I set my second quarter goals in April. Let's see how they turned out.
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Area I: Reading
1. Read at least one book that's already on my bookshelf each month.
April: No progress
May: No progress
June: No progress
LOLOLOLOL. I'm going to read The Fellowship of the Ring in July. This will help me with this goal.
2. Read at least one non-fiction book a month.
April: I snuck in Highway of Tears right at the end of the month.
May: True Story by Michael Finkel
June: All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell
3. Read at least one Women's Prize for Fiction books a month.
April: I read Larry's Party by Carol Shields.
May: I read When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant.
June: I read Property by Valerie Martin and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.
4. Continue reading books from Top Books by Women from r/fantasy.
April: I read Uprooted by Naomi Novik.
May: I finished the Sevenwaters series!
June: I read The Starless Sea.
5. Read at least two books in Spanish every month.
April: I read Las mujeres muevan montañas by Pepita Sandwich.
May: I have a chapter book checked out from the library, but it's slow going. I'm reading it, but it's taking a lot of time and I didn't finish it.
June: I returned the book from May and need to take out another graphic novel and/or kids book.
Reading goals are going pretty well, actually, considering everything I'm trying to juggle.
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Area II: Connection
1. Send snail mail to D/M/K every month plus at least one other "just because" piece of mail to a random person I know.
April: Complete. I sent six Easter cards, including to D/M/K, 2 postcards, and one birthday card for a total of nine pieces of mail in April.
May: Hmmm...I didn't send anything to K this month, but I did send three Mother's Day cards, two birthday cards, and three bills in the mail in May.
June: I didn't send anything to D/M/K. Oh, no. I did send three birthday cards, a Father's Day card to my father-in-law, a sympathy card, and one bill in the mail in June.
This is not my finest work. It's hard when there aren't card sending holidays in a month, but I have to send everyone at least a postcard once a month.
2. Post to my blog daily.
April: 41 posts
May: 44 posts
June: 40 posts
My posting is out of control. Sorry, dear Reader.
3. Text T/T/D/M every week.
April: Complete.
May: I missed my sister twice, but otherwise got everyone.
June: I missed my sister once, but otherwise got everyone.
My new habit is to text everyone every week when my husband is driving us to the grocery store. It's otherwise just wasted time for me, but when I text everyone, I feel really productive during that time.
4. See my mom.
April: No progress made.
May: No progress made.
June: No progress made.
I have made a decision that I'm not going to visit her (for complicated reasons about how expensive it is, the dog situation, etc.), but have extended an invitation that she come visit us. We'll see. If she doesn't come, then it's not on me.
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Area III: Post-pandemic reentry
1. Say yes to invitations to things, regardless of whether or not I want to go.
April: I did this!
May: Yes!
June: I'm a true yes person.
2. Do at least one thing every week that is outside of my household, the public library, or the grocery store.
April: I slacked a bit the first week in April, but made up for it at the end. I have seven things on my list for April, so I think I'm going to say it's complete.
May: Yes! I did!
June: There was one quiet week, but otherwise I did a lot during June, including going to Michigan two weekends and to Iowa another weekend.
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| I went to Michigan twice, yo. Go me. |
3. Plan and execute at least one programming event at the community center.
April: We got all our speakers for our spring lecture series lined up and had our first event at the end of April. Success.
May: Finished our spring lecture series and it was great, although turnout was very poor for our last speaker.
June: Nothing really done here, but I am planning the 2024 calendar of events (movie nights, game nights, and some one-off events) and am firming up speakers for our fall lecture series.
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Area IV: Health
1. Do formal exercise sessions of 30 minutes or more 80% of the time.
25/30 (83.3%) days of workouts of 30 minutes or more
15 days of strength/cardio
10 days of yoga
10 short 15-minute stretch classes at lunchtime
June
2. Go outside at least 23 minutes a day.
April: 30/30 days
May: 31/31 days
June: 29/30 days
That day in June is the first day I missed all year. It was a travel day for me and I could have taken Hannah for a walk when I got home, but I literally collapsed on the couch and didn't move for hours when I got home. *shrug* Still pretty good.
3. Meditate five minutes at least three times a week.
April: 9 times in total, which is a bit under goal
May: 10 times total, so still a bit under goal
June: 11 times total, which is still a bit under goal
I mean, I guess this is a start? I should be able to do this for five minutes a day! I'll keep working on it.
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Area V: House
1. Clean up and mulch the two flowerbeds that were covered in cardboard over the winter.
April: Half progress. I started cleaning them, but the cold weather has been brutal. Hopefully I can get to this in May.
May: Ha! They're back to being absolutely overgrown like I did nothing to them over the winter.
June: *sigh* The yard is a mess.
2. Come up with a plan for repainting the garage. This means checking in with Dr. BB about when would be a good time to do this and gathering materials.
April: No progress made.
May: I don't even know if Dr. BB knows I want the garage to be painted. LOL.
June: Nada.
3. Go through the clutter in the following places each month.
April: Totes under the bed in the primary bedroom - No progress made.
May: No progress made.
June: No progress made
It is obvious to me that I just don't prioritize house goals at all.
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Area VI: Hannah
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| I should take her to the dog park more often. She loves it so much. |
|
Number of Walks |
Number of Days |
|
1 |
1 |
|
2 |
13 |
|
3 |
14 |
|
4 |
2 |
|
Number of
Walks |
Number of
Days |
|
1 |
1 |
|
2 |
9 |
|
3 |
21 |
June: Low average this month, 1.98 miles a day (59.5 miles total). There were a lot of things contributing to that, including three days when I didn't walk her at all because I was out of town, the weather/air quality have meant she's unwilling to do long afternoon walks, and (ahem) it's fireworks season, so it's been hard to get her to go out after dark. I foresee this as a problem until October.
Number of Walks | Number of Days |
0 | 3 |
1 | 2 |
2 | 19 |
3 | 6 |
I'm not saying you're a goal digger...but you've got some impressive stats! I didn't even bother with planting a garden or putting flowers in our porch planter, and neither did I bother will cleaning them out from the previous year, so you made much more progress than me.
ReplyDeleteYou have my permission to never read any of your bookshelf books if you don't want to;-)
I really ought to *try* to read The Lord of the Rings. I don't have high hopes because The Hobbit went so badly for me, but I'm going to at least try!
DeleteOmigosh--These are such impressive stats, and I'm impressed with the detail of your accounting as well!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much. I know that this much tracking wouldn't be right for everyone, but it works for me.
DeleteUm...Wow!
ReplyDeleteThis tracking is amazing and my head is spinning and just - WOW! You're crushing so many goals. Look at you with TWO trips to Michigan and all those walks and blogging and exercising and texting people.
GOLD STARS, Engie <3
I will always take gold stars when they are handed out!
DeleteWell done! Love the level of detail. Need to write about mine...You inspired me!
ReplyDeleteOh, I love to hear about what goals other people set and how they progress. I would love to read all about it.
DeleteWell, I'll be interested to hear how you like Lord of the Rings. I read it in high school (hoping to impress a boy, ha) and didn't really care for it. But that was back when I didn't like fantasy, and now I do, so... who knows. I doubt I'll reread it though.
ReplyDeleteI think you're doing great. If you were nailing every single goal I'd be worried about you. Oh, but one thing I think you should definitely improve on is taking Hannah to the dog park! When I think about having a dog, I imagine that being one of the best parts. And that photo is beautiful!
Hope you all survive the fireworks tonight.
This comment encouraged me to take Hannah to the dog park yesterday! She thanks you for reminding me that she loves it so much. Just so you know, not every dog is a dog park dog. If you get a dog and they don't like the dog park, don't take them! Not every dog likes to hang out with stranger dogs!
DeleteI read The Hobbit and didn't like it much, so my hopes are pretty low, but I need to do it because it feels like classic fantasy lit I should at least have TRIED to read.
I loved The Hobbit - but I was young and it was given to me by a sort-of aunt I adored, so the experience was probably coloured by that. Fun fact about Larry's party - it's sort of named after my sister-in-law Sarah's dad (Larry, obv), a Canadian journalist and writer I've met a few times.
ReplyDeleteI peopled all weekend and am vacillating extremely on a thing for tonight. We'll see if your impressive yes goal prods me the last little bit.
So interesting that you know Larry! Canada is a big country, but it's small in some ways, right?
DeleteWow, you are doing great this quarter! I had to laugh at your assessment of your home goals. Sometimes that's a great result of setting goals: seeing that something you think you want is not really a priority.
ReplyDeleteWay to go on the being outside daily! That is stellar! I have skipped quite a few days recently because of the poor air quality.
The house goals! I'm just not interested, I guess. The thing is that our house is pretty well decluttered and relatively clean. There are just a few areas that need work and I can't really be fussed to deal with them, to be honest. I guess I will have to just be honest with myself that keeping up with the daily maintenance is about all I care to do for now.
DeleteI definitely would have skipped more days recently if not for the dog. The air quality was just so bad and I didn't always enjoy my masked walks with her, but I did them.
Well my goals are going great since I didn't set any! Lol. The first half of the year was kind of rough with my colleague retiring in the midst of the most challenging couple of months of my career... but I made it through and established a lot of credibility with our salesforce. It just left me totally exhausted/worn down. And now we are dealing with kid transitions and I imagine there will be another transitional period when Paul starts K in Sept, although it's at the school where he's attending this summer program so maybe it won't be so bad? We'll see...
ReplyDeleteI think things are going to turn around for you in the fall, Lisa. Everyone will get into a routine and the boys will get older and it's going to be great! And then you can return back to goals beyond "survive every day" if you want to.
DeleteWOWZA I can't believe a) how many goals you set and b) how many you've accomplished!!! This is so much! Amazing work. I get the sense that you aren't fully satisfied with how you've done, but honestly this knocks my socks off! I haven't been doing much in the way of traditional "goal setting" lately besides just trying to stay afloat with everything we have going on/ have had going on. So I guess I'm just skipping the goal setting part and just going straight to the doing, maybe. lol. There are a number of bigger "goalie" type things I do want to address (like lingering tasks that are annoying me because no progress is made), but, I guess they'll (continue to) keep....
ReplyDeleteHa! I think I'm just disappointed because there are entire areas (the house) where I literally did NOTHING. But, as you say, those things will continue to keep.
DeleteI think it's interesting that you and Lisa talk about not setting goals. The thing is that both of you do so much more than I do without setting goals, so I don't think it's necessarily something you NEED to do! I'm just innately lazy and mostly want to read books on the couch with my cat, so I need motivation to work on things every day.
I always love reading these posts and seeing the level of detail you track. And I thought *I* was detailed with my tracking, haha. You're doing great on so many goals, and I guess the fact that you just don't want to read any of the books on your shelves should tell you something!
ReplyDeleteI think you're right. I don't want to read a bunch of unread books on my shelves - I will probably donate the ones I don't read by the end of the year.
DeleteI love your tracking— so detailed, but manageable in quarters. I am thinking about this for next year.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated the ambition of the 23 goals in 2023, but I need smaller chunks than an entire year! This works best for me.
DeleteI think you're doing pretty well with ALL THESE GOALS... man, you are keeping detailed records. I can probably only pull up these kinds of stats for my workouts LOL
ReplyDeleteThere's still plenty of time left to work on some of the goals... e.g. house projects (they always seem to be on the list, but are easily pushed aside/delayed, amirite?
I am so surprised that the tracking is what is impressing people! Maybe I'll do a post on how I track it. (Hint: Very low tech.)
DeleteThe house projects will get done or they won't. LOL. I guess that's how I feel about it.
Wow! I barely know what I'm going to do next, so your focus on goals is way beyond my pay grade. I am totally impressed, perhaps even motivated to sort of maybe track what I do.
ReplyDeleteHa! If you don't need to track, then don't! It's just I don't get anything done if I don't hold myself accountable, so I have to!
DeleteAlways love all your goal updates... and particularly the granular level at which you track them.
ReplyDeleteThe unread books thing got me thinking - I also have multiple books on ye olde bookshelves that I should read or donate. This includes The Magicians, and your reference to LOTR made me think of it. I found your review of it from 2010 (!!!), which begins, "Another friend recommended The Magicians by Lev Grossman, telling me it was like Harry Potter, but with grownups. The book is GREAT. I adored it and had a hard time putting it down, especially towards the end."
I guess I'll be trying it one. more. time. But that's it - if it doesn't stick this time, I'm donating it. LOL.
I did enjoy The Magicians, but not enough to read more of the series. It struck that the magic rules weren't defined enough for me. LOL. I think you'll be okay if you skip it!
Delete