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.

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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?

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.

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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?

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.

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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?

April Goals

Small Steps Towards My Yearly Goals

1) Hang up 3 more prints for my living room gallery wall. Not complete. It was on my to-do list every week and kept being the task I never got around to.

2) Start researching rewards credit cards: make a spreadsheet to compare at least 5 cards. Complete! The goal here was the make the spreadsheet and that’s what I did.

3) Watch two seasons of a TV show. Not complete. I finally finished Mr. and Mrs. Smith last night, so at least I’m not three seasons behind coming into May, ha.

4) Fill out the first section of the “I’m Dead, Now What?” book. Complete! It was a pretty easy task since it only involved filling out some personal info.

5) Clean up my categories/tags. Not complete, but I did spend time every week working toward this goal. Hopefully I can finish this up in May!

Daily(ish) Routines

1) Daily movement. (86% successful) I’m very happy with my daily movement goal. I’ve been doing two gym workouts per week, 1-2 walks outside per week, a stretching workout, and sometimes a quick arm strength-training workout.

2) Play with the cats for 10 minutes. (33%) Ohh, this was a struggle. I even brought down the goal to doing this three times per week (because doing it daily was a very silly idea for me!) My poor cats.

3) Do psoriasis treatment every day. (71%) I would have liked to be a lot more successful with this goal in April, but it is what it is. Treatment includes medicated shampoo and two different types of steroid oils (one of the steroids helps with dry skin, the other with itchiness).

4) Take my meds. (73%) Sigh.

5) Go to bed by 10:30 p.m. (0%) I was doing so bad with this goal that I finally accepted my fate that getting to bed at 10:30 isn’t something I care enough to do. I’d rather go to bed at 11-11:30 and wake up a little later in the morning. In the middle of the month, I changed this goal to checking my bank account every day and I was 71% successful with that goal.

TASKS

1) Install the TubShroom. Complete! I installed it yesterday, so nothing like waiting until the last possible minute, but I got it done. Yay!

2) Declutter my “Deal With It Later” basket. Complete! I did this early in the month and it felt good to get everything in the basket to its proper location.

3) Get a new nose piercing. Not complete. Womp, womp. I didn’t have time this month to go to the piercing place for a custom hoop, so I ordered some nose rings from Amazon but could not get the hoop into my nose for the life of me. Wah!

4) Go to the gym twice a week. Complete! We took lots of fun classes this month: HIIT, some strength classes, hot yoga, etc.

5) Put my bedroom door back on its hinges. Not complete. Another task that just kept falling off the to-do list.

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May Goals

Small Steps Towards My Yearly Goals

1) Hang up the rest of the prints I have for my living room gallery wall. Rollover goal.

2) Start researching rewards credit cards: add at least 5 cards to my spreadsheet to compare. Spreadsheet is made and has one credit card on the list, and I want to add a few more in May to continue my research project.

3) Watch two seasons of a TV show. Maybe I’ll finally do this in May? I want to watch Apples Never Fall and maybe Lessons in Chemistry.

4) Read another Agatha Christie novel. I’m not sure which one I’ll read next – maybe I’ll switch over to Miss Marple this time? Your recommendations are encouraged!

5) Clean up my categories/tags. Rollover goal.

Daily(ish) Routines

1) Daily movement. The goal for May is to increase my percentage, maybe into the 90s?

2) Play with the cats for 10 minutes three times per week. Listen, if I can do this even 50% of the time in May, I’ll be a happy girl.

3) Do psoriasis treatment every day. Scalp psoriasis continues to be an annoyance of my life, so I must complete my daily treatments. They are helping!

4) Take my meds. Okay, Steph, let’s make it into the 80s for successful attempts in May. You got this!

5) Check my bank account daily and update my budget spreadsheet. This is a very doable, very easy goal for me when I remember to do it.

TASKS

1) Take Gladys for her biyearly check-up. Gladys, my car, gets a check-up every six months, and I’ve already scheduled this for the last week of May when I have a day off before I leave for New Orleans. Hopefully all she needs are some fresh fluids and a tire rotation, but we shall see!

2) Declutter and reorganize my dresser drawers. I mentioned in a Five for Friday post that my dresser drawers needed to be decluttered and I needed to invest in some drawer organization, so May is the month I plan to do that!

3) Get a new nose piercing. Rollover goal.

4) Go to the gym three times a week. I want to continue doing two classes per week and add in one morning of cardio using the machines at the gym.

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

Do you have any goals for May?