I recently graduated from university, and now with more time on my hands, I've been reflecting on what I want to do and accomplish in the coming months. First, I identified 4 areas of focus in my life at the moment. Then, I chose some goals I want to achieve in each of these areas. Finally, I came up with some recurring micro-goals (I also like to call them habits) that will help me towards those other bigger goals.

Area of focus #1: Health and Wellness

After having neglected it for a long time, recently I've been working on giving this area the attention it deserves in my life.

• Non-measurable goal #1: Wake up with more energy in the mornings.
• Non-measurable goal #2: Spend more quality time with friends and family.

• Measurable goal #1: Lose 2 kilos (4.4 pounds) per month for 6 months.

• Habit #1: Go to bed at 11 pm and wake up at 7:30 am every day. Develop a solid morning and evening routine.
• Habit #2: Exercise every day for at least 30 minutes (ideally in the morning, right after waking up).
• Habit #3: Close my activity rings every day (burn 600 kcal, exercise 30 min and stand 12 hours for 1 min each hour).
• Habit #4: Drink at least 2 liters of water every day.
• Habit #5: Read for at least 30 min every day before going to sleep (as it helps me fall asleep faster).

Area of focus #2: Thesis

I've already been writing my thesis for a few months, so my goals here are very straightforward.

• Measurable goal #1: Finish the final draft by the end of January.

• Habit #1: Work on my thesis every day for an average of 4 hours (or 28 hours per week).

Area of focus #3: Languages

I'm currently learning two languages, English and Mandarin. However, I'll start learning German next year, so my goals in this area will inevitably change then.

1. Language #1: Mandarin Chinese

• Non-measurable goal #1: Improve my conversational skills - Naturally, I want to improve my reading, listening and writing skills as well, but speaking is by far the hardest for me right now.

• Measurable goal #1: Learn 300 new words by the end of December (as part of the Hacking Chinese vocab challenge).
• Measurable goal #2: Spend 25 hours in December learning or reviewing vocabulary (also as part of the vocab challenge).
• Measurable goal #3: Finish watching Detective L (Chinese drama) by the end of December.
• Measurable goal #4: Finish reading Chinese Stories for language learners (Chinese graded reader) by the end of January.

• Habit #1: Spend 30 minutes every day reviewing or learning new vocabulary.
• Habit #2: Read in Chinese every day for an average of 20 min (or 2.33 hours per week).
• Habit #3: Listen to Chinese podcasts (while doing other activities) every day for an average of 30 min (or 3.5 hours per week)
• Habit #4: Have 1 conversational Mandarin lesson every week.

2. Language #2: English

I already talked about my English learning goals in a different post, so here is the summary.

• Non-measurable goal #1: Feel comfortable when having a long spontaneous conversation.
• Non-measurable goal #2: Be able to speak with a high level of accuracy.
• Non-measurable goal #3: Be able to write confidently and without relying on external help

• Habit #1: Write 1 blog post every week (about 2 hours per week on writing).
• Habit #2: Read a book in English every day for an average of 30 min (this is the same as Habit #5 in "Health and Wellness" since I usually only read books in English anyways).
• Habit #3: Save and review new vocabulary every week.
• Habit #4: Have 1 conversational English lesson every week.

Area of focus #4: Social media

This year I created a Studygram account to keep track of my language studies and to share my experience and tips with the language learning community. I also created a website to collect all my favorite language learning resources, with the potential of becoming a blog in the future.

• Habit #1: Make two quality IG posts every week (I estimate about 4 hours per week).
• Habit #2: Post at least two IG stories every day.
• Habit #3: Spend 1 hour every week testing and adding new resources to my Chinese resources list.