Top Ten Tuesday - 2014 Resolutions

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme from The Broke and the Bookish in which they post a book-related top ten every - you guessed it! - Tuesday.

This week the theme is Top Ten Goals/Resolutions for 2014.

I've chosen to focus on reading/blog related goals, though I'll toss in a few non-book ones:

1. Read 150 books. I've signed up for the 50 Book Pledge so you can follow my progress here.

2. Research upcoming titles so I can be more thoughtful about selecting books for review. I've avoided this in the past because I tend to want every book I read about, but as I review more and more, I'd like to think that I'm becoming more discerning. An increased awareness of what's coming onto the market will, I think, improve my ability to select and review books overall.

3. Read at least three books every month just for me. It's easy to get bogged down by books I've committed to reviewing for the blog. 

4. Expand my blog's purview to include a regular feature, as well as participating in at least one feature hosted by another blog every week. I want to post an opinion piece, possibly on a bi-weekly basis, as well as participating in Top Ten Tuesdays, Stacking the Shelves and whatever else I discover that interests me.

5. Finalize and update my blog's graphics. I do have someone working on a banner but there's been a delay. Time to either go a different route or try to push past the delay.

6. Visit at least five new blogs each week (in addition to those visited as part of the above mentioned link up feature). I usually do this, but I'd like to be more systematic, take notes on what I find that I like or don't, and learn as much as I can about blogging.

7. Increase overall quality of reviews - take more notes while reading, more careful editing, more thoughtful thoughts. 

8. Create an action plan for promoting my blog to increase my number of followers and make my blog more attractive to sources of review copies. Because I don't host author interviews or giveaways which I imagine are generally a good way to draw in new and repeated readers, I need to think carefully about what else I can do.

And two that are not blog/reading related:

9. Increase my level of physical activity so that my overall health will improve. 

10. Be more conscious about organizing and maintaining my home.

What are your resolutions? Any advice for me about achieving mine?