How are the additional hobbies going?

I had decided to start these new(ish) hobbies last year, but it was at the start of this year that I properly set everything up to make it easier for me to do them consistently.  Including putting together a little tracker in my diary for most of them so that I could tick off when I did them.  It's only been a couple of months but this is how they're going so far.

Skateboarding - this is still taking a little while to get myself into actually doing it and that's probably because it's something I have to do in front of other people which always makes me uncomfortable.  There's also quite a big possibility of me hurting myself, which I always worry about as it could affect my ability to do my job.  However, if I want to learn this skill I do need to get over that, especially as I could also hurt myself just tripping on a pavement.  I usually wait until my husband is off on the same day as me so we can do it together, but that has led to there being very few times available to do it so I've stopped doing that and now just go out on my own on Saturday mornings, with my bike helmet on regardless of how it looks.  I do feel that I am beginning to get the feel of it a little bit more.

Flute practice - I've been managing to practice this around once a week.  Obviously more often would be better and as I get more into the swing of it I'll probably try practicing on the weekends as well.  It's really just finding the time to fit everything in.  It is beginning to come back to me, but it's still frustrating to not be able to play how I used to.  I'm going to give myself until the end of this year to see if I want to keep going or not.  At least I can now string a song a long, even if it's not particularly well.

Drawing - again I have managed to get this in about once a week.  At the moment I'm just practicing drawing the shapes that become animals from a book I brought on how to draw Kawaii animals.  However, I do want to start being able to do this on my own and I think I might need to look a little more into the reasons behind each shape that then becomes a being.  I also want to look a little more into how to actually draw the human shape if this is going to lead to where I hope it will, so I'll need to find something on that as well.  Again, I'm giving myself until the end of the year to see how this goes and after that, I'll decide if I want to keep going.

Board games - we actually haven't really done this that often.  In fact, it had gotten to the end of January and we'd only actually played some games once.  So we decided we needed to make an actual effort and place the games in an area that was right in front of us, and now we are playing board games once a week as planned.

Reading - this is another thing that had already started to fall to the wayside before the end of January even came around.  I realised that it was partly because I wasn't making time for it like I should have been, but also partly because I hadn't given myself the variety of things I usually like to have when I'm reading.  So I've added a non-fiction book into the mix and the wildlife magazines I keep forgetting about and this has made things a lot more appealing.  I might not be getting through as many individual books but I am getting the variety that I like and, in the long run, it'll actually lead to more books being read than before.

I am hoping that having a tracker I can keep ticking will lead to a number of these hobbies becoming habits.  Unfortunately, it wasn't working particularly well to begin with, but now that I've made the rule that I'm not allowed to miss any of these two times in a row that has made all the difference in making me keep up with what I want to do.  It may seem a little bit weird to do this with hobbies, but if I don't make time for them it's very likely that I'll never do any of them.  There are a lot of hobbies I would like to try and do and if I keep on not doing any of them I'll always wondering about them and my abilities.  This way I can keep trying new things, seeing if they are something I can take to, and then making a decision to keep doing them or not.  At least this way I'll actually know.

Goals 2023 Update #4

It wasn't the most effective year this year when it came to reaching my goals and normally I do much better at these.  However, this year definitely feels like it's been one of those years in every respect, which means I'm not really too surprised by the outcome.  This is how it went.

Financial

• Four months emergency fund - on this we reached our 2023 goal and then some.  In fact, we've actually almost reached half our savings amount.  This is a pretty good achievement and I am happy about it despite knowing that we could have done better had we been stricter.
• Sinking funds - all of these were reached and we have been happily using them for their intended purposes.   This time of year has made it very clear how good it is to have your Christmas sinking fund all saved up as we've been able to spend without having to worry about how we're going to afford it all.
• Pension and personal spending - I reached my goal this year of putting 12.5% of each pay cheque into my pension scheme, which is good.  I just need to set up my pension with my new employee so that it automatically comes out of my wage without me having to do anything additional.  And that now ends the good streak moving us neatly onto our personal spending.  This definitely hasn't been great, for either of us, and it's something we'll need to work on over the next year if we want to reach our long-term goal.
• Changing my bank account - I still haven't gotten around to this, even though I know who I think I should change it to.  I am basically just being lazy about this, but there are some things I'm concerned about when it comes to moving to this bank.  I think I just need to write down a list of what they are and then research them instead of just putting it off.
• Secondary income - this has been on the back burner for now as I haven't really had the time or headspace to think about it properly.  This is something else to look at over the coming year.

Learning A New Skill

• Skateboarding - we did manage to fit some skateboarding in this year, but not as much as we had originally planned so I'm still not particularly good at this just yet.  Though at least I'm better than I was at the start.
• Surfing - we did have a lesson a little while ago and were told that we were good enough to practice on our own for a while until we felt it was time to go to the next level when we would need an additional lesson.  However, we haven't actually gotten around to that yet, partly because we find it difficult to find days off together that match and partly because on those days we're a little lazy.  Really I just need to be a little bit more organised.
• Sailing - this is still on the back burner whilst we learn other skills and save up to be able to afford the lessons.  As we do have other savings goals right now which are more of a priority it'll need to wait.

So not quite the year I was hoping for but we still haven't done too badly either and you can't have good years every year.  I also, perhaps, put a little bit too much on myself to accomplish this year anyway.  However, despite not completing everything we are still moving forward and that's a good thing.  I've also learnt some lessons which I can carry forward onto the next year.  One of the main reasons for not succeeding in the number of these goals was not properly organising my time, and that's a good lesson in itself.  Now I need to think about what I want to do next year, which will probably be along the same lines as this year but maybe with just a bit more teeth behind it.

New Hobbies and When Am I Going to Do Them

I do quite a lot of crafting at the moment and I really enjoy it, but for a while now there have been other things that I have wanted to add to my hobby time.  This is partly because there are so many things I want to learn or relearn how to do and partly because I know that developing new skills is a good way to keep my brain nice and healthy.  Although I do knit or sew in the evenings, we also have the TV on quite a lot of the time and whilst this is fine, we often find we've just turned it on out of habit and can't really think of anything we actually want to watch.  In the end, we usually just end up watching the same things over again.  At the end of the day, there are other things I could be doing.

Firstly there's the ever-present learning how to skateboard and surf.  These are both just things that Ed and me are learning for fun (or in his case relearning when it comes to skateboarding) we really haven't bothered to make the time to actually do them.  We do have to wait until we both have time off together, but that just means that we need to prioritise them when our days do coincide.  Theoretically, that shouldn't be that hard to do.

I had my flute looked at and fixed last month and I've decided that, instead of giving it away or selling it, I would like to try and learn how to play it again.  Unfortunately, because I've been ill I haven't played it as much as I had hoped, but I have managed to fit in a couple of sections.  It is strange how natural it feels to be holding the instrument again, but also alien in the fact that I'm having to start from scratch again.  It would be good to put aside one hour a week to practice this, which could end up being very unfortunate for my neighbours.

Like most people, I drew a lot when I was little and haven't really drawn at all as an adult.  I do remember enjoying it and, even though I'm not sure how good I would actually be at it, it would be good to try it again.  I'm thinking about trying different styles from what I used to do and, if it feels like it's going well, I might actually try painting again as well.  As with the flute playing it would be good to put aside at least one hour a week to practice this.

Playing board games is something that Ed and me used to love doing in the past, especially when we had no TV and a limited amount of lighting.  Even though we do take them with us when we go on holiday, we don't really play them that much and it's a shame to keep them all if we're not actually going to use them.  It would also be a good excuse for us to spend some quality time together, at least once a week, as our different work rotas mean that we don't actually get to spend that much time together.

Reading is one of those big ones that I always want to do more of but just don't put aside the time to actually do.  And I have books piling up that I want to read, both physically and on my wish list.  There is no real excuse, I'm just not making it a priority and I could realistically spend some time every evening reading quite easily.

Really this is about dedicating specific time to each of these hobbies every week and then keeping to it until they become a habit.  Right now I can do these during the day as it'll be a little while before my new job starts, but when it does start I want to try and fit these into the evenings.  So, this is the plan: I'm going to practice my flute for one hour on Tuesday night (though that does mean that my poor husband has to listen to me attempting to play), practice drawing for one hour on Wednesday night, and then Thursdays will be our board game /date night.  We'll skateboard or surf whenever we have days off together.  As for the reading, my plan is to start getting ready for bed at around 10pm and have reading as the last thing that I do, so that should give me about 30 minutes a day.  I haven't actually been the most organised recently so it should actually be quite easy to fit these in with a bit of planning.  I also have the weekends when Ed is working to fit in these hobbies on weeks when I haven't been able to fit them in for some reason, or to spend extra time on them if I want to.