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Stephany Writes

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.

  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024
  • April 2024
  • May 2024
  • June 2024

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)

  • Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – ★★★★☆
  • Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie – ★★★★☆
  • A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie – ★★★★☆

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?

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | May 2024

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.


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?

Categories: Goals

2024 Goals | Q1 Recap

It’s time to check in on how I’m doing on my 2024 goals! I set a lot of goals for myself this year, as I always do, and it’s been fun working through some of them. I feel like I’ve gotten a lot more accomplished than I imagined, so that feels good. It helps to make my yearly goals an active part of my monthly goal-setting process so I remember what I’m striving for! So, without further ado, let’s get into it:

HOME

1. Create a book nook in my bedroom. I made huge progress on this goal by finding the perfect cozy reading chair for the corner of my bedroom. I also added a side table (which I already had on hand, so I didn’t have to spend extra money!) so things are going well with this goal. Next up is to decorate the wall with some floating bookshelves and bookish prints.

2. Finish my living room gallery wall. I should be able to mark this complete in Q2! I added some pieces to the wall in Q1 and it just needs a few more prints to be 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. Maybe a Q3 goal.

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.

  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024

3. Add at least $1,000 to my emergency fund by the end of the year. No progress made.

4. Pay off the majority of my LASIK bill. I’m making payments, but I’d like to start making extra payments toward it in Q2, if possible.

5. Complete a no-spend month. Not yet. Maybe a Q3 goal.

HEALTH

1. Figure out an exercise routine that works for me. When I originally made this goal, I wrote, “I do not want to join a gym.” Joke’s on me because I joined a gym in March and I’m so happy I did! Right now, taking two workout classes a week at the gym is working well for me. I’m also trying to get movement in other ways throughout the week, like a 15-minute walk outside, a stretching workout, etc. So far, so good.

2. Lower my resting heart rate. Currently, my resting heart rate according to my Apple watch is 92 BPM. Hopefully, after a few more months at the gym, that number will improve!

3. Use my standing desk more often – get to a place where I’m standing for two hours each day. I was doing pretty well with this goal (standing for about 30 minutes of my day to work my way up to two hours), but then sciatica hit. Hoping once I’m doing with my chiropractic treatments, I can get back to this goal!

4. Get a sleep study done. I’m picking up the equipment to do an at-home sleep study on Tuesday, so I’ll have this done in Q2!

5. Be able to comfortably walk 3 miles regularly. No progress made toward this goal specifically, but I am trying to do harder workouts at the gym, which will increase my endurance and fitness levels.

HOBBIES

1. Read 100 books. (28/100) I am one book ahead of schedule!

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

  • Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie – ★★★★☆
  • Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie – ★★★★☆

3. Reach 100 listeners per episode on the podcast. So far this year, our best episode was the one we recorded with Mikaela all about being an enneagram 1 (71 plays). We’re averaging around 52 listeners per episode, so we’ve got some work to do to bring up those numbers!

4. Update the blog with a new theme and reorganized categories/tags/pages. I’m working on reorganizing my categories and tags right now, but I’m hoping to launch a new blog theme in Q2.

5. Watch one season of a show every month. (1/12) I am behind on this goal!

  • January: Only Murders in the Building, season 3

FUN STUFF

1. Spend a long weekend at Rainbow River. Take a solo vacation. We decided not to do the long weekend at Rainbow River, so instead I’m thinking about doing a solo vacation. I’d like to make it a reading vacation where I wouldn’t feel pressured to get out and see the sights, but rather enjoy some time to myself in a cute Airbnb. I have my eye on a trip to the other coast of Florida, Deerfield Beach, because they have a new romance-centric bookstore called Steamy Lit that I’ve been dying to go to! So we’ll see if I can make it happen.

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 received some good recommendations in my original post so I need to go back and try one of those!

6. Listen to one new album every month. (3/12) On track!

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

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. No progress made. My current priority is getting a new carry-on suitcase, which I’ll need for trips I have planned in May and June.

10. Start working through the “I’m Dead, Now What?” planner. I bought the planner! But I need to start working through it.

What’s something you accomplished recently (big or small!)?

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Welcome!

Hi, I'm Stephany! (She/her) I'm a 30-something single lady, living in Florida. I am a bookworm, cat mom, podcaster, and reality TV junkie. I identify as an Enneagram 9, an introvert, and a Highly Sensitive Person. On this blog, you will find stories about my life, book reviews, travel experiences, and more. Welcome!

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