We’re still at the start of 2026, so I believe it’s customary to go and review 2025. I’m going to do it with a series of numbers that I was kind of working towards for the year. Loosely, anyway!
Drawing
One of the most obvious targets on the blog, I added 300 posts to the category for 2025. That’s not bad. It’s four posts fewer than in 2024, but I relaxed my goals for 2025 and still pretty much hit the same numbers. Looking at last year’s rules, I think I managed the 4 out of every rolling 7, but I did buy a new pen and I didn’t make it to a life drawing session or Urban Oxford. I’ll take it.
More importantly, I got some pictures done that I’m pretty proud of, and I felt that my Inktober images were some of my best yet. Not too shabby!
I’m going to continue with the same goals as last year. Maybe this year I’ll manage all of them!
Running
I was really consistent with my running last year, and managed a grand total of 385 miles (roughly 620km). That’s not a huge total, but it’s the most I’ve managed in a long time and the most ever with no single run longer than 10k. The previous year was only 203 miles! (I use Fetcheveryone to log, not Strava.)
I was hoping not to buy any more gear, but I did buy a new pair of trainers just in case because mine are almost dead (still not actually worn those yet!). I also ended up buying a new Smartwool longsleeve top, because my old Icebreaker ones just felt slightly too short in the body.
This year I’m starting with a really good base, so hopefully I can continue to plod for a few more miles this year.
Steps
Related, but last year I got more serious about my daily step count. I’ve gone back and forth on bothering about this, but I’ve settled on a low daily goal of 5,000 that I view as a minimum requirement. If I set it higher, there’s a good chance I just won’t even try, so that’s where I’m at. Last year I apparently managed a total of 2,657,840 measured steps, which averages out at 7,282 per day (rounding up). That’s ok.
I think this year could potentially be higher, because January and February last year weren’t great. We’ll see!
Books
I’ve started reading in the morning with my cup of tea instead of scrolling on my phone. This year I tried to read all the books I’ve had lying around the house as a loose to be read pile, and I got a lot from the library. There were a couple of rereads too. The total was 51 for the year, according to Storygraph, which is more than I’ve read in a long time.
I did get through most of the unread paperbacks, and set quite a lot of them free in the local little library, so that’s been fun! Some were definitely better than others. I should probably wrap that up separately though.
Along the way I picked up a lot more books from my parents, and there are always more in the library. This year’s aim is just to carry on enjoying my reading!
Amazon Purchases
Sort of related? But at some point in 2024 my money-tracking app decided that I had a regular payment to Amazon, and I decided that it’d gone too far. I set out to really scale back my purchases in general, but particularly my Amazon purchases (and cancelled Prime).
I still made 14 orders last year, although that includes Kindle books and household purchases. I bought a few books for travelling, Kindle is still easier than hard copy for that. But compared to the 52(?!!) I made in 2024, I would say that’s pretty successful.
Can I beat it this year? Guess we’ll see!
…Overall?
2025 was pretty good across the board for my goals last year. I’ll have to see how we go this year!
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