Summer Goals

One of the wonderful things about being home for the summer is that I can finally actually get some reading and writing done. I read Entwined (by Heather Dixon) the other day, and it was the first YA novel I’d read in nearly a year. I also read Shakespeare’s Coriolanus (because Tom Hiddleston is performing in the title role this fall in London) Maybe it’s silly to read another classic, just like what I’ve been studying at university all year, but it’s still nice to read it for personal pleasure, rather than for a class.

With eleven weeks of summer ahead of me, I’ve decided to set some goals to make the most out of my PEI vacation. I’ll be working full time at the library and hanging out with friends, but that should still leave time for plenty of reading, writing, and enjoying what PEI has to offer.

To make sure I don’t spend the summer on Facebook, I’ve set some SMART goals under the general headings of Reading, Writing, and PEI. You possibly know that SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely, and I find the acronym helpful for setting goals that actually have a chance of getting completed.

Under Reading, my goals are very simple. I’d like to read ten Shakespeare plays (and watch the film versions) and at least fifteen YA novels. I’ll likely read more than this, but with a relatively low goal I know I won’t end up spending the last week of August frantically reading ten novels simply to meet an arbitrary limit.

Beyond excited for this play!

Writing goals were a little more difficult to define. I have two major projects I’m working on (a novel and a play) and while I’d love to finish them both, I doubt I’ll have the time in just two months. Writing is also dangerous to measure by output, especially since I’ve never written a play before and I have no idea what sort of speed I can expect. So, I’ve decided to measure my writing goals by time, spending five hours a week, with at least fifteen minutes a day. I’ll also write book reviews for every novel I read and blog twice a week, which doesn’t count under this time limit.

Finally, since this may be the last summer I spend at home, I’ve decided to take advantage of what PEI has to offer. There’s an amazing theatre community here, so I’ve made up my mind to see at least five shows, whether that be a professional musical like Anne of Green Gables, or a smaller comedy my friends are starring in. I also want to visit two places (beaches, hiking trails, tourist sites) that I’ve never visited before, because even though I’ve lived here for seventeen years there are so many places I’ve never seen.

Those are my goals for the summer. Hopefully they’re all SMART, and I’ll actually end up reaching them. It would be refreshing to look back at the end of the summer and see how much I’ve accomplished.

Now, over to you. What are your summer goals? How do you plan to reach them?