Best of Both Worlds podcast: 2023 goals

It’s that time! Our annual goal setting episode is out this week. Sarah and I talk all things planning for 2023 — what we intend to accomplish in our careers, with our families, and in our personal lives.

My main professional goal is to “sell the back catalog.” I have written a number of books, and there are a number of people who have read one book who might be convinced to read 2 or 3. So I’m figuring out ways to help that process along. My writing project for the year will be to write 52 sonnets by writing 2 lines each day. My reading project is to read through all the works of Jane Austen (I’ve already started on her juvenalia, just so I could get a sense of how long I should read each day).

Sarah has lots of big goals too, including some fast running and growing her planning empire. We always enjoy putting this episode together, so please give it a listen! And if you have 2023 goals, big or little, we’d love to hear about them!

32 thoughts on “Best of Both Worlds podcast: 2023 goals

    1. I was inspired for some goals after hearing this. For a reading project I want to read the Divine Comedy, there are a hundred poems, so it’s about two per week.(Hearing you on What Should I read Next gave me more motivation). I like setting culture related goals, go to the theatre/ concert/museum/ cinema once a month. And I’m young to copy Sarah’s goal to wash the car(once)😊

      1. @Keren – go wash your car! You can get that done January 1st if you want 🙂 we do it more as entertainment than anything else around here…
        And reading projects are cool – glad you heard me on WSIRN.

      2. I had a goal of 4 exhibitions and 4 theatre trips for 2020….I should take that back up again. I’m booking Anna Karenina for the spring, but really need to capitalise on the fact that I live in a city known for theatre festivals.

  1. Some thoughts on doable strength goals based on my own 22 in 22 and 23 in 23 lists:
    1. 23 reps of some kind of strength move 23 days/month
    2. 2.3 minutes of strength 23 days/month (that is 2 minutes 18 seconds)
    3. 23 minutes of strength/week

    Might I also suggests combining leaf peeping with a BOBW podcast meetup (either ticketed or informal)?

    1. @Marianne – the leaf peeping meet-up would be awesome. We’ll think about it as a potential future goal. I think I would have trouble remembering the 23 times a month thing, but 23 minutes a week would be doable. I’m probably aiming for about 2x that (doing a circuit at the YMCA 2x a week or so).

  2. I loved 168 Hours and I Know How She Does It! And also What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast. So good! I’m still working on my resolutions…definitely going to have Gretchen Rubin’s outside 23 in 23 on there!

    1. @Jenn – going outside is a great goal! You should check out Amy Bushatz of Humans Outside – she has been going outside for 20 minutes for something like 1500 day straight now…

      1. I tracked my outside time last year, I’m at 630 for the year. I’ll probably get to 645 as we have some outdoorsy things planned for the rest of the week. And I count laying on the porch reading as outside time.

  3. I read I Know How She does It in Spring of 2015 while I was pregnant with my 4th child. The introduction felt very pertinent to me.

    My big goals this year are around some new habits. I want to start taking Pilates to help with my back pain. I want to establish a habit of performing acts of service as a family–no that. my youngest is nearly 7 (see above) I feel like this could be a really rewarding way to spend family time. I also plan to establish a habit of using Friday mornings to go on little adventures with friends or solo (my one “night” for me).

    1. @Gillian – these are great goals! And yes, that intro was written at a time where I was feeling a wee bit like whoa, this is going to be an adventure! And life certainly has been. We aren’t at the all-big-kid stage yet, but slowly getting there…

  4. I Know How She Does it and 168 Hours are favorites of mine as well! Good luck getting your backlist to sell in 2023! There are some gems!

    I loved listening to this episode. I have a complicated relationship with goals as an enneagram 1/upholder, but I like hearing what others set out to achieve. I had to smile at SHU’s gymnastics/library plan – we do that in reverse. We get to the library when it opens at 9 on Saturday, then both boys have gymnastics at 10:30. It is a wonderful routine for us. Plus our library has a toy section that changes every couple of months and a search and find that is seasonal. So my kids adore going there! It’s a little different for kids that are SHU’s age but hopefully they enjoy that routine as well. It’s really nice to have one weekend morning that is on autopilot.

    My goal for 2023 is to try to travel about once/month for work. I also want to work on reaching out to someone 3 times/week – inspired by your 3 times/week is a habit rule from TBT. Would you ever share a visual of how you track your TBT rules? Do you do it in a planner? Curious what it looks like in practice.

    1. @Lisa – I basically track the rules through my time log (which will show if I did something like play the piano three times a week) and then I write about it here. That’s how I track it. I probably won’t run the TBT Scorecard series forever, so maybe at that point it will just be a quick check in. Some stuff is automatic, but some stuff requires a quick glance at a printed log (was I in bed somewhere around 11 p.m. every night??)

  5. Laura: your lukewarm mention of strength training and how it may relate to alleviating back pain SCREAMS for MommaStrong. It is 15mins a day of functional strength training. She has several “fix-me” series that help with aches and pains, and the content is relatable, bite-sized and supportive. Give it a try!!!!

    1. I’ve used mommastrong after one kid (maybe G?). It was helpful I think in teaching me how to safely activate my core without making diastasis worse

  6. I cracked up about Sara’s car wash goal because I added car wash to my quarterly goal under self help/wellness! I drive a lot and I hate washing my car. Having a clean car improves my mood so I figured a $40-50 quarterly car wash by someone else is so worth it. I already made a note in my calendar for January, April, July and October.

  7. On the personal front – some routines (get back to a weekly yoga class, up my bike mileage, more couple time) and some bigger things – a weekend meet up in Paris with a pal, get my ears repierced (should be an easy thing to tick off in January), adult swim lessons, and a Valentine’s Day party (an excuse for a get together at a dreary time of year). On the work front, I am organising a mini conference in my subfield, and need to get rid of the old (finish the book derived from the PhD) and figure out the new (a new research project).

    Travel wise – we’ve got our normal July and December Portugal trips, a short trip with my mother in laws, a cousin beach trip, and we are going to take my son to Legoland Denmark as his 6th birthday present.

  8. You mentioned signing up to time track for a week in January on the podcast. Where could we sign up for that?
    I love all of your “back catalogue” books and 168 hours and I Don’t Know how she does it in particular!

    1. @Beth – there is a 7 volume bound set on Amazon that Santa brought me. It has the 6 well known novels + a compilation of her juvenalia. Santa also brought me an edition of Lady Susan and The Watsons – some of her incomplete posthumous work.

  9. Loved listening to the new year plans. I was curious, do you have a specific reading plan for the Jane Austen books, or are you creating your own?

    1. @Dana – I am creating my own. Right now I’m reading about 10 pages a day in my set. I have 7 volumes (the six known novels + a volume of juvenalia) and then I also have an 8th book (Lady Susan) of incomplete posthumous works. I’m not entirely sure if 10 pages a day is right but I think it will be about that, and I can adjust as I go.

  10. I own all of your time management books! And borrowed Juliet’s School of Possibilities from the library. So I think the back catalogue goal is a great one!

    I too set a goal of reading all of Jane Austen’s works this year. What’s your plan for doing so? I was thinking of reading a chapter each day.

    1. @Terri-Lee – yay, thanks so much for reading all my work! I hope others will do the same 🙂
      I’m reading roughly 10 pages a day. I think my set has around 3000-some odd pages, so this will allow for some lighter days and holidays if needed (though I intend to read every day). I should probably add it up to be sure…

  11. Hi Laura, happy new year! I loved the episode. Just an idea about getting motivated about strength training: I used to do a lot of squats and lunges, but I realized I hated them. But other exercises, like chest presses and side extentions, do feel very satisfactory to me for some reason. Maybe you could find out which ones you feel are ‘fun’ and you would feel motivated to become better at? This could be enough but it will might be a gateway into liking other strength exercises more. Good luck with all your goals!

    1. @Lisa – thanks! I’ve found that at the Y I am more motivated to do an upper body circuit that seems to help strengthen my back and core. So I just need to get myself over there 2x a week or so to do it.

  12. Laura, I’m a longtime enthusiast of your books, starting with “168 Hours,” that I see from my book logs I read first in 2011! And “All the Money in the World” is one I recommend often to others. “Tranquility by Tuesday” has been wonderful.

    As I started the time challenge yesterday, I remembered I wanted to comment on this post.

    [To paraphrase Pride & Prejudice] You must allow me to tell you how much I love and admire that you are reading Jane Austen’s novels this year!

    I have been a Janeite for many decades, and I have hosted many Jane Austen book groups over the years. I have two bookshelves of various editions of the novels and assorted books about Austen, her times, etc. So I will follow with interest your progress and favorites.

    In 2020 I attended (virtually; thanks, pandemic) my first JASNA, and determined to attend one in person once we could. That happened in Chicago in 2021; there I connected with a small group of ladies who I still meet with over Zoom fairly often for book talks, etc. If you think you might want to attend JASNA at some point, I’d be happy to give you some advice (the 2023 meeting is in Denver in early November). And reading “Among the Janeites” by Deborah Yaffe will give you a feel for what it’s like. So fun!

    Happy reading, and thank you for all of your terrific books!

  13. All the money in the world is the book I most often recommend and discuss the concepts with others. Because of you I’ve structured spending to keep regular house and car/transport costs low and have a higher portion of the budget for regular travel as that brings me joy!

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