[Yearly Review][2018] Goals for 2019

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

2018 was a bit disappointing as far as my personal goals for the year are concerned. After a slight improvement in 2017 (after years of fairly constant performance), 2018 saw me slide back below 50% completion.

I want to get above that magical boundary again this year, and I see two possibly ways to do that.
1) Keep broadly the same goals and try a bit harder this year
2) Make some radical changes to the goals - delete some, make some easier, etc.

I think I'll be taking a mixed approach - some goals will definitely go the way of the dodo, and may or may not be replaced, but on the whole I'm not too keen on making things easier for myself just to pad my stats. I like having goals that push me to continue doing the things I enjoy, but which can easily fall by the wayside because of work or laziness (for example my books target). I just have to face up to the fact that although in years past I could have completed many of the goals in multiple hobby categories, my current work-life situation means that some of them are probably mutually exclusive.

Any way, without further ado, here are my goals for 2019.

General
Over the last year or so I've started noticing the holes in the various spreadsheets and tools I use to track my various hobbies and achievements. For example, I currently track my model & games collection in two separate places, and my Warmachine games in three! I'd really like to try and consolidate some of these, and add some quality of life improvements.

• Update and consolidate my Warmachine tracking spreadsheet(s)
• Update and reorganise my general hobby tracking spreadsheet(s)
• Update and reorganise the house book list
• Update and reorganise the house DVD list

Health & Exercise

• Get my weight below 13st. (I'm not happy with how my weight has been slowly creeping up, so I'd like to bring it back down a little)
• Go swimming at least once per week for more than three-quarters of the year. (I just made this last year, so that suggests to me it's at about the right level)
• Go swimming at least twice per week, an average of twice per month (This may be too ambitious with trips etc., but my current routine should make it achievable)
• Swim a total of 60km or more throughout the year.  (A slight increase over last year to continue pushing the amount that I swim each time I visit the pool)
• Cycle to work at least once  (I'm unwilling to let this one go just yet)
• Go on a Sunday cycle ride at least 5 times. (A drop over last year to make it more of an encouragement than a burden)
• Drink no Coca Cola / Pepsi / equivalent cola-based drinks.  (I still feel better for having cut these out. I broke down a couple of times in 2018, so this still needs to be a goal. The next step is to really restrict my total soft drink intake)
• Visit a Snowdome at least once for skiing practice.  (Also unwilling to let this one go!)

Outings

I've made these more generic, so that if (for example) we go to see Leicester Tigers with my brother it will still count.

• Attend at least one rugby match.
• Attend at least two ice hockey matches.
• See at least one play or musical in the West End.

Finances

• Save a net £3000, after accounting for holidays (I did fairly well in 2018, but there was one particular holiday that was expensive! I know I'm not going to Le Mans this year, so that will help me towards this. I'd also like to be a bit better organised with my hobby budget)
• Reorganise my accounts (This desperately needs doing)

House improvements
There are some fairly significant things I'd like to do to the house this year. Being an adult is hard.

• Board the loft
• Fix the radiator in the study
• Finish painting the windows
• Touch-up the paint in the second bedroom
• Repaint the ensuite

Work / Career Development

• Publish at least one peer-reviewed paper (2017 saw a complete failure to publish on my part, which is unacceptable.)
• Attend at least one international-level conference.
• Participate in at least one career development-related training course (Ongoing career development is essential)
• Start working towards some form of project management qualification. (A large part of my work now seems to be project-management based, so I would like to develop my skills in this area and, in the process, acquire some recognition for it)

Reading

• Read 30 fiction books.
• Read 5 non-fiction books. 
• Obtain 10 or fewer physical books (net) for the house (Books bought for work don't count. I've said 'net' as I would again like to get rid of some books this year)
• Read a total of 40 books.
• Eliminate my motorsport magazine pile (This won't be easy if my Dad keeps giving me more of them!)
• Eliminate my science-related magazine pile (I'm definitely not going to read all of them, but I'll at least skim through the news, then keep any articles that I like the look of. Though my track record of reading those isn't exactly great)
• Trim down my gaming magazines pile (I've read all of the magazines I have, so this will involve selling them off or keeping select articles and binning the rest)
• Finish reading the "Shadows of the Apt" series. (This goal is in tension with my goal of not buying more than ten books, as I'll need to buy four to finish this series)

Audiovisual media

• Watch at least five seasons of TV shows, on any platform, that I haven't seen before (I've opened this up to include new TV that's ongoing)
• Watch at least ten seasons of TV shows on any platform (This includes shows that I've watched before)
• Watch at least five previously released films, on any platform, that I haven't seen before ('Previously released' means no new releases. This is meant to be for films that we own on DVD, or I have in my Netflix queue, that I previously missed)
• Watch more than 20 films in total (Includes cinema visits, though this will mostly be DVDs / Netflix / YouTube)
• Acquire 10 or fewer DVDs (net) for the house (We've now run out of DVD space as well as book space, so some will have to go, and we'll have to be more selective about which ones we buy)
• Clear at least one of my created Playlists on YouTube (I have six created playlists, which all gradually fill up throughout the year. I'd like to try to keep on top of the backlog.)
• Watch at least five complete Let's Play series on YouTube (A lot of my 'viewing in the background' is now Let's Play videos of various computer games. I like these as they help me keep somewhat up to date with the latest games, knowing that I'm not going to be able to play them myself.)

Wargaming

• Paint 10 models. (Another one that I'm unwilling to let go. Realistically I'm more of a gamer than a hobbyist these days, at least partly because of my schedule, but I'd like to at least continue trying to paint some models)
• Play at least 1 game, of any non-prepainted system, with a fully painted army. 
• Play at least 5 games with two different Warmachine / Hordes factions (I've generalised this one to allow for testing new factions out, or army swapping)
• Achieve a Warmachine/Hordes win rate of at least 50% (Always a good goal to aim for)
• Play at least 1 game of X-Wing
• Play at least 1 game of X-Wing 2.0 (I've put these separately, because if I play X-Wing it may well be v1.0 with my brother)
• Play at least 1 game of Dropzone Commander (The v2.0 rules are still not released, and the number of players at the club has dwindled down to just one guy, and me with some models)
• Build my Dropfleet Commander models (This year is make or break for these. Either I build them, or they go. I'd really like to build them, as then I can use them for various different space combat games. But I already have the Halo fleets and two Firestorm Armada fleets, so something is going to have to go)
• Play at least 1 game of Warhammer 40K 8th edition (Having sorted out my model collection in 2018, I have a real hankering to try out 40K again)
• Play at least 1 game of Warhammer Underworlds (My new thing. Now that I have four warbands I can hopefully get some people interested. My brother really enjoyed it at Christmas, so there's potential for more games there as well)
• Play at least 1 game of another system (I always like trying out new systems)

Board gaming

• Play at least ten different games. (A softball I think, given that I own at least twice this many)
• Play at least five new game (Trying new games gets increasingly more difficult, but I think I should be able to do five)
• Achieve a win rate of at least 33% (Aiming low! 2018 was not a good year for my win percentage...)
• Teach my girlfriend at least two new games (Now that she's tried a few different board games she's getting into them, and is keen to try some more. I just have to be selective with which ones I pick)
• Host or attend at least four board game evenings with my friends (We're managing about one a month at the moment, but schedules change and I know that our main boardgaming friend has been applying for new jobs)
• Finish Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 (We're so close that this one has to be a softball)

Computer gaming

• Finish 1 game's single-player campaigns. (Continued optimism here, in spite of the fact that computer gaming is the hobby that's dropped away the most)
• Start at least one new game (I've always been better at starting games than finishing them, so this one should be easy!)

So there we go. Changes for this year include:
- Splitting the goals up a bit more. The 'General' category was becoming a bit crowded, and more categories gives me more scope in future years.
- Removing the goal for blog posts. This is one area where pushing myself hasn't been productive, and I'd prefer to write posts that I feel like, when I feel like, than try to match a fairly arbitrary self-expectation for how much I should write.
- Increasing the board gaming goals again. Now that I've got my girlfriend interested in board games I feel confident increasing the difficulty here a bit. Semi-regular games nights with our friend should also help.
- Changing up the Audiovisual goals to reflect my viewing habits.