Setting some goals for 2025

Rather than “resolutions”, I have an annual tradition of setting myself several specific, measurable goals that I can form new habits around across the year.

I set multiple separate targets so that if one of them goes off the rails, I can still succeed at something else and not get too down beat about it. I track all the goals online so that anyone that knows me can nudge me to get back on track.

I already have a sense that 2025 is going to be the most demanding year yet, between work and an ongoing, all-consuming dispute with our freeholder and management company that is probably going to end up in court. I also have an idea for an enormous project that I want to be the main focus of my spare time already; and that project doesn’t lend itself to this kind of goal tracking.

Accordingly, I am dialling back my ambitions a little bit and setting myself some goals that I’m confident I can manage on top of what will certainly be a hectic work-life balance.

My goals for 2025

1. Weeknote

Giles has given me the bug for doing weeknotes. Last year, in spurts, I started to weeknote and this year I’m going to have a real crack at doing it every week.

Success measure: Publish a weeknote every week

2. Share

Last year, I started to share a variety of new types of blog post on my website; notes, lists, music, games, replies, reposts, weeknotes, and ‘now’ posts. That enabled me to be a bit less uptight about maintaining a perfect walled-garden and instead to re-wild my online presence.

This year, I’m going to continue to POSSE¹, aiming to publish at least one thing on my website every week in the same way I would have done on centralised social media siloes.

Success measure: Share something on my website once a week

3. Exercise

This year I am changing my fitness goal to be a bit tougher.

Instead of closing my “Activity Rings” in general terms, I am only going to count intentional, serious exercise towards my goals this year. I want to go for a run, hit the gym, do some weights, go bouldering or some other kind of more intensive workout at least 4 times a week.

Success measure: Exercise for at least 30 minutes an average of 4 times a week (and going for a walk doesn’t count)

4. Save

I’ve been trying to put money aside for a rainy day ever since I started to track these goals.

Now that I have a mortgage rather than renting, and enough put aside for a rainy day in my bank account already, it actually makes very little sense to put money into a savings account. Even with interest rates on savings accounts much higher than my mortgage rate (I was lucky and locked in a 2% rate before the rates hikes started), I’m still earning a pittence on savings and paying a tonne in mortgage interest. So, I am going to switch gears.

Instead of putting cash into a saving’s account, I’m going to treat my mortgage as a savings account. I’m going plow every spare penny I have this year directly into my mortgage instead.

Success measure: Overpay on my mortgage by at least £5,000

Off we go!

So those are my slightly less ambitious goals for the year ahead. Onwards!

You can follow my progress with my goals by visiting my goals dashboard.