Goals for 2018

Few days and we are into a new year. As every single person does, I also have goals for the upcoming year. Unlike last year, I am writing them down here so somewhere on my mind I would feel some type responsibility. I don't have problem sleeping enough or drinking lots of water. But one mistake I don't want to make is set goals that I will never accomplish, being realistic is my first goal on writing these.

1. Start Phd

I already have a PhD offer which I can conduct part-time. I might be deciding to switch to full-time if I can get into a good program with competitive payment. To chose the best one for myself, I am applying to good number of positions. By September 2018, the latest, I will have a better idea of what is actually happening and I will make sure to post them here.

2. Travel to 2 new countries

I was thinking for sometime all that I want to accomplish by the time I am 30. One goal is to visit min 10 new countries. If I can do min 2 a year, (assuming I will only need to travel for vacations and not for business trips or conferences) I can do this easily with a very limited budget.

3. 100 papers challenge

This is a tough one for me. Unfortunately, I am not a reading person. But for sometime now, I've been waking up at 5 am (an hour before I should to be at work) and with a clear mind I can focus on anything that would be challenging during the day. I wanted to think about 365 papers but it would not be realistic, at all!

4. 1 book a month

Besides 100 papers, I want to 10 pages of a book I am interested in which will eventually add up to 1 a month. For this I realized I need to set a time like reading articles.

5. Eat more iron

I am suffering from iron deficiency very often. I am not a fan of red meat and amount of iron you can get from spinach is also very limited at one serving size. I will try to come up with a solution for this one specifically. One important information I learned is not to take products with calcium with iron rich food and 5 times more iron is observed when iron is taken with vitamin C. By trying these I don't have to take pills which I am refusing for over a year now.

6. Move 3 times a week

I walk whenever I can but sometimes it doesn't count as an exercise. I am working on a stable schedule and classes for this.

7. Get married

Things didn't work out as planned so this got postponed to this year, but it looks very doable this year.

8. Buy an apartment

This one is little tricky because I still don't know what I want to do next year as a career. I am looking into this and with 1-3 years of mortgage, I can buy a 1 bedroom apartment myself. So to make it possible, I will say by the end of 2019, this way I have 2 years in total to save up and keep up with the economic situation world wide.

9. Try to earn more and spend less

I am keeping an excel sheet and writing my expenses on daily basis since last February. I know no problem of keeping track of how much I spend. Now that I am into a new job and leaving with my parents, I saved a lot more than I thought I would. To buy an apartment and to get married I need to be a lot more careful. I am considering freelancing or part-time tutoring.

10. Publish 2 papers

I don't know how I can manage this besides my full time job. I will have 1 from my master's thesis for sure and I have a few ideas for the second one. This goal will be fun to accomplish.

So, here are my goals and please remember to set goals that are realistic. I wish you an awesome 2018.