The Lunar New Year is fast approaching, dear reader, and I am thrilled to finally start my new year. Stepping into 2024 without a plan felt odd, but I adjusted my mindset as the month of January unfolded, and I am NOW ready to get the ball rolling on accomplishing my aims for this year.
RESET is my word for 2024. After the dreadful demise of 2023, I have been desperate to hit the reset button. My plans for this year are to replace some bad habits with some good ones, clean up the clutter in my environment, and boost my sense of creativity and play by cultivating an existing interest. That last plan, regarding creativity and play, is the result of taking Gretchen Rubin’s Habits for Happiness Quiz.
In addition to my one-word theme, I created a 24 for 2024 list with my aims for the new year. Almost all of the items on my list are new; however, I did carry over three items from last year that I did not complete but really want to accomplish this year. Pretty much all of my aims fall into one of my three plans which have to do with habits, clutter-clearing, and creativity/play. Take a look at what I have planned for myself for 2024.
Kat’s 24 for 2024 List
- 1. Time-track at least once per quarter (March, June, September, December).
- 2. Join The 5AM Club by getting up at 5AM each morning (The 5AM Club).
- 3. Implement the 20/20/20 Formula (The 5AM Club).
- 4. Implement the Pre-Sleep Ritual (The 5AM Club).
- 5. Quit Coffee.
- 6. Strength train two times per week.
- 7. Walk at least 30 minutes daily, preferably outside.
- 8. Get a massage.
- 9. Clear the clutter in my scrapbook room.
- 10. Buy a book cart.
- 11. Buy two bookcases for living room.
- 12. Organize home library.
- 13. Keep track of spending on books.
- 14. Get library cards (Tangipahoa, Livingston, and Baton Rouge parishes).
- 15. Start a new booktube project.
- 16. Read 24 Books that I did not get to in 2022/2023.
- 17. Have a Year of Christie (Agatha Christie) 2.0.
- 18. Buddy Read Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt with Alex @ Frankfiction.
- 19. Read The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and The Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.
- 20. Read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
- 21. Read On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King.
- 22. Write about my adventures in Sicily on my blog.
- 23. Organize photos and video clips from my Sicily trip.
- 24. Scrapbook 24 times in 2024.
Other Fun Plans for 2024:
- I am participating in Gretchen Rubin’s #Write24in24. The options are to spend 2-4 minutes or 24 minutes writing daily in 2024. This challenge is the third element of Rubin’s Happier Trifeca with the one-word theme and list of aims being the other two elements. According to Gretchen Rubin, “If you write consistently, you’ll be astonished by how much you can accomplish in 2024. We often underestimate what we can do if we work consistently.” Writing at least 24 minutes every day will be a fun daily challenge for me because I LOVE writing. My writing time will be devoted to blog posts, book reviews on Goodreads, scrapbook journaling, lists (to-do & ta-da), correspondence with family and friends (cards), notes for videos, and morning pages (The Artist’s Way). These are just a few of the writing activities I have planned for 2024; however, other possibilities might be added to my list throughout the year.
- On Goodreads, I joined the 2024 Reading Challenge, and my goal is to read 100 books this year. Follow me on Goodreads (Katherine Loyacano).
- I want to revamp the Chills, Thrills, and Kills Book Club.
- I will participate in Booktube Book Clubs (FOMO, MGM, Cozy Cottage).
- I will continue doing Collabs with Kelsi. Our collabs can be viewed on her YouTube channel, Slime and Slashers – A Nostalgia & Horror Channel. Please consider subscribing to Kelsi’s channel in 2024.
- I will participate in Frugal February again. This is a NO spend month.
- I will be doing a Birthday Message Project 2.0 in 2024.
- I plan to keep a TA-DA list for 2024. This list is for goals or activities that I accomplished throughout the year but were not included on my original list. These accomplishments should be celebrated, too.
Additionally, I will continue creating videos for my Youtube channel, Kat’s Novel Adventures. I passed my one-year anniversary of releasing my first video on 28 October 2023. As of the writing of this post, I have 769 subscribers and 152 videos for public viewing. My little channel is growing slowly, and I am hoping I will reach and surpass 1,000 subscribers in 2024. That channel milestone would be a HUGE happiness boost! I have included a video about my Happier Trifecta below if you are interested in hearing more about my plans for 2024. Please consider subscribing to my channel, giving me a like, and leaving a comment.
As you can see, dear reader, I have planned a year of good habit-forming, organizing, reading, writing, and scrapbooking adventures for 2024. All of these aims and activities will give me an opportunity to RESET my life and get back on track. Well, that is my plan anyway. Happiness!
“Every sunset is an opportunity to reset. Every sunrise begins with new eyes.” ~ Richie Norton
Happy New Year’s Day, dear readers! 
WOW! Cher is 73 years old and looks fabulous. Her performance was captivating from beginning to end. Her song choices, the elaborate costumes, the artistic dancers, the detailed set design, as well as the talented musicians and backup singers created a fantastic creative execution. Not being a huge Cher fan, I didn’t really know what to expect. Shelly was the only reason that I went to the concert. She wanted to go, so being the awesome friend that I am and my love of concerts, I said yes when she asked if I would go with her. And, I am so happy I said yes because I was blown away not only by Cher’s performance, but also by her story that she shared with the audience. She has given me a boost of inspiration.
Twenty days have passed since I started my year-long journey of RENEWAL. Until today, it has been slow going, uninspiring, and almost coming to a screeching halt. I have not accomplished anything much regarding my health and fitness goals for this month, and I was having a hard time deciding how to write about it. I’m stuck! Then two occurrences took place earlier today that has prompted me to move forward. The first was watching a brief video that popped up in my Facebook news feed, and the second was an unexpected phone call from someone I adore but had not talked to in quite a while.
It is the first day of Spring, dear reader. What an absolutely gorgeous day! I wish I could have spent the day outside in a hammock reading a book; however, I do not own a hammock, and I spent a good portion of the day working on school stuff. I did sneak a couple of chapters of a zombie book in between reading journals and creating a quiz.
The Kat Files 