Reviewing my progress against my 2023 goals

This is the sixth year I’ve been setting and publicly tracking a set of goals for the year ahead.

Like previous in years, I’ve set a few different ones; each that were specific, measurable and time-bound. ‘Success’ is defined as achieving 80% or more of the goal. This year there were five:

1. save some money
2. repay my student loan
3. write more
4. close my activity rings
5. weigh less

How did I do?

TL;DR – Success!

This year is only the second time I’ve met more than 80% of my goals overall. Four out of the five goals I set myself were completed to at least 80% each.

1. Save some money

At the start of the year I set myself an objective to save £5,000. The numbers get a bit fuzzy around the edges because I’ve moved banks this year, but I think I’ve ended the year with somewhere around £4,700 more saved than I started with. A chunk of that is tied up in overpayments on my mortgage, but I think that counts!

2. Repay my student loan

With interest rates creeping up this year, my student loan interest rate went through the roof too. Every day I waited to pay it off through payroll was another day I was paying 6% interest. I would have paid off the loan sometime in this year anyway, but paying it off early meant avoiding the interest. So I used a chunk of my existing savings to repay the final amount off, and I am no longer indebted to the state!¹

3. Write more

It’s a recurring goal for me to write at least a blog post a month. This year I’ve written 10 of them, including this one; just shy of the target of 12.

4. Close my activity rings

My goal was to simply fill the activity rings on my Apple Watch, as a crude measure of remaining active. That means I had to:

1. Move to burn for 500 ‘active’ calories each day
2. Exercise for 30 minutes each day
3. Stand for 1 minute every hour for 12 hours each day

I filled 735 individual activity rings this year; 84% of the target. I managed that despite having several bouts of illness this year – some of which I’m fairly sure were Covid (again!).

5. Lose weight

I was aiming to lose weight overall this year, and I have done that; kind of. A little. Where I’ve lost fat though, I think I’ve put weight back on again thanks to my new exercise regime and a tiny bit of muscle.

Do it again

2023 is a success, by these crude measures. At least 80% of goals, at least 80% complete before the deadline.

Let’s see if I can keep it up for 2024.

You can see my progress with this year’s goals by visiting my goals dashboard.