2019: What to expect of me?

Happy New Year everyone!

New year, New day and hopefully a new beginning. I know time is just a man made construct and the ‘new year’ doesn’t change anything. But for me, and many of others, this is big deal. And if you are anything like me, you probably have great plans and schedules that are ready and have just begun to be put to use. 

I don’t call them resolutions, because we all know how quick I am at failing them. But they are typically long to do lists and new ideas to be tried out. So what is on store for this year? Let me show you my GRAND plans for the new year. 

Reading Plans

Here is a list of reading challenges that I will be participating this year.

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2019

I think this is the most basic of all the reading challenges. I am increasing my target from 35 to 45. I know it might seem very less compared to other prolific readers/ bloggers around here. But I hate having to stress about reaching the target and not enjoying the book. 

Target: 45 

A – Z reading challenge 2019

Hosted by the Ginger Mom and company, I did great last year and that motivated me to join this year’s challenge as well. But this year I will plan to participate more and be more social.

Target: Reading books with the titles starting with all the letters of the alphabets

Reading more classics

One of the major goals I have is to read more classics during the year. And I will following these two challenges for my reading choices. 

Reading more Indies

I love reading indies and promoting indie authors. I am making it a point to read more indie books anyway, so why not make a big deal of it and join a challenge for that, hosted by As told by Tina.

Psst,if you are an indie author, consider writing a guest post for Elgee Writes.

Nancy Drew Challenge

It has been years since I read a Nancy Drew and I found a stash of those books a while ago. So I am going to take a go at it. I will be following this Goodreads group as a guide.

Blogging Plans and actions

We come to the interesting part of the post – the blog plan.

I participated in the Tidyathon hosted by Clo and Sam of Book Dragon247 and Fictionally Sam and I totally loved it. And all the colorfulness you see on my blog are just a result of that. It is still a work in progress, let us just face it, editing about 200+ posts and graphics is not a small deal. At least that is what I tell myself.

For 2019, I decided I will blog better, like every other blogger here. But knowing me I won’t do well without an action plan. So here are my plans.

Blog content

When I started Elgee Writes I used to post lots of book reviews and a little bit of personal updates. I have come a long way from that and currently I post four times a month with a variety of content like quotes, quizzes and tags and lot of discussion posts with a weekly review. 

And joining Nicole’s Book Blog Discussion Challenge last year made the switch more easier. So I will be joining the challenge for 2019 as well. As I was saying earlier, I will be more vocal and participative in this link up as well.

I am also planning to include more fun and non bookish posts in the coming months but not to worry, it will stay a book blog.

Action

Blog Engagement:

We all know how important blog engagement is to a blog’s success. Don’t we all hate shouting into the void and no one hearing it? 

One of the measure I am taking to increase my blog’s engagement is participating in the Comment 4 Comment Challenge 2019 #C4CC2019!
You can read all about it here and it is not too late to sign up.

Join us to leave no comment un-replied and un-returned!

Increase your blog's engagement by participating in the Comment 4 Comment Challenge 2019 #C4CC2019! Join us to leave no comment un-replied and un-returned and it is not too late to sign up. Share on X

I am proud of myself with my last year’s blog hopping and I plan it to keep up.

Action: 

  • Visit blogs I follow at least weekly once. 
  • Reply to all the comments on my blog
  • Return the comments by visiting their blogs
  • Learn to follow and use blog statistics. 
  • And to care about the follower counts.

Blogging Schedule

This is a more obvious one – more consistent blogging.

I already post 4 times a week and I more or less am consistent in doing that. I plan to continue that but I am trying to make it more streamlined. I am putting to use of all the time I have spent on ‘pretending to be organized’ into becoming actually organized. 

So what I am going to do differently?

Action: 

  • Planning the topics ahead of time.
  • Working in batches
  • Scheduling posts at least two days before the publishing date
  • Taking planned holidays off the blog

Make more blogging friends

Yes you heard it right!

Blogging has got me so many new virtual friends this year, especially ones with similar interests. Isn’t that really great? 

I am part of a few Discord, Facebook and Twitter groups. But being the introverted booknerds that we are, it is understandable that I didn’t take part in the conversations as much as I wanted. So this year I will be doing exactly that. 

I am looking forward to following lots of new bloggers this year. So if there are any blogs that I should be following, let me know! I will give them a follow right away. 

If there are any blogs that I should be following, let me know! I will give them a follow right away. Share on X

Action:

  • Post more original tweets on Twitter
  • Plan and schedule posts on Instagram
  • Talk to people online

Personal goals

I don’t usually talk about my personal life and goals online but I am making an exception. I will explain why in a bit. 

  • Take more photos of the places I visit. (Bonus if I post on Instagram)
  • Learn to knit
  • Take initiative to talk to more people
  • Create and follow routines in general life (See I am being more organized!)
  • Self care and self love, for obvious reasons and I am not breaking that down

I guess that is it for now! I am not going to be trying too hard or be stressing myself with these plans, but using these action plans as guidelines and take it as they come.

Pin me!

2019 plans

Let us talk

What are your goals for the year? Do you have New Year resolutions? Share your favorite blog that I should be following already. Let us talk.

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51 Comments

  3. I LOVE all of your goals, Gayathri!!! I am upping my Goodreads Challenge goal this year too. My usual go-to goal is 12, but I’m upping it to 15 in 2019. I know it’s only a fraction of what other bloggers can get through in a year, but it’s a challenge to me, and that’s all that matters.

    I haven’t read any Nancy Drew books since I was a kid, but I remember devouring every book I read. I wonder if I will still like them in my “old age”. I should definitely review the book to movie adaptation for the blog.

    Good luck with your 2019 goals!! They are mighty, but I know you will be victorious!!

  5. I loved all your goals and resolutions for 2019. I loved the way you have described these. I am also doing A-Z reading challenge along with of course the Goodreads challenge. Oh wow, the Classics challenge is definitely new for me and considering that I want to read more classics this year, I would definitely check it out.

    P.S. I am loving all the new colors on your blog 🙂

  6. I love how specific and action oriented your goals are. I wish you the very best with all of them!

    Oh and we have very similar goals, blogging wise. Though possibly different in terms of direction, because I am transitioning Shanaya Tales back to being mostly (if not only) a book blog, which is the opposite of what you are doing. 😀

    But outside of that, I found myself nodding along as I read all those goals, because we share so many of the same goals, even though I haven’t explicitly listed down all of mine.

  11. All the best and I am sure you are going to surpass your goals.. At the same time I am rethinking my own blog-ship after reading your post. Because I am the same way..Post reviews and blitzes and nothing else.. I think I will finally into being a bit personal on my blog.

  16. oh wow wonderful post! I love reading your plans for this year! I have enjoyed your blog tremendously and cannot wait to see what is coming next, especially the non bookish post. I hope you post pics of your knitting projects! 🙂

  18. You have so many amazing goals for 2019! We are excited to participate in your challenge (and a sign-up post will be going up uber fast!). And oh my gosh, I used to LOVE Nancy Drew when I was younger!

  19. 45 looks like a good plan ! I goaled for 3 more than last year, just in case, even if I did read over 20books I still choose to aim for 15 (based off 12 last year) so it’s still not too high so I should be able to without stressing myself.

    Goodluck for the extra reading goals aswell !! I’m deciding of not taking more than the goodreads, as im still not at my best reading capacities yet xD and I dont really wanna stress me more than needed; just focusing on reading more and more for now.

    All good blog and organization goals !! I wish you the best with that too xx
    I am personally a fan of thoses “personal/chit chat posts” ahahah

  22. GR is a go-to challenge for me, but I am also doing AtoZ for the 4th year in a row (although I only hit 23/26 last year – sob) I love that you are doing a challenge named for Nancy Drew. I adored those books when I was in grade school. Good luck with all these plans.

  23. Good luck with every single goal you place before yourself! I know you got this. I have enjoyed seeing you develop as a blogger this last year. I look forward to seeing more progression over this next year. Love and light to you always!

  24. I love the sound of the A – Z challenge! I think I might sign up for that too 🙂

    Good luck in all your challenges! Excited to see where 2019 takes you and your blog!

  28. I mean… I’m probably “crazy” for amping up my goal from 50 to 100… but I did finish nearly 70 books thanks to my internship? I think I’m ready for that journey, LOL. I’m not doing any other challenges though, because I think I’ll just put too much pressure on myself in addition to the GR challenge.

    I’m joining the comment for comment challenge as well! I’m still catching up with 2018 comments, but I’m trying to get that done today and start the slate anew. Same with posting consistency, though I’ve started to in late 2018…

    Good luck with all these goals! I’m sure you’ll do great. 😀

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