2017 is gonna be exciting

Now that I have written my new year’s resolutions for 2017, I must say, 2017 is going to be exciting. I am starting school again, becoming a graduate student at NUS and working at the same time. It’s going to be hectic, which means less TV, less video games, less everything. But I am going to promise myself that I am going to focus on my work, work hard and play hard at the same time. Time managment is key, but I should be fine.

I am also telling myself to read even more this time round. Not in terms of the number of novels I am challenging myself to read for 2017, but of the usual sources of news articles and long form journalism, such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, National Geographic, and a new addition, The Economist, which I recently subscribed. I managed to snag a cheap introductory subscription rate, at just USD12 for 12 weeks. It’s a good start, and I have always been hesitant to fully commit myself to a year’s worth of subscription for The Economist. It’s just so expensive, and I don’t know if I am going to extract any benefit out of making a habit to read that magazine. Although I know that it is one of the most well known magazine in the world in terms of excellent reporting of current affairs, business and economics, but this introductory offer is a great way to tell if I would ultimately enjoy reading it in the long term.

The subscription also gives me access to their archives, but I am not going to focus on that right now and just stick to reading the latest issue on a weekly basis. So far I have read their recent Christmas Double Issue released during the christmas week, and so far, it’s been an enjoyable read. But the bigger question is whether I have the time to cram reading NYT, New Yorker and Economist and keep up with the issues, especially New Yorker and Economist, since they release new issues every week. I have to come to realise that it is sometimes not feasible to read the magazines front to end, meaning to read every article printed in the magazine. The key is to read what you understand and what is relevant to you and that it is perfectly ok to skip those articles that just simply doesnt interest you in any way. I will have to start this habit, so that I can read more articles that are of great relevance to me. In other words, quality over quantity.

And because I am reading so many articles on a daily basis, which I need to enforce this habit of mine, I will have no choice but to cut myself some slack on Goodreads’s Reading Challenge. Last year, I challenged myself to read 24 books. I made it, at the eleventh hour, completing my 24th book 3 days before the end of 2016. But I made it nonetheless, another New Year’s Resolution that I set myself in 2016 achieved at long last. This year however, I plan to read about 16 books, thats roughly 4 books a quarter. I think that should suffice. I would love to read more, but I have to juggle work and school and a million other things in my life, I feel that 24 books is a tad ambitious for 2017. But that doesnt mean that I stop at 16. If fortunes are on my side, I could eventually hit that target that even exceed it. That would be great news down the road. You should never stop doing what you are most passionate about.