✨ Make only little plans

On making goals work for you (and your Goodreads followers). [READER]( The Daily Reader January 10, 2024 I’m trying to keep my goals for the new year modest. Of course, I love my big, lofty dreams. But I also want to see my goals through to fruition without burning out or feeling distraught about not accomplishing them two weeks into a new year. Nothing makes starting my work harder quite like the feeling that I’ve already failed. So I’m focused on finding ways to nourish the joy I get out of working towards goals rather than keeping my vision trained on the goal itself. Perhaps it helps that I’ve missed the (arbitrary, and perhaps lofty) reading goals I’ve set for myself on Goodreads several years in a row. I’ve found it’s much harder to finish a book when I remember how far I am from the finish line. Not that I’m short on finding distractions either. I often read books for research, which means it can take me a half hour to get through a single page—it’s easy for me to zero in on a detail and proceed to research that information on my phone, which inevitably leads me to spend more time looking at my phone than my book. So perhaps I should also spend more time reading fiction this year too. I especially want to keep all this in mind with my Reader work. The (ever-expanding) list of stories I want to write is too long and crowded for me to make a meaningful dent in. If I focus on a gargantuan goal (like completing a massive list of dream stories) for too long, I can very easily lose steam, which makes it that much more difficult to do the work in front of me. And often the work in front of me comes from the very list of dream stories. I am still figuring out my goals for the new year. I like to think they can be fluid, and liable to change in March or November, or dropped entirely. After all, I’m setting these goals for me and no one else—might as well make it easier to reach them. Sincerely, [“In the Shadow of the Holocaust,”]( by Masha Gessen (New Yorker) [“The Electric Kool-Aid Conservative,”]( by Osita Nwanevu (The New Republic) [“The List of Lists 2023,”]( by No Bells contributors (No Bells) NÜDE, [Pink]( Kikù Hibino, [Sky Trajectories]( Fugitive Bubble, [Delusion]( ❄️ Leor’s [“Second January 2024 playlist”]( playlist [Ausar helps map Chicago rap’s future with his debut album]( Plus: Eli Schmitt presents a teen-scene art show, footwork heirs DJ Corey and DJ Chad drop intense new records, and more. by [Tyra Nicole Triche]( and [Leor Galil]( | [Read more]( → [Chicago’s Sweet Bike build on emo’s recent past]( by [Leor Galil]( | [Read more]( → [Curator, musical code-switcher, YouTube sensation: Reginald Mobley is a countertenor for our time]( by [Hannah Edgar]( | [Read more]( → [Chicago punk outfit Fetishist reinvent themselves on Austerity Messiah]( by [Monica Kendrick]( | [Read more]( → We want to hear from you, music fan! Check out the BOC Music & Nightlife categories - voting ends at 11:59 PM on Sunday, January 14. Vote for best music festival, best house music DJ, best punk band, best venue for blues music, and more! [BOC 2023 MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE BALLOT]( [Issue of Dec. 29, 2023 – Jan. 10, 2024 Vol. 53, No.]( [VIEW / DOWNLOAD ISSUE [PDF]]( [View this e-mail as a web page]( [@chicago_reader]( [/chicagoreader]( [@chicago_reader]( [Chicago Reader on LinkedIn]( [/chicagoreader]( [chicagoreader.com]( [Forward this e-mail to a friend](. Want to change how you receive these e-mails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. Copyright © 2024 Chicago Reader, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616