Clear the List: December 2015

Hey guys! It’s December! 😀 Is anyone else excited for Christmas/the holidays already? I am. I haven’t done my Christmas shopping yet, but I’m sure I’ll get around to it.

Now, I haven’t posted anything for a few days (though I had a good track record last month, I think) – but what better way to come back than with another Clear the List post, the final one of 2015? Hopefully I’ll set some goals here I’ll be really motivated to achieve and manage to clear a lot of things up before we hit 2016.

Honestly, November was pretty chill. I spent a lot of time studying – if you followed my 6WC reports, you’ll know that I had ups and downs, but it’s been generally good – and the last few days I had a friend come to visit, so I’m tired but I’m feeling great.

For December, well, it’s only a couple of weeks before I head back home and my mum’s coming to visit this week, so I expect I’ll be a bit busier. I’m hoping to keep my goals on the easier side, but that probably won’t happen.

So first, let’s have a look at those goals I set for November:

• Study Slovak + the language of the day for 15m each. Well, I actually didn’t do a terrible job of this. I certainly didn’t manage it every day (even including taking the 27th-30th off), but I studied at least one language on 23 days – out of 26! So that’s only three days where I didn’t study at all, which is incredible for me compared to previous months. I didn’t manage to study both languages every day, but I ditched the extra language more often than Slovak, which is mostly due to the nature of doing a language challenge.
• Reach certain points in my language textbooks. So I finished lessons seven and eight of Colloquial Slovak – yay! – and I’ve decided to put that book aside for now. I’m having some real difficulties with it. I also completed two units of Teach Yourself Complete Spanish. I still haven’t finished NPCR 4 – I’m just being very lazy about it, haha.
• Go to Bratislava and use some Slovak. I did not make it to Bratislava last month; my friend and I made plans to go at the weekend but that fell through. However, I have to go there to pick up my mum from the airport and then drop her off again this week, so I know I’ll make it. This was a bit of a whimsical goal, so I’m not too worried that I didn’t manage it.
• Workout at least three times a week. Ha, I didn’t really do well at this again! I did manage it the second week, mainly because I started using a similar tracking system to Mariah’s over at Food, Booze, & Baggage. She’s made her updated version into a printable this month and I think, if I stick it on my wall above my laptop or something, then it might work out a little better.
• Blog at least once a week. Yesssssssssss! I hit this one out of the park last month – I posted 19 times, which was actually fewer than I meant to, but I don’t feel like it really took up an excessive amount of time. What I’m finding is that having posts in a series really helps to keep ideas going (my random Wednesday posts are hard to come up with, sometimes) and if I dedicate a few hours one day a week to getting organised, then it really doesn’t take too long. The most difficult posts are really the 6WC ones, as I write them up the night before to be posted around 10am my time, but they’re kind of short so not too bad. I hope I’ll manage to keep up a good schedule this month, too.
• Complete NaNoWriMo. No, nope, not even close. I think I wrote about 1200 words on the third day and then I just didn’t manage to do it again. I obviously wrote more than that for the month (see: 19 blog posts) but honestly, I didn’t dedicate enough time or mental space to NaNo this year. It’s a shame, because when I participate properly, I do enjoy it. Hopefully I’ll do it next year.

These were the blog posts from last month:

1. Review: New Flashsticks App
2. Clear the List: November 2015
3. My Experiences with the Tadoku Challenge
4. Review: Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner (and my new flashcard system!)
5. 6WC November 2015: Progress Report #001
6. 6WC November 2015: Progress Report #002
7. GCSE German #008: Topics – Holidays (Urlaub)
8. GCSE German #009: Topics – Home (Heimat)
9. 6WC November 2015: Progress Report #007
10. 6WC November 2015: Progress Report #005
11. 6WC November 2015: Progress Report #003
12. Kind 44 #003 | Die Suche nach einem Spion
13. 6WC November 2015: Halfway Progress Report
14. Kind 44 #001 | Die arme Katze!
15. Kind 44 #002 | Es gibt keine Kriminalität. Ach, wirklich?
16. 6WC November 2015: Progress Report #006
17. 6WC November 2015: Progress Report #004
18. GCSE German #011: Topics – School (Schule)
19. GCSE German #010: Topics – Environment (Umwelt)

And finally, here are my December goals!

• Study Slovak + the language of the day for 15m each up to the 12th, then the language of the day for 20m per day after. The 6WC finishes at midnight on the 12th, so I’ll go back to my routine of one language every four days. I am expecting to have some days where I don’t study, of course (3rd-8th, around Christmas/New Year), but this month is supposed to be low maintenance to get me all geared up for 2016!
• Complete the Instagram Language Challenge. Lindsay released the prompts for this month on the 23rd November and it looks so fun. I’ve already posted my first picture – can you guess what my theme is going to be? 😉
• Finish NPCR 4. That is my only goal for Mandarin. I was going to make December the month where I really focussed on the language, but no. I just need to finish this textbook. I need it done. I will do it!
• Read at least 10 ‘books’ for the Super Challenge in German. This round of the Super Challenge ends on the 31st December – and I have to say, I’ve been pretty lax about Mandarin and Spanish, but I’ve not done too badly for German. I have 29 ‘books’ (one book = 50 pages) left to read (so 1,450 pages), which comes out to a pretty achievable 47 pages per day – but I know I won’t read that much. I think I should manage a target of 10 books and it’ll keep my German going. I’m still going to log stuff for the other two languages, but there’s no way I’ll hit the goals for the both of them now.
• Complete two more units of Teach Yourself Complete Spanish. That will take me, according to the book, into the lower intermediate level – and it’ll mean I’ll only have eleven units to complete next year.
• Set up my goals and organise the blog for 2016. I think I have an idea of what I want my main goal(s) for the year to be (though one of them is hinging on me actually getting on with sorting some stuff out right now!); there’s been some stuff that’s been bugging me for a while and I want to try out. I want to have all my goals in place just after Christmas, because then I can do any necessary prep before the 1st Jan.
• Blog at least once a week. Last month’s posting schedule was great – so I need to see if I can keep it up. I’m going to keep this as a goal for this month, but I might get rid of it in January if I do a good job again. 🙂
• Workout at least three times a week. I bought some new trainers today so I might actually go running (it’s warmed up significantly this past week, which has helped – the gale-force winds have not) and I have my blogilates calendar ready for December. I’m also going to keep an eye on how many steps I’m walking and how much water I’m drinking, so I can set goals for those after this month.
• Remember to relax! I find December and January are very similar; there’s a rush to try and complete goals in the face of a new year, then a rush to have and begin goals after that new year begins. I have a lot of other things to focus on this month (Christmas shopping being a significant one) and I have to remember to weigh up what is important to me, especially for those two weeks when I’m home. If I have free time, then sure, I should study if I want to. But if I don’t want to, that’s okay too. There’ll be plenty of time come January.

Well, I’m not one to disappoint – that’s one long post, but then it is the last one of the year. I’m really excited to set those goals for January though! What are your goals for the last month of 2015?

And, as ever, if you fancy joining the Clear the List linkup, here are the rules:

1. Share your goal post whether it includes your aspirations for the month or year. Submissions unrelated to the theme or links to your homepage will be deleted.

2. Link back to this post. You can use our button if you wish.

3. Follow the hosts: Esther from Local Adventurer, Lindsay from Lindsay Does Languages, Mariah from Food, Booze & Baggage, and Shannon from Eurolinguiste.

4. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE: Please visit the site of the person who linked up immediately before you and leave them an encouraging comment! By hosting this linkup, we’re hoping to create a positive community where we can all share our goals. If you do not do this, you will be removed from the linkup.

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