleague of mine today, about my projects.  She was intrigued by the idea that I had multiple projects on the go, and asked me what they all were.  I told her that my projects were:

• A photo book for my sister (wedding present)
• Transferring my blogs from 2001 – 2018 into printed books, embellished with the memorabilia I’ve collected from those years
• The family recipe book
• Family history books
• Handwriting all my poems into journals

She asked me what my plans were for achieving these ‘goals’.  I was stumped.  I don’t have plans, I just have projects!    I started my family recipe book in 2010.  That was 8 years ago!! 

I told her that I needed to get the photo book for my sister done by June, because it was a wedding present.  I was then going to work on the blog books because I had all these boxes of memorabilia stashed around my bedroom that I needed to get rid of.  But as I spoke to my colleague, I mused that the blog books were for me (and eventually my children), but the family recipe book and the family history books are intended for my older relatives.  I gave an abbreviated copy of the recipe book (what I’d done to that point) to my great-uncle (who is in his 90s and in ill health) and to my husband’s grandfather a year or so before he passed away.  The remaining relatives, other than my grandmother who is in her 90s and has contributed to the book, are my parents and parents-in-law’s generation.  This means they’re in their 60s.  If it’s taken me eight years to do approximately a quarter of the book, these people will be in their 90s by the time I finish!!  

So clearly I need to prioritise again, and on top of that, make plans for progressing these projects.  It’s not enough to just do some whenever I feel like it.  So I’m going to do some work every weekend on my sister’s photo book until that’s done, then sit down and come up with a good plan for the family recipe book.  That at least is a finite project.  Then I need to sit down and work on the family history books (which could be infinite if I don’t set boundaries on them).  I really wanted to get DNA tests done for both my parents before finishing the family history books, but that will be finance-dependent.

And now seems like a good idea to provide an update on the to do lists that I shared in For the love of lists…, as requested by Marie at Create Space.

Things I have achieved since I posted a month ago:
 Write a poem in January
 Write a poem in February
 Read a book set in a country I’d like to visit, but never have
 Read a book published in 2017
 Read a book by my favourite author
 Read a book with a one word title
 Read a book set in New Zealand
 Read a book set in the future
 Read a book with horror elements
 Read a book with an element in the title (earth, air, fire, water)
 Read a book published in 2018
 Write a book review in February
 Write a blog post in the week commencing 22nd January
 Write a blog post in the week commencing 29th January
 Write a blog post in the week commencing 5th February
 Write a blog post in the week commencing 12th February
 Write a blog post in the week commencing 19th February
 Post the Versatile Blogger Award
 Approach at least one author/blogger/publisher regarding an interview in January
 Read and comment on other blogs in the week commencing 22nd January
 Read and comment on other blogs in the week commencing 29th January
 Read and comment on other blogs in the week commencing 5th February
 Read and comment on other blogs in the week commencing 12th February
 Get 100 followers on this blog
 Do a photography daytrip with Mum
 Share a new photo on Instagram
 Share a new photo on Facebook
 Make soap
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge for January 18th
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge for January 23rd
Set up the 2018 Nomination Form for Quill Awards by end of January
 Update The Snail Mail Forum in February
 Send out Snail Mail rewards at the beginning of February
 Write an editorial for at least one official Writing.com site newsletter

Things I didn’t achieve:
 Save $1,000 in January
 Write a short story in January
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 13th
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 14th
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 15th
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 16th
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 17th
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 20th
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 21st
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 22nd
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 24th
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 25th
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 26th
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 27th
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 28th
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 29th
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 30th
 Write a blog entry for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge on January 31st
 Update Matters of the Heart Forum in January
 Update The Snail Mail Forum in January
 Send out Snail Mail rewards at the beginning of January

Hmm, I feel like I’ve achieved quite a bit, and still managed to miss out on a few things I should have done!  A mixed result.  No matter.  Honestly, most days I’ve come home from work and just wanted to curl up in bed and read a book (hence why I’ve managed to complete a few of my reading tasks!).  Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.  I was motivated to go out for not one but two photography day trips with my mum though, which was awesome.  And I’ve been keeping up with my blogging, which I’m really pleased about, even if I did miss some of the Writing.com prompts I had intended to do.

Overall, I’m happy enough with that.  And it’s good to do a review now while I still have some of February left, and I can tick off a few things.  I’ve written a poem but not a short story, and I saw two contests on Writing.com that I might be able to knock off with a single short story, so that’s a goal for this weekend.  Along with working on my sister’s photo book.  

What have you been up to?  Have you ticked off any of the things on your to do list?