For a while now I’ve been a believer in planning and starting on your projects right away, rather than waiting for January 1st, but the start of a new year is definitely still a good time to pause and reflect on the near future. And since I’m starting to figure out this blogging thing, it feels especially important to nail down what I want to achieve in the coming months, as well as the steps it’ll take to accomplish them.
365 days = 365 chances to make your goals into reality! (Too cheesy? I’ve been watching bullet journal setup videos on YouTube, so my mind is overloaded with inspirational quotes, sorry.)
2019 Reading & Blogging Goals
- Reading Challenges [separate post on this here]
- Finish reading ALL Netgalley and Edelweiss ARCs before requesting more; then keep Netgalley ratio above 80%.
- Post at least 3x per week, including at least 1 original book-inspired creation per month.
- Develop a theme for my Bookstagram.
- Stop defaulting to a 3.5 rating (and other halves, but especially this one) because I usually really am leaning one way or the other, and this is just me refusing to commit.
Most Anticipated 2019 Releases
I’ll be honest, there are so many awesome books coming out in 2019, so these are kind of arbitrarily chosen off the top of my head; I’ll be posting more timely/thematic lists as the year goes on.
- In An Absent Dream (Wayward Children #4) by Seanan McGuire – January 8, 2019
- The Wicked King (Folk of the Air #2) by Holly Black – January 8, 2019
- The Cerulean by Amy Ewing – February 5, 2019
- the mermaid’s voice returns in this one (women are some kind of magic #3) by Amanda Lovelace – March 5, 2019
- Sherwood by Meagan Spooner – March 19, 2019
- Descendant of the Crane by Joan He – April 2, 2019
- The Testaments by Margaret Atwood – September 10, 2019
- The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern – November 5, 2019
2019 Bullet Journal + Blogging Planner Setup
I’ve been bullet journaling since December of 2015; although my layouts change every few months, my current setup has worked for quite a while. I know the point of the bullet journal is to collect everything in one place, but it’s also meant to be flexible to your individual needs, and for now at least I need to mentally and physically separate all my blog stuff from my school and personal stuff — so I’m starting off the year with two planners.
These past few months I’ve been embracing a more minimalist approach to my bujo setup: Staedtler fineliner, micron and Muji pens, Mildliners, a few printouts. At the same time, I’ve been getting into more creative monthly themes — January, as you can see above, is “Have books, will travel.” (All images are from Pinterest, so unfortunately I haven’t been able to find or credit the original sources.)
On the other hand, I’m completely new to blog planning, so I took inspiration from a number of blogger friends, Pinterest, and my own bujo experience for my setup — pretty straightforward, with a section each for post schedule, braindump/post planning, and book notes for reviews. I’m using this planner in conjunction with Kaleena’s 2019 spreadsheet, so we’ll see how it goes.
Which 2019 releases are you most excited for? What goals do you have for this year, and how are you tracking your progress? Got any tips for blog planning? Let me know!
Nine Tale Vixen 
I need to somehow figure out a better way of managing my blogging schedule, because I’ve not yet found something I can stick to, maybe this is the year I get myself sorted haha. Best of luck with your bullet journal and planning!
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I’d definitely highly recommend Kal’s spreadsheet (the one I linked in the post) if you haven’t already tried it out! Thanks and good luck to you too 😄
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Wishing you luck for the netgalley/eldewiss one ! Im officially a 100% and not taking any. More. For a while. As it been everything ive been reading this pasts months.. i really need to focus on my own library 😅
Hopefully you’ll achieve all of your goals xx
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oh wow, I can only dream of 100% 😅 good luck to you too!
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To be fair I only started and had like .. 10 on it ahaha maximum 😅
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I think 2019 will be the year of the book covers, look how beautiful all your anticipated are! I too need to catch up on that Netgalley train and then not request for a good while!
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omg yes they are! and the ARC struggle is so real 😅
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I need to start doing the whole bullet journal thing, but I’m so bad at keeping up with it. I remember back when I had my diaries, I forgot to write in it for months…If I go through them now, there’s huge chunks of time missing LOL
I didn’t know Sherwood was a thing but now I do and I am so excited. THANK YOU ISABELLE!!! tackles in a hug
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hugs you back glad I could put Sherwood on your radar, lol! the best part of bullet journaling is that it’s literally “whatever works for you,” with lots of flexibility to figure it out — and no shortage of aesthetic Internet photos for inspiration and jealousy 😜
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I love cheesy inspirational quotes, they are my lifeblood! I am so jealous of everyone’s bujo skills, I tried once and it was ugly and I got mad and stopped trying hahaha. Good luck with your goals, especially the clearing arcs first! It took a lot of work on my part but it was worth it!
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❤❤❤ the point of a bujo is organization rather than aesthetic, but I can definitely relate to agonizing over everyone else’s being prettier! though you’ve become the queen of spreadsheets instead so I think you’ve got organization covered 😉
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yea my problem is my perfectionism and inability to do nice spreads, hahaha. I definitely have filled that void with spreadsheets though, it’s true!
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