January 2015

Different tactic this time round and I am going to focus on my resolutions as well as a brief general round up, so this was January…

Basically it was terrible, I failed totally on some of my resolutions as you will see but I think that under the circumstances it is understandable but you can decide for yourselves as we review each resolution in turn.  The truth is due to the break up of a long term relationship with my son’s father and the death of my grandma I struggled to get motivated and focus, also the lack of a laptop held me back on a couple for the first two weeks, that is one issue that is now resolved at least, so on to the resolutions.

 

1) Eat healthier – no going on a diet but to watch portion size, try to make sure I get my five a day and to make healthier choices where I can. I also bought a smoothie maker in an attempt to help with this one.

I started this one off quite well then I got ill! Then I felt like crap and sorry for me then I started grieving with some comfort food definitely thrown in, I do however intend to start back on this one on the 2nd of February, no point saying today the first as the daughter is here for dinner including dessert.

2) Exercise more – I want to try to exercise at least 4 times a week, starting with 10-15mins and building up to at least one hour session and the others at 30mins. Before I have tried for too much to soon ended up in pain then quit.

Again failed miserably so far but intend to also make a fresh start on this one on the 2nd of February hopefully there will be a better report next week, I have also found my yoga DVD.

3) Write everyday – I intend to spend at least 30mins of every day writing, be it on here or in my journal. Most days will of course involve a lot longer and working on my books or other pieces but even on the busiest of days I need to make that small amount of time count.

I have done quite well at this other than the days I was laid up with flu and lets face it with flu hold a pen would be hard enough let alone stringing a sentence together.

4) Daily WIP Progress – although I mention above actually writing every day by this I mean that on days I do not have time to sit and actually write on one of my WIPs then I will still find a way to contribute to it either by having a read through, printing a page off to edit or to make extra notes relating to whatever project I am working on.  Writing is so much more than just getting a story on paper.

I have lapsed on this one, that is not to say that I have not done anything but rather it has taken longer than I expected to get the computer up and running and get back into a position to move forward but all that is in place now.

5) Improve my skin care regime – more of a personal one but time is not on the side of my skin and it does react to weather conditions so especially if I want to feel more comfortable filming vlogs I have  to invest a few  minutes each morning and bedtime.

Another that has been hit and miss, I started off well but then with illness and grief I have let things slide ironically at a time my skin probably needs as much help as it can get,

6 ) Publish VATV – to be fair this would be done already had the computer not died but now it will be a case of hoping that my dropbox had updated properly but I know I do have 9 stories fully edited on hard copy that can be typed back up and the other stories will be saved in some form, I will set a new released date as soon as I have the new computer in my possession and set up.

I have not picked a date yet mainly because I really don’t feel until after the funeral I can give it my full attention, I am hoping for a date in early April and that by next month I will have a better idea of where I am.

7) Publish Queen of Ages – another project which stalled, but as soon as Voices is out I intend to start another edit run on the first  part of my trilogy and get stuck into to writing the second part which I also intend to be out before the end of the year.  Had technical issues not meant the delay to Voices I would have gone for all three within the year.

I would now be looking at late summer for this with the second part early next year obviously will have a better idea of the timing for this one once Voices is out.

8) Catch up on my emails – that should be catch up and keep up, as many of you have been aware I have made a good start on this one while trying to recover from flu but if you have not had a flood of extra likes on posts from last year it does not mean I have not read and enjoyed them but I did read some in my email inbox and others the like button just would not work on this silly touch screen tablet.

As lots of you will know from the visits to past blog posts that I am well under way with this and hope to have my inbox totally empty by this time next month.

9) Use scheduling better – I normally prepare blog posts and a number of Facebook posts in advance then schedule them to go live at certain times,  I want to work on being more consistent at this however I confess I am finding it hard to do on the tablet so that may have to wait for the computer as well.

I was doing okay at this the first week or so until my illness then have struggled to get organised but I am now working on fixing it once again.

10) Put myself first more – I have discussed this in part previously but there is more to it which I will go into at a later date more. So often we are too worried to say no, too afraid of hurting others feelings but the fact is you can only be treated like a doormat if you lie down for people to walk over.

Not sure how to judge this as so far I have not been put to the test.  I guess until a situation arises that makes me have to stop and make a choice I will not be able to really know if I have stuck to it or not.

11) Get out and about more – finances dictate that I cannot go off on crazy adventures every weekend but I want to make sure I fit in 4 away day and see at least two shows at the theatre this year.

Nothing arranged so far but it has been terrible weather, I have been ill and not really in the mood for going off but I have got my holiday form from work back so I can start looking into places to go.

12) Have faith in my writing – I am determined as well as the larger projects to create one extra short story a month and to submit it to market.

I have not managed this, this month but I have looked into a couple of other potential markets for submission including possibly some paying markets so I guess time will tell.

 

That is it for this month hopefully next months round up will reveal a more productive month