New Year's Enthusiasm

I always feel that this is the best bit of January: you've recovered from NYE, packed up the Christmas decorations, and tidied the house. Now you can start afresh. I'm always a bit dazed from food and champagne/too wrapped up in Christmas to really begin the new year at the very start of January. I'm sure that once I've graduated and have to be back at work on December 27th I'll be ready for the new year by January 1st, but I have another two terms of university before that happens. Right now, I have a lot of enthusiasm for being productive rather than wasting my time on frivolous activities, and I'd like to keep it this way.

So far, so organised. © ...look closer

I've decided not to make any New Year's resolutions this year. I don't know that I've ever made one before, let alone kept one. No, this year is all about the New Year's goal. I like a goal. Saying it over and over until it sounds like "gowl" (think bowl not owl!) is pretty fun. And also irrelevant. I still associate it with the goal post in netball, and the idea of the ball going through the hoop, or of ticking off or achieving a goal is particularly pleasing to me. I'm not sure why, I hated netball at school. Hockey was definitely more my thing. But I digress. I want my New Year's goals to have tangible effects, and they need to be pretty specific - none of this 'be nice to that girl who annoys me to make her a better person' stuff. Here are my goals:

• Sort out blog and allocate certain topics to certain days (inspiration from Laura's post about the Company Magazine Blogger Forum).
• Keep running and stick to training plan (more on this later).
• Have a sort out of all clothes and sell unwanted ones (or give to friends if no one will buy them. What? I'm a poor student).
• Pay attention to the state of my nail varnish and don't let it get so chipped that there's more nail than varnish. This is the bane of my mother's life, and perhaps in my 23rd(!) year I'll sort myself out.
• Really read books. This will apply more when I've finished my degree, but I'd really like to know about the author and context of the book that I'm reading in future. 
• Keep in mind that until my dissertation is over, there is always something more productive that I could be doing rather than browsing Twitter and Tumblr.
• Reconnect with old friends.

I think that this is comprehensive enough for now. Things will definitely change once I finish university, but that will come later.