Nirupama P.R.V.'s Blog: Catty Opinions of a Book Loving Couch Potato, page 7

Monday Motivation

The journey of a lifetime begins with the turning of a page.

Monday Motivation

Reading Challenge 2021- January

A new month and ur’s time to take stock of how I fared on my Goodreads 2021 Reading Challenge.

This is what my metrics look like:

But if I look at it from a reading perspective, I have to say I have done a bit poorly.

Mathematically, I needed to finish 2.5 books. That’s a miss.

Besides, of the two books that I read, one was an extremely short one. It was not even what I thought it was. The book in question is:

I thought it was cool Twitter techniques for actual projects we do in real life- like how to showcase reading, arts and crafts. Turns out, it was actual arts and crafts based on some Twitter hashtags and principles.

I did not expect that at all- it taught me to be more careful in my choices.

But all was not lost, I learned clever ideas for fun crafts to do with the kiddos. Yay!

My second read was the splendid book by Wendy Sachs titled Fearless and Free. It was very motivational and practical and just the sort of self-help book to begin 2021 with. It was amazing!

Lessons Learned from January Reading:Consistency pays off. Keep reading and ramp up if possible to continue to stay on track.Read the Book Jacket more closely; so I don’t end up not having time for books I did want to read. My TBR is Huuuuge at the moment.Add reviews immediately so I don’t forget all the amazing nuggets of information from the books read.Questions of the Week:Are you doing a Reading Challenge this year? Regardless, how many books do you plan to read?How is your Reading coming along? What did you enjoy reading this month? What does your TBR look like?

Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Monday Motivation

9 Years of Blogging and Huge Inspiration

WordPress sent me this badge yesterday.

9years!! I was amazed!

Time truly flies!

I started blogging as a way to hone my writing skills. Little did I know that it would blossom into a community of like minded readers and writers and a fabulous outlet for my voice!

Thanks to all the readers who made this possible. My journey has been fantastic all because of you.

Every year, this notification of my Anniversary serves as a happy reminder that with every worthy lofty task, the important thing is to simply start. Don’t let overthinking prevent you from taking action.

This year, the Anniversary notification comes with an added meaning for me.

The past year was hard for all of us. But we can’t simply allow it to define us. I mean, look at the calendar. It seems like we were just yesterday celebrating the beginning of a new year and happily trying to put 2020 behind us. And voila! January has almost ended.

I am taking this 9year reminder to be my motivator- telling me that with small consistent steps I can achieve large goals! It all starts with a simple belief and steady effort!

What are you planning for this year? What goal are you looking to crush?

Here’s to making 2021 and beyond the best!

Monday Motivation

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower 
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 
And Eternity in an hour

– william blake

Monday Motivation

Blog Year 2020- Review and Lessons

Hey everyone, how is the first fortnight of the new year coming along?

I for one, am still assessing 2020 and planning for 2021. With my reading for the past year analyzed and chalked out for 2021, it’s time to grade how this blog fared in the past year!

I love doing that because it helps me feel happy about what I accomplished and sets the tone for what I can actually achieve in the weeks ahead.

And with the in-built stats section in WordPress, it’s easy too!

I always check the basic metrics first:

Views

It might not look it, but I actually surpassed my best year (2017) for views last year! Hurrah!

Clearly with the pandemic, people were spending more time online and it helped me too!

Thanks for spending your precious time on this blog- I have lots of good stuff coming up this year too!

Visitors

My blog garnered the highest number of visitors last year, and for that I am grateful. Thank you dear readers!

Cross pollination or not, I always am thankful that people visited my blog.

Likes

Again a splendid year as far as Likes go! Yippee!!

Comments

Unfortunately, despite a better year that the previous, it was not my best year at all!

This segment definitely calls for more attention and I am going to work very hard to improve this engagement related metric.

I do add posts that are entertainment and inspiration based, so Likes are probably a more apt response. But even then, my goal is to focus on this indicator too!

Audience

As far as locations of readers go, the highest viewers came from these nations:

It’s always cool to see folks from so many nationalities.

Thanks, Dhanyavad, Dank, Merci, Kiitos, Cheers mate, Multumiri, Go Raibh maith agat!

Referrers

As far as being referred goes, my audience came mostly from followers on WordPress.

This year, I also was happily able to have folks come over from my Twitter and Medium accounts. A steady trickle also came from the Book Review challenge participation over at Great New Reads.

Needless to say, I plan to put more effort into these cross channel activities.

Posts

My top performing posts of the year were as follows:

The top 5 were not even written in 2020 but were perennial favorites linked to my top tags. They also are added on my About Page and continue to bring in more views and engagement. Clearly, an About Me page is super valuable.

The Book Blog challenge was another source of recurring views – it led me to believe that consistent thematic posts work in this blog.

Facts and Figures

In 2020, I posted 107 times.

Considering I posted every day in September, it comes to about roughly five times a month.

Yayy!!

My goal was to be consistent and post more than 75 times- I did it!!!

Plans for 2021

In the light of all these insights, here are my goals for this blog this year:

Post twice a week- including Monday Motivation photo postsExceed 2020 metrics this yearAdd the Book Reviews posts more promptlyCross pollinate from Twitter and MediumImprove comments and engagement

These are my insights from the annual review of this blog.

Do you assess your writing efforts in January? (Or annually)

What lessons did you learn from 2020? And what are you excited for in 2021?

Share your goals in the comments below.

Monday Motivation

Indian Symmetric Art- let your imagination soar!

Year In Review – 2020 Reading

Hey everyone!

How’s the week and the brand new year shaping up? Hopefully the days so far have been good with the promise of a year better than the last.

In today’s post, I am sharing my favorite activity as a bookworm- a review of my year in Reading!

It’s fun and more importantly, it helps me assess how best to read better in the year ahead.

I personally use Goodreads- specifically the Goodreads app.

They have a whole section that packs the insights of all the years you have been on the Goodreads Challenge- thus, making it simple to see what worked or didn’t.

For instance, I aced my challenge last year.

With coronavirus going about, my reading shot up. I was (contrary to my initial thoughts) able to read more than I usually do and ace my reading target.

The last year totally debunked my mid year assumption that I would not be able to because of my infant/ toddler and the challenges of assisting my older child with her remote learning.

The books I read were pretty engaging too! My average rating was 4.7

Where I did slide down was the length of books.

This was not surprising at all because I read a lot of short books and illustrations this year.

Goodreads shows the longest and shortest read of the year and this is what I found:

The highest rated book I read is also a fun data point that Goodreads provides:

As far as most popular book goes, my choice is an obvious one.

I read across different genres and styles too! Illustrations, historical romances, epistolary, humor, drama, non fiction- I covered quite some ground. A look at the books that occupied my time.

As for this year, this is what my reading challenge looks like:

What about you, my dear readers?

Do you keep reading goals?

If yes, how do you track your reading? Do you review your year in Reading?

What surprises or delights or astounds you?

Have a great weekend ahead! Happy Reading!