mistressofmuses

As I say every year, I know that the new year is a perfectly arbitrary measure. Time is fake! It's all a social construct! Even so, it's still a useful period of "cultural reset," and it's a convenient time to look at having a sort of clean slate, to reassess things, to decide on a course to focus on.

I tend to do some goal-setting, which feels different (though maybe only semantically) from setting "resolutions." Though as a couple people have pointed out - several on tumblr, galadhir here, as well as others - too often "resolutions" wind up being about working more, or denying ourselves things we enjoy, or pushing harder into the productivity and grind mentality... I'd rather aim to do things that are fun, or that I enjoy. At the very least, I want them to be things that improve my life. Even if they aren't "fun" per se, I want them to be the sorts of things that make my life better, make my environment more enjoyable, are a gift to future-me, etc.

For this year... it looks very much the same as last year, honestly. Last year's goals were sort of a mix in terms of success. I did well at some stuff, some stuff I did not touch, some stuff I tried a bit and then crapped out on. So this year, the aim is mostly "keep doing the good stuff, and try again at the stuff that I didn't manage last year."

I'm still planning to track the same habits on a weekly basis. While I had a couple stretches last year that were a struggle with the tracking, it's still much more valuable to me than it ever is annoying. It helps to keep me on track, to see where my time is going, to set short-term goals. It also helps me to look back and remember things I've done. I have a terrible conception of the passage of time, so it's good to look back and see what I've done! (I also have some emotional blindness when I'm having a rough patch. It's nice to look back and be able to tell that I haven't always felt like crap!)

Much like last year, I've sorted my goals into categories based on the habits I track.

( For 2024... )

Here's to a year that I hope is good, peaceful, and kind to all of us.