Stephany Writes

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | September 2024

People frequently ask me why I set so many monthly goals, and I’ve always countered with, “I think it’s fun!” Which I do. I love having all these goals to strive for and I don’t feel pressured to mark them all complete. These goals are just for fun; they’re not life and death. However, I’ve always known that I will stop setting monthly goals or stop setting as many when it stops being fun. Annnd… it has stopped being fun.

The problem isn’t the goals themselves. I still love setting goals, but I think I’ve overwhelmed myself with too many goals. I’ve started to feel like I’m setting goals just to hit this arbitrary number I’ve given myself  (five goals connected to my yearly goals, five daily habits, five tasks). So, I’ve decided to pare down my goals to just five tasks and three daily routines. This will allow me to concentrate on the goals I really want to get done and clarify exactly what goals are important to me from month to month.

So, with all of that out of the way, let’s talk about how I did on my August goals:

August Goals

Small Steps Toward My Yearly Goals

1) Watch two seasons of a TV show. Not complete. I watched exactly zero seasons of shows that were not reality TV shows. I’ve been going back and forth with myself whether I care or not. On the one hand, watch whatever the hell you want, Steph! But on the other, there are lots of TV shows that I’m interested in watching, but I just always pass on them in favor of reality TV.

2) Research cake decorating classes to find an option that works for me. I actually did this! And there really aren’t any good options around me unfortunately. The only one I found is $160 for a two-day course, which is way more than I’m willing to pay.

3) Spend at least 30 minutes a week researching podcast engagement. I only did this once in August, but I think I came away with some good ideas and food for thought.

4) Work through another section of the “I’m Dead, Now What?” workbook. Not complete.

5) Schedule my next tattoo appointment. Not complete.

Daily-Ish Routines

1) Do a daily stretching routine. LOL, nope. I did this a few days out of the month but nothing worth mentioning. I don’t think I cared enough about this goal to do it, which is good for me to know!

2) Play with the cats for 10 minutes three times a week. Sigh.

3) Take my meds. (71%) This is as of August 5 because I threw away my old notebook where I was tracking these daily goals since I was finished with it and forgot to record the first few days of the month. But I am very proud of this number! This is a 16% increase from July and a 26% increase from June, so hooray! What has really helped is having a daily pill container that I fill up every Sunday. One of my pills has to be broken in half so I think just that little process cutting up a pill every day was enough to stymie me. But now I can just easily grab the pills from the day’s little box and it’s easy-peasy. I’ve been so much better at taking my meds once I implemented this system!

4) Drink water every day. (63%) My water-drinking percentage decreased a bit in August, ugh. I really need to be better about sipping on seltzer in the evening rather than reaching for another Dr. Pepper.

5) Do two 30-minute standing sessions during my workday. No. I kept forgetting about this goal, oops.

Tasks

1) Track how much food my cats are eating. Complete. I didn’t track how much they are eating every day, but I did figure out how many calories I am giving them. Do they eat all of those calories daily? No, they do not. But all I can do is give them food and they can eat as much as they want.

2) Declutter my medicine cabinet. Complete! It looks so much better now.

3) Figure out my cups situation. Complete! I am in love with my new cabinet and the way it looks.

4) Declutter the top drawer of my dresser. Complete! I still want to buy some fabric dividers to keep things contained, but the decluttering process happened this month.

5) Sell my spin bike. Not complete. While I did put up my spin bike on Facebook Marketplace, I was a very, very bad seller and completely forgot about my listing. I thought I had notifications on for my Marketplace messages, but apparently, I do not because I opened it up one day to find a handful of messages from weeks ago. OOPS.

September Goals

1) Watch two seasons of a TV show. I’m going to try this again in September! I want to watch season 2 of Suits and the most recent season of Abbott Elementary. I can do this!

2) Read another Agatha Christie mystery. I am leaning towards The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

3) Sell my spin bike. And maybe this month, I can actually pay attention to my Marketplace messages.

4) Declutter the space underneath my kitchen sink. As organized as I try to be, these little spaces can easily become messy if I don’t pay close attention to them. This month, I’m decluttering the cabinets under my kitchen sink, which is where I keep my cleaning supplies.

5) Eat breakfast at home. I have gotten into a bad habit of going out to pick up something for breakfast. This is an expensive habit, especially if I do it multiple times a week. I need to just have stuff at home to eat for breakfast so I’m not tempted!

Daily routines

  • Take my meds (goal: 80% or better)
  • Drink water every day (goal: 75% or better)
  • Move my body (goal: 65% or better)

What’s the last space in your house that you’ve decluttered?

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | August 2024

July Goals

Small Steps Toward My Yearly Goals

1) Watch one season of a TV show. Not complete. Oops. I watched exactly one episode of season two of Suits.

2) Work through one more section of my “I’m Dead, Now What?” workbook. Complete!

3) Research cake decorating classes to find an option that works for me. Not complete. I had it on my list to do every week and never got it done.

4) Complete a no-spend month. Complete! I’m so proud of myself!

5) Read another Agatha Christie mystery. Complete! I read Five Little Pigs and gave it 3 stars.

Daily-Ish Routines

1) Daily movement (62%). Decreased slightly from June by 6%. I have been getting in my four gym workouts per week but failing a bit when it comes to movement outside of those workouts.

2) Play with the cats for 10 minutes three times a week (0%). Who’s surprised here?

3) Take my meds (55%). My percentage improved almost 10% from June to July, so that’s something to celebrate! Should it be 100%? Yes, of course. But I’m going to celebrate the win.

4) Drink water every day (69%). I’m happy with this since it’s setting my baseline. Hopefully, it improves in August.

Tasks

1) Train the cats to eat on a schedule. Mostly complete. I was lazy about this sometimes and would leave the food out longer than I had planned, but I made some progress here.

2) Utilize the “Downtime” feature on my phone from 9 p.m. – 9 a.m. Not complete. I forgot I made this goal, lol.

3) Put my bedroom door back on its hinges. Complete! Finally! I was worried that I would need another person to help me, which is why I kept putting this off. One evening, I just decided to try to do it myself and it was easy-peasy!

4) Declutter the top drawer of my dresser. Not complete. I didn’t get around to this goal in July.

5) Sell my spin bike. Not complete. I thought about this goal a few times but didn’t make it happen.

August Goals

Small Steps Toward My Yearly Goals

1) Watch two seasons of a TV show. Since I’m behind again on this goal, I need to watch two seasons of a TV show in August.

2) Research cake decorating classes to find an option that works for me. Rollover goal again.

3) Spend at least 30 minutes a week researching podcast engagement. I want to reach 100 listeners on the podcast this year and I haven’t really done the work to make that happen, so I’m giving myself this very doable weekly goal.

4) Work through another section of the “I’m Dead, Now What?” workbook. It helps to work through the sections of this workbook a little bit at a time because it is not fun to think about my own mortality.

5) Schedule my next tattoo appointment. I have an idea for my next tattoo and I want to finally get on my tattoo artist’s schedule to get it done.

Daily-Ish Routines

1) Do a daily stretching routine. I have this short 5-minute stretching routine that feels very good to do in the morning when I wake up.

2) Play with the cats for 10 minutes three times a week. Maybe August is the month I finally make this happen. No promises.

3) Take my meds. I’ve tried all the things to get me to take my meds regularly (timers, connecting it with a routine, putting my meds front and center). Nothing really works for me. Maybe I need some sort of negative consequence. Like: if I miss one day of meds, I cannot play my favorite phone game the next day. Ooh, that feels harsh enough to make me do it!

4) Drink water every day. I’m averaging around 5 days a week of drinking water (the other days I stay hydrated by other methods, like soda and coffee). I’d like to average six days in August!

5) Do two 30-minute standing sessions during my workday. When my sciatica was acting up, I stopped working on my goal to stand during the workday more often. Now that it’s (mostly) healed, I’m back!

Tasks

1) Track how much food my cats are eating. I realized last week that I have been starving my cats. Oops! This wasn’t on purpose, of course. But I need to make sure I’m putting out a reasonable amount of food (and that they’re eating it).

2) Declutter my medicine cabinet. My bathroom cabinets need an overhaul, so I’m going to start by reorganizing my medicine cabinet.

3) Figure out my cups situation. I have too many cups and not enough cabinet space. I need to take them all out of my cabinets to figure out what I have, what needs to be donated, and how to better organize them in my cabinets.

4) Declutter the top drawer of my dresser. Rollover goal.

5) Sell my spin bike. Rollover goal.

Do you have any goals for August? What’s the last part of your home that you organized?

Categories: Goals

2024 Goals | Q2 Recap

Halfway through the year! It’s crazy how quickly time passes, isn’t it? I can’t believe we’re in the second half of this year, but it holds all of my favorite things: the Olympics, football season, fall, the holidays, my birthday, NABLOPOMO 2024! It’s going to be a good time. But first, let’s do a little check-in on my 2024 goals and see what progress I’m making (or not making).

HOME

1. Create a book nook in my bedroom. I have a cozy reading chair and a cute side table, but I didn’t work on this area of my bedroom in Q2. I would like to eventually add a lamp, floating bookshelves, and some bookish prints.

2. Finish my living room gallery wall. I have a few more prints to hang up, but this is about 95% complete.

3. Move to a two-bedroom apartment. This will be a Q4 goal.

4. Buy a new area rug and a new coffee table for my living room. No progress made. I’m less and less convinced I’ll accomplish this goal in 2024; it depends if I end up moving at the end of October.

5. Reorganize my home: add shelving to my kitchen, hang an organizer in my kitchen pantry, and buy new organizing containers for my closet. Complete! The shelf was hung in March. I hung a headband organizer that I already had on the pantry door to organize small items like cat treats, oatmeal packets, snack bags, etc. And I added organizing containers to the shelves inside my pantry to make it easier to store things.

MONEY

1. Switch to a rewards credit card. No progress made.

2. Complete monthly budget posts on the blog. So far, so good.

3. Add at least $1,000 to my emergency fund by the end of the year. No progress made. (And since I had to use my emergency fund in Q2 for a stupid expensive locksmith, I probably should bump this up to $1,500.)

4. Pay off the majority of my LASIK bill. I’m making payments, but I haven’t made any additional payments yet.

5. Complete a no-spend month. Happening this month!

HEALTH

1. Figure out an exercise routine that works for me. Complete, as long as I keep doing what I’m doing. Right now, this looks like two HIIT classes, one strength-training class, and a trainer-designed workout per week.

2. Lower my resting heart rate. Currently, my resting heart rate according to my Apple watch is 91 BPM, which is exactly ONE BPM lower than it was in Q2. Progress is progress, right?!

3. Use my standing desk more often – get to a place where I’m standing for two hours each day. I didn’t work on this goal at all in Q2 but now that my sciatica has improved (ironically, it got better once I stopped my chiropractic care…), I would like to work on this goal again.

4. Get a sleep study done. Done! And I found out I have severe sleep apnea, which is slightly terrifying. In August, I’ll do a sleep apnea sleep study and receive the equipment I need.

5. Be able to comfortably walk 3 miles regularly. I haven’t specifically worked on this goal and right now is not the time to test out my endurance. Maybe in Q4 when the weather is nicer, I can go out for some 3-mile walks and see how it goes.

HOBBIES

1. Read 100 books. (53/100) I am two books ahead of schedule!

2. Read 6 books by Agatha Christie. (3/6)

3. Reach 100 listeners per episode on the podcast. No progress made. There’s a lot of work I need to do to better market our podcast so it reaches more people.

4. Update the blog with a new theme and reorganized categories/tags/pages. Complete! The big recategorization project is DONE and I launched a new blog theme in May. I’m so happy with the way it turned out!

5. Watch one season of a show every month. (6/12) I was able to catch up in Q2 so now I am on track with this goal.

  • January: Only Murders in the Building, season 3
  • February: The Bear, season 1
  • March: Mr. and Mrs. Smith, season 1
  • April: New Girl, season 1
  • May: Suits, season 1
  • June: Bridgerton, season 3

1. Spend a long weekend at Rainbow River. Take a solo vacation. Burn through one candle every month. Okay, so the solo vacation isn’t going to happen. I need to be careful about my spending for the second half of the year. Instead, I’m changing this goal (again, I know!) to burning through one candle every month. I have so many candles and I am so bad at burning them. I love my candles but it just never crosses my mind to light them up. By the end of the year, I want to have burned through six full candles!

2. Get my nose pierced. Done!

3. Get more tattoos. No progress made.

4. Take a cake decorating class. No progress made.

5. Find a dry shampoo that works for my hair. So far, I’ve tried two dry shampoos – I Dew Care Dry Shampoo Powder and Not Your Mother’s Plump for Joy – and neither have worked like I wanted them to. I didn’t make any progress in Q2.

6. Listen to one new album every month. (4/12) I am behind on this goal!

  • January: Olivia Rodrigo, GUTS
  • February: Noah Kahan, Stick Season
  • March: Florence + the Machine, Dance Fever
  • April: Beyonce, Cowboy Carter

7. Learn how to back into a parking space like an overconfident white man. I’m working on this, but I haven’t seen much improvement, HA.

8. See a Dolphins game in person. This will be a Q3/Q4 goal.

9. Buy new luggage. Complete! I bought a new carry-on in May.

10. Start working through the “I’m Dead, Now What?” planner. I have worked through exactly ONE section so far this year. Oof.

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | July 2024

June Goals

Small Steps Toward My Yearly Goals

1) Watch two seasons of a TV show. Complete! I finished season 1 of Suits and season 3 of Bridgerton. I’m all caught up on my goal now!

2) Work through one more section of my “I’m Dead, Now What?” workbook. Totally forgot I made this goal, oops.

3) Research cake decorating classes to find an option that works for me. Forgot about this one, too. Wheeee.

Daily(Ish) Routines

1) Daily movement. (68% successful) This is an increase in 14% from May, so I’m really happy about that!

2) Play with the cats for 10 minutes three times a week. (0% successful) My cats are looking for a new mother.

3) Do psoriasis treatment every day. (74% successful) I took a few days off of doing the treatment right after I got my steroid injections, so that brought my percentage down a bit.

4) Take my meds. (46% successful) Oh, this was bad. Very, very bad. Taking my meds is connected to my morning skincare routine, but I haven’t been doing that routine as regularly as I used to. I think I need to get in the habit of doing this the minute I wake up, no excuses. (The only med that I really need to take is my anxiety pill. I can go a few days without it, and I’ll usually just double-up the dose if I’ve missed a few days, but I know that’s not ideal. Must get better about this!)

5) Check my bank account daily and update my budget spreadsheet. (43% successful) My finances are not great right now and when that happens, I stop checking my bank account out of fear and regret. So, that’s what’s going on with this goal.

Tasks

1) Declutter the top drawer of my dresser. Not complete. I just couldn’t get around to this goal in June.

2) Put my bedroom door back on its hinges. Not complete, sigh.

3) Go to the gym four times a week. Complete! I like the four-times-a-week routine I’ve built. I do a class on Tuesday nights, Wednesday nights, and Sunday mornings. And on Friday mornings, my mom and I do a workout routine my HIIT trainer put together for us.

July Goals

Small Steps Toward My Yearly Goals

1) Watch one season of a TV show. I’ll probably watch season 2 of Suits for this goal! More Harvey Spector in my life, please.

2) Work through one more section of my “I’m Dead, Now What?” workbook. Rollover goal.

3) Research cake decorating classes to find an option that works for me. Rollover goal.

4) Complete a no-spend month. July seems like a good time to check this goal off the list. My finances are not great right now.

5) Read another Agatha Christie mystery. I already have the book picked out (Five Little Pigs).

Daily(Ish) Routines

(I like to change up these routines every 3 months, and July is the time to do that!)

1) Daily movement. I like having this goal, and let’s see if I can get it into the 70s-80s over the next few months.

2) Play with the cats for 10 minutes three times a week. This will remain a goal of mine until I make it happen. I can do this!!

3) Take my meds. This is such a struggle for me, but I’m going to try my best to do better in July! (And beyond.)

4) Drink water every day. This isn’t as big a struggle as it used to be, but there are still times when I’ll go an entire day without any water, so let’s make it a goal to strive for over the next few months.

Tasks

1) Train the cats to eat on a schedule. My cats are grazers and I would be happy for them to continue to be grazers if not for two things: 1) Lila needs to lose a few pounds (EVEN THOUGH SHE IS PERFECT AS SHE IS AND NEVER NEEDS TO CHANGE, FAT CATS 4EVER), and 2) Eloise needs to gain some pounds. I need to be able to better calculate how much food they’re eating every day, and make sure Eloise is eating her “special” cat food to hopefully bring down her calcium numbers. So, I am on a mission to get the cats on a specific eating schedule. I started this yesterday and it went really well, so fingers crossed this doesn’t take too much training.

2) Utilize the “Downtime” feature on my phone from 9 p.m. – 9 a.m. I wish I was someone who didn’t love scrolling and playing games on my phone as much as I do, but alas. In July, I want to set up Downtime on my phone to block me from certain apps from 9 p.m. – 9 a.m. It’s the hours before bed and right when I wake up where I am the most scroll-y, so this will hopefully help me to find other ways to occupy myself (like, say, reading without getting sucked into my phone).

3) Put my bedroom door back on its hinges. Rollover goal.

4) Declutter the top drawer of my dresser. Rollover goal.

5) Sell my spin bike. I moved my spin bike out to my patio and protected it with a cover, but now that it’s been almost a year since I’ve done that, I think it’s safe to say I don’t need to keep my bike around anymore. Hopefully I can sell it pretty quickly and send it off to a new home.

Do you have any goals for July? What app do you spend the most time on?

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | June 2024

Well, we’re nearly halfway through June already (eeks!) and I am just now publishing my monthly goals. I scaled back a tiny bit on these goals (only three goals for two of the categories rather than the usual five), and also, I’m not putting any pressure on myself to get everything done. I mean, I never put pressure on myself when it comes to these goals, but I am giving myself even more grace in June. So, let’s get into how I did on my May goals and what I hope to get done in June.

May Goals

Small Steps Toward My Yearly Goals

1) Hang up the rest of the prints I have for my living room gallery wall. I hung up two of the three prints, and then acquired another print while in New Orleans. Halfway complete?

2) Start researching rewards credit cards: add at least 5 cards to my spreadsheet to compare. Not complete, whoops.

3) Watch two seasons of a TV show. Complete! I watched the first season of The Bear and the first season of New Girl. Yay, me!

4) Read another Agatha Christie novel. Complete! I read A Murder Is Announced and gave it 4 stars.

5) Clean up my categories/tags. Complete!

Daily(ish) Routines

1) Daily movement. (54% successful) Oof, this was not a great month for daily movement! I went to the gym three times a week but did not get out for a walk the other days of the week.

2) Play with the cats for 10 minutes. (0%) My poor cattttts.

3) Do psoriasis treatment every day. (80%) Having a really bad psoriasis flare for the majority of May meant I was on top of those treatments. I’d rather not have had a flare, though.

4) Take my meds. (80%) Getting better about this!

5) Check my bank account daily and update my budget spreadsheet. (64%) Not great, but it is what it is.

Tasks

1) Take Gladys for her biyearly check-up. Complete! She needed an oil change and some fluids topped off, but nothing major. Yay!

2) Declutter and reorganize my dresser drawers. Not complete. I kept thinking about this goal and how I wanted to get it done, and then pushing it off to another day.

3) Get a new nose piercing. Complete! I switched out my stud for a hoop and I love it so much.

4) Go to the gym three times a week. Complete! It’s so satisfying to complete this goal every week.

5) Put my bedroom door back on its hinges. Lol, no.

June Goals

Small Steps Toward My Yearly Goals

1) Watch two seasons of a TV show. Right now, I’m halfway through season one of Suits (and omg, it’s so good!) and will probably also watch season three of Bridgerton to round this out. (I’ve been waiting to watch Bridgerton until all the episodes were released, so I’m excited to dive in soon!)

2) Work through one more section of my “I’m Dead, Now What?” workbook. It’s not a fun workbook, but it is necessary to do.

3) Research cake decorating classes to find an option that works for me. This is one of my yearly goals and I keep forgetting about it! I just need to figure out what options are around me, pricing, and who I can force to go with me!

Daily(ish) Routines

1) Daily movement. Let’s hope I do better in June.

2) Play with the cats for 10 minutes three times a week. Maybe I should bump this down to once a week? Gosh. Why is this goal so difficult?

3) Do psoriasis treatment every day. My flare has abated but the dry skin is back, so I have to keep on top of these treatments. I’m seeing my dermatologist in two weeks and cannot wait to discuss how to get to maintenance with this damn condition.

4) Take my meds. Let’s make it into the 90s in June, yes?!

5) Check my bank account daily and update my budget spreadsheet. I have a lot to say about my budget, but I’ll save that for my spending post coming later this week.

Tasks

1) Declutter the top drawer of my dresser. It feels very overwhelming to think about going through the whole dresser at once, so I think if I break this goal into smaller tasks, it has the potential to get done. So all I need to focus on this month is the top dresser drawer!

2) Put my bedroom door back on its hinges. Rollover goal.

3) Go to the gym four times a week. I’ve been slowly increasing my gym usage and I think four days a week might be my sweet spot. But we’ll see! I’ll probably stick with four times a week for a bit and then decide if I want to increase it from there.

Do you have any goals for June?