December is a busy time for Chuckles! It's when I'm doing all my reviewing of this year and planning next year! I love all of that but it is time consuming and doesn't leave much time for life outside the blog, which is filled with winter cleaning chores!
Over the weekend I've been working on getting all of my Blogmas posts finished and ready to use each day. I can still make final adjustments if another really good book comes along but they are pretty much ready to go! The next task over the next few days is going to be blogging ahead in my regular posts up into January to give me some breathing space over Christmas and into the New Year so I can sloth around in front of the TV a bit more during the afternoons!
As soon as I get that done, I need to get working on a stack of book reviews. I'm still posting the reviews of books I read in July and August onto the blog at the moment. If I can spend a week or so just on that I'll have a review stockpile that I can use to cover the festive period. I want to be caught up a bit more so that in 2019 I can post the reviews within two weeks of reviewing the book and not four months as it is at the moment! I'll also need to start working on my pie charts for reading progress for this year but that is a days work really, and I need to prepare for the big end of year survey that I always take part in. My Blogmas posts will be useful in putting that together.
Then there is the task of getting the challenge posts ready to launch in January. I'll be doing Tackling the TBR which will look at weekly progress and let me keep track of the books coming into my house as well as what I'm removing from the TBR. It will hopefully keep me motivated to spend less and read more! I'll be doing monthly posts-on each one I'll select a couple of books for each challenge I'm doing that I want to read but no more lists of 30 books I want to get to! It just sets me up for failure every time and leads to reading slumps! This way I'm picking out about 10 essential books each month and leaving the rest up to mood reading. I plan to catch up on a pile of shorter series that I've started, a paperback clearout to give me more space on my bookshelves and an ebook frenzy to get through a pile of those too! I'm not sure if I'll be doing separate posts for these challenges or updating my progress on the monthly posts.
I'll also be joining in with a few other challenges through next year hosted by other book bloggers. I've already pencilled in joining in with World Reads hosted by Stephanie Jane over at http://stephjb.blogspot.com/ in January, which will be a monthly challenge through the year and in February, Puppy Love hosted by Barb at http://bookertsfarm.blogspot.com/ which is that month only. I'll be looking at what other small challenges with rules that suit that might interest me as you guys post about it through this month. I might join in with other bigger challenges through the year like themed months and things but I'll decide that as I go along!
Are you in a planning frenzy for next year? Are you reviewing stuff from 2018?
I am being wicked laid back this December. I've been taking it so slow that I've spent 2 weeks on one book so far. December won't look different in terms of how much I post because I was 3 weeks ahead, but when January hits, I'm going to be scrambling to stay even a week ahead :-)
ReplyDeleteI managed to get all my regular posts like Cover Love, TTT, CWW, Books From The Backlog done up to the start of February which is a relief! Next on the list are some discussion posts and getting ahead on the reviews which I've never managed before!
DeleteI'm starting to look at what challenges I'm interested in this year. I know I'll be doing Cloak & Dagger, my Puppy Love one and What An Animal. This year I kind of lost track so I'm hoping to manage that better next year. You read so much I have no clue how you manage to get all your reviews done! I'm impressed :)
ReplyDeleteI love this planning stage in December! In 2017 I lost track of pretty much every challenge which was annoying! I did better this year thankfully.I've planned out a couple of challenge launch posts-might get the others done today and then I can focus on reviews. I'll look forward to following your challenges on the blog next year!
DeleteWow, you’re busy. I’m struggling to hit my reading goals and get my posts up on time. That’s what I’ve been doing in December. I’m only doing the Discussion Challenge next year. I failed at all of my challenges this year, so I probably shouldn’t do more. Good luck with your planning!
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
I'm glad to say that it's a good kind of busy! I finally dragged myself to the Goodreads Challenge but the year was full of short novellas so I'm not greatly happy with my reading this year. I'm scaling back on the size of my challenges this year and not picking too many 'must read' books!
DeleteI managed to get several posts scheduled ahead for this month - which is great because I have done NOTHING since then. No reading, no blogging...lol
ReplyDeleteI'm getting back to my TBR pile come January and hope to post about it more too.
Karen @ For What It's Worth
I've got 4 of my regular posts planned ahead to the start of February which is a relief. Around the Blogs obviously can't be done in advance but I add to it daily as I go through my blog visits so I don't really get behind in it. I'm still not getting ahead on reviews though! Grr! Hopefully the New Year will bring better reading for us both!
DeleteLike you, I'm trying to get the rest of my December posts written and a few ready for January so that I can relax and vegetate over Christmas and enjoy the break. Good luck catching up with your reviews! And with your TBR challenge for next year, too. :D
ReplyDeleteI'm happy with where I am on everything except the blasted reviews! I have one left from July then I have a big pile from August reading to tackle. Ugh I'm so far behind! I'll be keeping up with blog visits and comments right through the festives but I'm looking forward to a bit of chill time too!
DeleteI'm definitely in a planning frenzy. I want to get caught up on reviews and get blogging ahead as I always fail at that and it means if I'm not in the mood to go on the blog, or I get sick or go on holiday etc, then the blog is neglected.
ReplyDeleteI definitely want to get some posts done for the next few weeks at least. To pinch your phrasing, I want to sloth about in front of the tv and basically just not worry about having to do anything. 🙂
Slothing around is fun in the colder weather! I have the darts starting this week which plays havoc with getting stuff done and then later this month I have live cricket from Australia every morning to distract me! I do love this planning frenzy though and the fun of reading lists and challenges being set up!
DeleteI hope you can get a few posts ahead to help you out. Good luck!
I need to be more organized, like you. I've never used any type of graphing - what do you use to make said graphs?
ReplyDeleteI am plodding away slowly but surely on my 'Upcoming Reviews' list that I have going on over at my blog. Next Friday is the last day of school before Christmas break, so I will have two weeks at home with my munchkin and Momma to do nothing but eat yummy food, spend quality time with my family, and read/write/review. I. CAN'T. WAIT.
These graphs are so easy and can be done it minutes! (it needs to be easy for me to do it!) This is the link to the graph making page.
Deletehttps://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/
I love the busy planning on the blog in December, reviewing the year, the end of year survey, planning my challenges, reading lists, graphs...so much fun! I'm getting ahead on most stuff so there will lots of chill out time to watch fils, sport and read over the festives! It sounds like you have a good time planned too!
Thank you dear, that will help me a lot - the graph thing has to be easy for me too, haha. I am that weird in-between generation that grew up on technology, but was not born with it already existing so commonly, so some things are super easy for me and some things I have no idea what I am doing.
DeleteSame here! I was leaving secondary school the year they brought computers into the classrooms! I had to teach myself to get on the Internet and those first few months were scary!
DeleteI'm guessing from your blog header/avatar you like horror books?
ReplyDeleteI plan on posting my challenges later into the month as well but thanks for the comment on my Royal Reading Challenge giving me a heads up. I'm doing something different this year as well in order for me to get my reading challenges done without overwhelming myself. I'm writing up posts for later this month and January. I was only supposed to focus on January but once I start thinking about a post I've got to start writing it.
Stephanie's World Reads is something I could get into. I'll be reading a few books from around the world but not multiples unfortunately. Still, it'll be fun to read along. What countries do you plan on "visiting?"
*grins* oh yes I love my horror, preppers and apocalypse reads! I read a lot of urban fantasy too. I enjoy Tudor fiction, non fiction, some SF and fantasy though these genres were a bit neglected this year in favour of horror!
DeleteI'm working on my Royal Reading Post at the moment. I generally put all my challenge posts up the first two days in January and I'm still choosing the books but certainly plan to get 15 done in the year! I love getting all my posts ready, reviewing the year, planning reading lists, the end of year survey etc!
The World Reads should be fun. I'm starting with The Arctic and have read one book and have at least one more planned, ready to post on January 5th! I have a ton of tbr books from UK and US but want to branch out a bit. I know I have at least one book set in these countries-Canada, South Africa, Mexico, NZ, Australia, and I'm sure I have books set in South America and European countries which I need to get a list of to be ready!
Yeah, tis the season to clean up our act. lol I still have a few 2018 review books, but some for the rest of this month are very late ones...by years. I'll probably stick to the few challenges I already do. Sometimes I take on so much I become overwhelmed and that is one goal I plan to meet, not putting so much pressure on myself. Good luck.
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental
Blogmas has replaced my usual version of end of year reviews and I've got them all done and ready, along with 4 of my 5 regular posts done up to the start of February. Obviously Around The Blogs needs to be done weekly but I work on that daily. Next will be planning out all the challenge posts for next year which is a day's work. That leaves me with the pie chart ststs post and end of year survey plus book reviews! I love the planning frenzy!
DeleteI put too much pressure on to read too many this year which probably caused my reading slumps. Next year I plan on selecting a few books for each month and then leaving the rest for mood reading. Good luck to you too!
I'v been in a planning frenzy since last month :) No challenges for me next year though! I totally suck at them and I don't need the deadlines, pressure and stress that they cause me :)
ReplyDeleteI just love all the reviewing and planning! I find it a lot of fun! I'm working on my book lists for the challenges which I'll be posting the first couple of days in January.
DeleteI need to do better with staying current with my reviews. It can be really hard to review a book that I read weeks earlier. I am looking forward to doing Puppy Love again this year :)
ReplyDeleteI'm still finishing my last reviews from books I read in July! I'm way behind and was hoping to catch up a bit before the end of the year but it isn't happening yet!
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