Looking Back at 2007

Before I launch into what I am hoping will happen next year, I thought I'd look back at what happened in 2007.

About this time a year ago, I wrote a blog entry about what I hoped might happen this year. How did I do with those plans?

1. We completed the renovations on the old house my mother left me. I say "we" but this was my husband's project. I was merely moral support.

2. I obtained one new client this past year.

3. I wrote no fiction. Or very little, anyway.

4. I did not return to college.

5. I stopped biting my nails! I'm not sure they look any better, because I keep them cut very short, and they are frail and brittle, but ... they are not bitten!

6. I set no career goals. At least, none that I remember.

7. The bathroom was repainted. This, again, was a husband chore.

8. I planted a larger garden. Not much larger, but bigger than the previous year.

9. My husband's website, Septic Tank Advisor, still languishes and is in need of content. It does have a couple of new pages but nothing to brag about.

10. I did not build a website for myself.

Those are things I thought about last year as I looked forward. Now I want to see what I actually accomplished.

Health

I did not lose weight. This has been a big disappointment. I also developed a heel spur, which interfered greatly with my exercise. To my credit, I did not let this stop my exercise routine. I continued to find ways to exercise during the hour I alot myself in the mornings. I was afraid I would break the habit. But I did not and I am still exercising every morning, almost every day, for at least 50 minutes.

Later in the year I developed a problem with my neck and back, but thankfully this is better. So I am hoping for better health in 2008, which would include continued exercise and weight loss.

My problem here? Chocolate - which I once did without for 10 years and am sorry I started eating again - and a 3 p.m. slump that sends me on a rampage almost daily in search of some kind of pick-me-up.

The Rest of My Life


Since I didn't write the great American novel, I wondered what I did with my time. This is what I did:

1. I wrote about 315 blog entries.

2. I read or listened to these books: Sacred Sins, Chopping Spree, The Gift, Agnes and the Hitman, Destiny, Rhapsody, Prophecy, Drop Dead Beautiful, Mad Dash, Sam's Letters to Jennifer, The Mists of Avalon, Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman, A Walk Through the Fire, Armageddon's Children, Listen to the Silence, Whiskey Sour, Can't Wait to Get to Heaven, Pieces of My Sister's Life, Daughter of the Forest, How I Write, Lean Mean Thirteen, Low Country, Family Acts, Cheap Diamonds, Sheer Abandon, The Wizard's Daughter, Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, The Dangerous Hour, The Shadow of the Wind, Shem Creek, The Secret, Magic Hour, The Quilter's Homecoming, Creatively Self-Employed,The Passions of Chelsea Kane, Trickster's Queen, Full Bloom, Trickster's Choice, Queen of Broken Hearts, Summer Reading, The Great Far Away, Kurt Vonnegut Audio Collection, Rococo, Tara Road, Milk Glass Moon, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Still Water Saints, The Same Sweet Girls, A Year of Wonders, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program.

I am a little surprised by the list. I counted 54 books. Is that right? I had no idea I read so much. That must be at least 220 hours just in reading (3 hours a book). Of course, many of those are audio books, heard in the car, so I am doing double duty there. And I read fast. But still. I wonder if I should read less....

3. I wrote 337 articles for various local newspapers, all of which published. I had 93 photos published in the same newspapers. I wrote 7 articles for a magazine, of which all but one published, and 12 book reviews (which I think all published but don't hold me to that). Obviously most of my efforts go into the newspaper work. I really enjoy writing for the newspaper but I do wonder if this is the best place to exert all of this effort.

I spent very little time on marketing myself, or looking for better writing markets. I think this is a place I am lacking, because it could bring in new work. So this is an area to focus on.

However, I am so busy doing all of this other writing that I don't really have time to focus on anything else. I think I've hit on the problem - I need to give something up. Maybe that's reading, or maybe it's something else, but it looks like something needs to go if I am to make way for other things.

On the other hand, perhaps I'm perfectly happy with things as they are?

There are 8,760 hours in a year. I estimate that I spent 220 hours (at least) reading books; let's add another 40 hours reading magazines. I probably spent another 320 hours writing/reading blog entries. I spent about 1,070 hours writing articles. I spent probably 300 hours answering e-mails.

That's 1,950 hours accounted for. Obviously I am not working 8 hours a day. But, a regular work week uses up about 2,080 hours and that's with coworkers, etc., which I don't have, so I am not far off a regular 40-hour work week.

If I slept 8 hours a night, that's another 2,920. Add another 1,095 for meals.

Now, if my math is right, we're up to 5,965 hours of the year gone, leaving the remaining 2,795 hours, or 53 hours a week, for things like cleaning the house, doing the laundry, kissing my husband, gardening, and grocery shopping. Also for doing my bookkeeping, filing, and all the other things that go along with running a business from home but what isn't writing.

Now that I have this information, what will I do with it? What will this do for me in 2008?