Setting Up For A Book No-Buy Year

 It's no secret, especially to the people who know me personally, that I love books.  Last year I read over 60 books (I just looked it up, the average American, whatever that means, reads 12.6 books per year... I don't know what I thought the average would be, but that is pretty darn low).  One thing that afflicts many heavy readers is the collection of books in our personal libraries that never get read.  I am 100% guilty of a large TBR pile.  This is the year I want to make a concerted effort to make this situation better.

Right now, my collection of books fits in my home office, which is great.  I don't want my collection to expand beyond these confines.  But that's the thing... my physical collection of books is fairly manageable... my digital collection, however, is a different story... don't check my Audible or Kindle lists...

Over the years, I have heard of people starting a no-buy or low-spend year for either particular areas of their lives or all areas of their lives.  I love the idea of using what we have before getting a new thing, appreciating what we have, and paring down the belongings we own.  I don't think I can ever be a true minimalist, but perhaps I can be a better minimalist when it comes to my personal collection of books.

The Mission: Forego buying any books (physical or digital) for the year of 2024!

Why do I want to go to the trouble of having a no-buy year for books?

1. So I read more of the books I have that have been gathering physical or digital dust
2. So I can save money and/or re-allocate money I would have spent on books somewhere else
3. So I can declutter my belongings

How I Prepared

1. 
   Reorganizing and Decluttering.  This is mainly for my physical books.  I went through all of the books in my office and took them off the shelves.  First, I took out the books that I have read and don't want to keep in my office anymore.  These books will go to my classroom.  I think a number of them I took from my classroom library in the first place, so they're going home.  Then, I sorted through the books that I have not read.  All of those books have been relocated to one area.  That way, I don't have to go on a hunt for the books that I haven't read.  I'm taking the guesswork out of things.  I have a small pile of physical library books from the public library and the school library and those now have a designated place in my office.  In the photos on the right, all of the books in the top photo have not been read and in the bottom photo, the top shelf and most of the lower standing books are all candidates for me to read this year!  This practice also helped me get rid of duplicates that had been taking up space on my shelves.  
   
   
2. Create a physical list of all the books I own and have not read.  I did this in my bullet journal.  There's a list of all of my physical books, eBooks, and audiobooks on separate lists.  This was honestly so eye-opening for me because it made me realize the true extent of my book-hoarding issue.  I have a good number of physical books that I haven't read, but they're quite contained.  The danger for me lies in my digital books.  Holy cow, I have acquired so many eBooks over the years and a vast number of audiobooks too.  In all, across all modes but not including books I have in more than one medium, I have 279 books that I have not read yet.  This helped me go back to the rules that I wrote and be more strict on the limits I put on myself.  For example, I was going to allow myself to borrow books from the library freely-- I'm not spending money on those books, after all.  But I have access to so many books.  It will take me years to read through all of them.  There's no reason for me to bring in a lot of new titles.
   
   
3. Create smaller, monthly TBRs.  This will help me prioritize what I own and allow me to keep these books at my fingertips-- I'm creating a path of least resistance.  I think this will make the task of reading my books a little less overwhelming than staring at a wall of unfinished books constantly.

The Rules

One aspect of a No-Buy year is to create lists of things that are okay to buy, exceptions to this mission, and hard boundaries to achieve my goals in starting a book no-buy year in the first place.

Green Light: Book Purchases and Acquirements I Can Make

• Any books bought or pre-ordered prior to the start of 2024 are fair game (that being said, I did not treat this as permission to go wild).

Yellow Light: Limits and Exceptions for Book Purchases and Acquirements

• Presents for others, thoughtfully gifted (thrifted books as much as possible).  The only occasions where this can happen are birthdays and Christmas.  I want to avoid "just because" gifts of books.
• I can enter contests for books as long as I don't have to pay for them.  The odds of me actually winning these drawings are very, very slim.  I'm thinking particularly of GoodReads for this.
• I can buy a book if I need it for work or a class.  First though, I must check the library to see if it's available within a week or two there.  If it's not, I can opt for a digital copy.  If a digital copy isn't available, then a hard copy can be acquired (secondhand as often as possible).
• Request books on NetGalley if I have immediate plans and desires to read that book.  I don't want to create a new backlog just because I want to read brand new stories.
• I can use the library to find a mode of a book that I don't already own (for example, if I own a physical copy of a book but I'd rather listen to the audiobook).

Red Light: Hard Boundaries Around Book Purchases and Acquirements

• 
  I won't repurchase any books I used to own but previously gave up-- nostalgia is not a good enough reason to acquire or re-acquire books
• Keep Audible account on pause so that I can keep listening to the books I already have but without acquiring more credits
• Sites like Chirp and BookBub can be used to inspire requests at the library and adding books to my GoodReads TBR, but I cannot take advantage of any of the steep discounts for the duration of 2024, including books that are free.
• No buying physical versions of digital books I fall in love with just to own a hard copy of that book.

These are the "rules" I can think of right now.  I'll revisit this list periodically to make sure it's still working for me.  I imagine that I'll come across the rare situation that I could not have foreseen that I'll have to make a decision about in the moment.  But I think the rules above will help me chip away at my backlog of books before diving into new books.  I plan to do periodic updates on this task, so I'll be able to report back what is working and what struggles I'm having.  I'm really looking forward to this!

Reflecting on My Masters Program

This past May, I graduated with my Master of Arts in Educational Studies!  Now that I'm months removed from this huge milestone, I have some thoughts about it and I've been able to see how my cards have been dealt now that I'm done with degree.  Was it worth it?  Did it get me where I wanted to go?  

What Are My Circumstances?

Not everyone goes into a Masters program immediately after graduating with their Bachelors.  I am told (and I did come to discover this as well) that many people in my classes were similar to me in what I was dealing with outside of going to school.  So here's what I had going on:

• I have a full-time job as a teacher (I started during my 5th year as a teacher, so I already had a teaching license and experience)
• I'm married
• I have a toddler (he turned 3 right around when I graduated)
• I opted to take on a full-time courseload (while still giving myself permission to scale back if it ever became too much)
• The school I attended and the school where I work helped me pay for my tuition, so the financial load was lessened a little bit

My set up will not work for everyone.  A lot of people thought I was nuts for doing both my job and school on a full-time basis.  And to be honest, I probably was a little nuts.

Why Did I Start?

My full Masters is in Educational Studies with a concentration in Teaching College English.  In my state, there is a program called College in the Schools through the University of Minnesota.  It's a concurrent enrollment program meaning that high school students can enroll in these courses and earn both high school and college credit at the same time.  I have wanted to do this for years, but the main thing I needed was experience in the classroom (3 years) and a Masters degree (there's a little more to this, but simply put, that's what I needed).  I had been told that, especially with teaching younger high school students, it could take a toll and I might want to find ways to save my sanity.  Working with more mature students could help.  I also love writing and teaching this particular writing class that I was striving to apply for would allow me to dig into the craft and practice of writing and prepare students for the future, especially if it included college.

What Did I Learn?

Now that it's been about 6 months since graduation, I have been sitting in this post-graduate bubble and figuring out how my Masters has impacted my life so far.  Just to get my head on straight, here are the positives, surprises, and even some disappointments I've noticed so far:

Positive: I'm teaching a college class!

• This is the best thing that has come of this!  Even though I'm teaching a new class at my high school, there is an application process that I had to go through at the University of Minnesota in order to be able to teach this class.  I'm so relieved that I didn't have to wait to teach this class and that the work I did was enough to get a chance.  Because I have limited experience with upper high school, that could have been enough of a reason for them to say no to me teaching this class.  I'm so happy that they gave me a chance.

Positive: I have more professional possibilities!

• I've been becoming more and more aware of this since graduating.  Having a Masters degree means that more schools are willing to look at me.  I can even teach at community colleges and/or as an adjunct at colleges and universities.  I've been feeling really restless in my job lately and even just knowing that I don't have to be stuck is a little bit relieving.  Like, I don't have to be a high school teacher until the day I die if I don't want to be.  What a cool feeling.

Surprise: The amount of doubt around what I'm doing right now

• Perhaps the trade-off of having new professional possibilities is feeling a lot of restlessness and doubt about where I'm currently at professionally.  This is a much more complicated conversation that I probably won't get into here.

Disappointment: My paycheck

• One reason I decided to go for my Masters was so I could move up in the pay schedule.  I don't know if other types of jobs have this, but I can more or less look ahead in my career and have an idea about what I would make with a certain amount of experience and with a certain level of education (not precisely because inflation and such is taken into account each year and is adjusted accordingly).  So I was excited to see that there was a decent bump in my salary!  But after taxes and when it's translated into a bi-monthly paycheck... it's not very noticeable.  I felt really dumb.  That's partially a me problem-- I clearly didn't do my math right and had some false ideas-- and partially a choice in how my school chooses to pay its employees.  That's the reality of the type of school where I work.

Surprise: The workload + finding a rhythm

• This is another oversight of mine.  I think I had it in my head that everything would be hunky-dory as soon as I started teaching this new class and working with the University of Minnesota.  But there's a bit of a learning curve.  I haven't quite gotten the hang of the grading load and the things I've been doing in class are, for the most part, not my own.  I'm recycling a lot of materials from the previous teacher and using as much as I can from my cohort's already existing materials.  It's devoid of my own take on things so it feels really foreign right now.  I know this is something that will improve with time

Positive: I like being a student!

• I loved not being the teacher for a while.  I loved talking with classmates and professors about subjects we were exploring and learning about.  I liked the writing that I got to do, even if I complained about the workload in the moment.  I look back on that work fondly now.  Being a student is a different kind of pressure than being the teacher and I appreciated the challenge!  I don't know if I will take university courses in the future (and I have serious doubts about pursuing a doctorate at the moment), but I will absolutely be pursuing opportunities to continue learning even outside of my field of study.

Ultimately, I do not regret starting a Masters program.  It was a tough two years, but we (my family and I) made it work.  I'm really proud of myself for working through my program.  Since I'm still fairly fresh out of my program, I'm excited to see how things continue to develop and how I'll feel about this experience a year or more after the fact.

Goals for 2024!

Happy New Year!  Welcome to 2024!

It's the time of year where lots of people are setting goals for the year and I'm no exception to this.  I really like putting to paper (or the internet) the things that I would like to do in a year.  I think it helps guide my adventures and keeps my values at the forefront of my mind.  I don't think it sets a path my how my year is going to go or what I do-- there's still plenty of room for adventures and spontaneity!

Without further ado, here are my goals for 2024!

Recycled Goals From 2023:

1. Get a tattoo.  I think I'll be more likely to do this if I reach out to an artist right away at the beginning of this year/month.
   
   
2. Create a rhythm for blogging.  I have taken up blogging again!  But none of that matters if I don't have a schedule or workflow of some kind.  That's my mission this year.
   
   
3. Get my nose pierced.  This is something I've probably been thinking about too much and I just need to do too.  Same thing, I will find a place and make an appointment early this year, even if it's months in advance.
   
   
4. 52 weeks of gratitude.  I tried to do a version of this last year that was meant to become a daily thing, but it quickly fizzled out in March (which, hey, that's still like, 90 posts...).  I think posting once a week will help me be more successful.

New Goals for 2024:

1. Find a side-hustle.  I have big dreams.  I want to travel.  I want to do things around the house.  These are things that, without going into too much detail about my family's financial situation, would stretch our budget too much without some kind of change or boost.  So I'm in search of a way to make extra money without being away from my family.  We'll see if it's a pipe dream.
   
   
2. Write for the purpose of publication.  One of my big goals in life is to become a published author.  I took a class last year about writing fiction and part of that class was my professor, who is a published author herself, talking about the world of publication and bringing in writers to talk to us about their work and how they got to be where they are today.  So many of the writers were writing in the early morning or into the evenings when their kids were asleep, just plugging away at their stories.  More importantly, doing it consistently.  So part of this goal is to build a routine for writing on a regular basis.  
   
   
3. Decorate for all of the holidays.  Whenever holidays come up, my house looks so sad.  I want to be able to put up decorative lights and some other decorations to get into the holiday spirit, whether that's Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Valentine's Day.
   
   
4. Understand my ADHD brain better.  Towards the end of 2023, I received an ADHD diagnosis.  It's taken a little bit to figure out what this means for me and what I want to do about it.  But in December, I started taking concrete steps.  I want to keep learning about brains like mine so that I can better do the things that I want to do while not working against my own mind.
   
   
5. Learn to identify agates.  I have a rock tumbler that I've been using on cool rocks I find in my backyard or on camping trips.  But agates look so neat!  I'd love to be able to find some out in the wild, but I need to learn what to look for first.  Then I can worry about polishing them up.
   
   
6. Find/rediscover mobile hobbies.  This is part of my "discovering myself outside of my job" mission.  I feel like when I talk to people in real life and they ask me, "How are you doing?  What have you been up to?" I don't have anything to talk about other than my job.  I don't want to be that person anymore.  I want to be the person that says, "I've been great!  I just finished a new embroidery project!" or even, "Not so great, I couldn't get the electrical on my mini-build to work.  How frustrating..."  Like, ANYTHING other than talking about my job all the time!  And it's a bonus if I can take it with me in my bag without dragging a ton of stuff around!
   
   
7. Go through the junk boxes I've been avoiding.  I think a lot of us have "doom boxes," or boxes that we feel acute dread or doom when we think about dealing with them.  I don't think that's just an ADHD thing, but I could be wrong.  Well, I want to slowly but surely deal with them.  I'm trying to keep my basement fairly organized and junk-free and dealing with these boxes is paramount to reaching this goal.
   
   
8. Create an indoor storage system for tools.  I have collected some tools since moving into my house, but I do not have any real organization to them.  I'd like to fix that!  Even if it's temporary-- the garage won't be a great storage place for a little while probably.
   
   
9. Create a savings.  When my wife and I combined our money after marriage, the account that was my savings account became our savings account.  But she still has an account that is just hers.  I want to have an account that is just mine.  This will let me keep our finances on lock a little bit better.
   
   
10. Learn basic electrical.  I'm very lucky that my father-in-law has a background in electrical work.  I want to learn how to install new outlets and fix basic electrical issues from him!  
    
    
11. Physical and Digital Book No-Buy Year.  This is a big one and probably worth digging into more in a separate post.  I've heard of people doing a no-buy year in all areas of their life and I think that's wonderful.  I'm proud of them for being able to do that and accomplish that task.  I don't think I'm quite at that level of having a no-buy year for all areas of my life and even then, I think I would need to get my family on board with this.  But I do have control over my own belongings and books.  I have really slowed down on buying physical books, but I still have a lot of books that are on my shelves that I haven't read.  I have even more books on my iPad that are much more hidden, but I still haven't read them.  I want to do this to clear out my personal collection of books.

I feel like this year, compared to other years, my list of goals is so eclectic.  But they're all meaningful to me and aimed at improving my life in very specific-to-me ways.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how this year goes!