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?

March Goals Recap

Small Steps Towards My Yearly Goals

1) Install floating shelves in my kitchen. Complete, and just in the nick of time! My stepdad came over yesterday and hung up a shelf. I wanted to have two shelves, but I quickly realized I could only have one, otherwise the other shelf would have made opening and closing my freezer very difficult.

2) Read Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. Complete!

3) Watch two seasons of a TV show. Not complete. I watched two episodes of one TV show. So there’s that.

4) Buy the “I’m Dead, Now What?” planner and fill out one section. Half-complete. I bought the planner, but I have not opened the planner.

5) Clean up my categories/tags. Not complete.

Daily(ish) Routines

1) Go for a walk Monday-Friday (three of which should be 30 minutes or more). I was less successful with this goal once my sciatica started to act up because even a 15-minute walk causes my back to hurt.

2) Take my meds daily. Complete-ish. Taking my meds is one of those tasks I do as my morning/evening routine. However, if I skip either of these routines for any reason, it also means I forget to take my meds. No bueno!

3) Do my skincare routine daily. Mostly complete. I don’t do my skincare routine every day of the week, but probably 80-90% of the time and that’s good enough for me.

4) Continue doing 30-minute standing sessions once a day. Another goal that was going well until sciatica. It hurts to stand for too long so I’m not going to worry about this goal until after sciatica treatment is complete.

5) Go to bed by 10:30 p.m. Not complete, ugh.

TASKS

1) Get my tub unclogged and install the TubShroom. Half-complete. The tub was unclogged but the TubShroom remains in its packaging.

2) Declutter my junk closet. Complete! It looks so much better.

Big things: got rid of my vacuum (it was falling apart), moved my broom and mop to the wall, and reorganized the rest of the items differently.

3) Do a big Goodwill drop. Complete!

4) Do my taxes. Complete! In the end, I owed $8 and that was only because TurboTax’s “free” service cost $59 and my tax refund was $51. Not too shabby!

5) Do a week of time logging. Complete! I’m excited to share my results next week.

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April Goals

Small Steps Towards My Yearly Goals

1) Hang up 3 more prints for my living room gallery wall. Once these have been added, I think the gallery wall will finally be complete!

2) Start researching rewards credit cards: make a spreadsheet to compare at least 5 cards. One of my goals this year is to switch my credit card to one that offers rewards. Just need to do the research to find the one that works best with my lifestyle.

3) Watch two seasons of a TV show. I am currently behind on my goal to watch one season of a TV show every month. In April, I’m once again challenging myself to watch two seasons of a show. I want to finish Mr. and Mrs. Smith and watch Apples Never Fall, which just came out on Hulu. I only have 6 more episodes of Mr. and Mrs. Smith left and ANF has 7 episodes, so it is an ENTIRELY doable goal!

4) Fill out the first section of the “I’m Dead, Now What?” book.

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

Daily(ish) Routines

1) Daily movement. It can be a 10-minute stretching routine right before bed or a hard workout at the gym, but I need to move my body every day no matter what.

2) Play with the cats for 10 minutes. I want to be better about playing with the cats! I have some fun teaser wands and bought some new toys for them (including catnip bubbles! We’ll see how that goes…), and while I tend to find playing with the cats kind of boring, I know they enjoy it so I need to do it!

3) Do psoriasis treatment every day. I’ve talked about my scalp psoriasis on this blog many times. I’ve started a new regimen from my dermatologist that includes using a prescription-grade shampoo twice a week and treating the dry spots on my scalp nightly with a steroid solution, but I’m not always great at remembering to do those nightly treatments. If I want my psoriasis to go into maintenance, I need to be better about treating it!

4) Take my meds. I really shouldn’t be this bad at taking my meds every day, but alas.

5) Go to bed by 10:30 p.m. A goal that is so very difficult for me, but I’m committed to getting back to a normal bedtime!

TASKS

1) Install the TubShroom. Rollover goal.

2) Declutter my “Deal With It Later” basket. The basket where I just throw all of the things I don’t have time to put in their proper locations is overflowing so it’s time to bring it out of the closet and go through everything in there.

3) Get a new nose piercing. It’s been two months since I got my nose pierced, which means I can graduate to a hoop piercing now! I want to go to the same place where I got the piercing done so they can fit me for a properly sized hoop. Apparently, they are all different sizes because humans have differently sized noses—who knew?!

4) Go to the gym twice a week. I’m not putting pressure on myself to use my gym any more than this! I’m starting small and my mom and I are trying to find two fun classes to take every week. I don’t like taking the same class every week, so we want to switch it up to keep things interesting.

5) Put my bedroom door back on its hinges. I took my bedroom door off its hinges way back in January so my reading chair would fit through the doorway, but I have yet to put it back. I never close my bedroom door so there isn’t a huge need for this, but it’s a task I should do anyway.

What’s a goal on your list for April?