Stephany Writes

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | May 2022

It’s my favorite time of the month! It’s time to assess how I did on my April goals and set some new intentions for May. Let’s do this!

April Goals

1) Have a no-spend month. Somewhat complete. I didn’t spend money on any purchases, but I did use Ubereats a few times, womp. However, I used it much less often (in Q1, I averaged $142 a month in Ubereats orders and in April, I spent just under $80!) so that’s a win for me.

2) Reorganize my Google Drive. Complete! It is so nice to have all of my documents organized into their folders and to not have dozens and dozens of untitled documents and spreadsheets floating around.

3) Move my body for 30 minutes every day. (25/30) Well, I didn’t move my body every day but I did move it more days than I didn’t, and I’m considering that a win. This month, I did 11 long walks, 10 spin classes, and 4 strength workouts.

4) Review 2016 and 2017 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. Complete!

5) Take the dogs to Salty Paws in Dunedin. Complete! The dogs couldn’t eat their ice cream fast enough. We’ll be back!

6) Fill up my water bottle every morning. I did this 6 days out of 30. Maybe in May, I can get to 10 days?

7) Make a doctor’s appointment. Not complete. I really hate being on an HMO insurance plan, bleh. I had to pay $225 out of pocket for my mole removal and another $150 for my emergency dental cleaning in April, and I know a regular doctor’s visit is at least $100 out of pocket (and who knows how much more things would be if I needed to see a PT for my leg pain). So I decided to put off the doctor’s visit for now. My HSA took a beating in April!

8) Eliminate red meat. Ugh, no. I eliminated it from my homemade nachos, switching to ground turkey. But giving up pepperoni pizza is going to be the hardest thing for me to do. 🙁

9) Decide on my tattoo design. Complete! While I haven’t sketched out the design (I have no artistic ability when it comes to drawing and there’s no way I could sketch out something like this, lol), I do have a few photos to show the tattoo artist when the time comes and I’m confident they’ll be able to turn my vision into reality.

10) Make an extra car payment. Complete! I am so proud of myself for making this happen. Financial goals are so, so hard for me.

May Goals

1) Move my body for 30 minutes every day. I really like this goal, even if there are some days when the last thing I want to do is work out or even go for a walk outside. I’m not someone naturally inclined toward exercise, so I need strict goals like these.

2) Review 2018 and 2019 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. Another month, another blog categorization goal. I’m nearing the finish line of the first part of this massive goal!

3) Fill up my water bottle every morning. Still not a habit, still on the list.

4) Update all of my blog pages. I recently noticed that a lot of my blog pages are out of date. I don’t even have my last cruise (from 2019!) on my Cruising page and the “about me” widget on my sidebar says I’m 32 still. Oops. Time for a refresh!

5) Try to trim the girls’ claws. Eloise will usually let me trim her claws but the last time I tried to corral Lila for a trim, it was a traumatic experience for the both of us so I haven’t attempted it again. They both use the numerous scratching pads around the apartment and their claws don’t grow long enough to irritate their footpad, but I would like to get into a monthly cadence of trimming their claws. So here we go, I’m going to attempt this sometime in May and see what happens.

6) Be in bed, lights out, at 11pm every night. My ideal bedtime is between 9:30-10:00, but since I am regularly going to bed at midnight on weeknights, I know I need to start with an incremental change. In May, I want to turn the lights out by 11pm. That means if I don’t get into bed until 11, I don’t get to read and play on my phone until midnight. It means I go directly to bed.

7) Find three tattoo artists to call. Breaking up a big goal like “get a new tattoo” is much easier when I break down each step into smaller goals. So my next goal is to find three tattoo artists I like. Bonus points if I call them for a consultation!

8) Research digital recipe book options. One of my goals this year is to put together a recipe book so that I can have an easy place to find the recipes I love. Right now, I don’t have any sort of system so I often make a recipe, love it, and promptly forget about it. I don’t think a physical recipe book would work for me so I’m hoping there are some digital options available.

9) Go for three 5K walks. I am wayyy behind on my goal of walking one 5K every month. I missed doing a 5K in both March and April, so now I need to triple up in May. Thankfully, my weekends won’t be too busy this month so I think I can get all of these walks in, as long as I prioritize them.

10) Eat one serving of fruit every day. A small, simple change. I think I can handle this!

Categories: Goals

2022 Goals | Q1 Recap

Happy Friday, friends! It has been a doozy of a week and I am excited for a relatively low-key weekend around here.

Since we’re settling into the second quarter of the year, I wanted to take some time to look back on my 2022 annual goals and report on my progress.

Three Big Goals

1) Reduce my sugar intake. Here are the things I wanted to do to reduce my sugar intake:

  • Get bloodwork done at the beginning of the year to give myself a starting point. Complete! I got bloodwork done in January. My glucose and A1C numbers are on the high end of normal and my cholesterol was on the low end of high.
  • Stop drinking soda at home. I have cut down to drinking smaller cans of soda (7.5 ounces) and I try my best to only have one of those a day. I’d like to get better about only drinking one can per day in Q2.
  • Drink more water. Ugh, no. This is still such a struggle for me.
  • Eat dessert in moderation. This is the area I’d really like to work on in Q2. I consume an incredible amount of sugar in my desserts. I like chocolate candies after lunch, a sweet treat to munch on in the afternoon, and, of course, that delicious after-dinner dessert. My goal is to have just 1-2 pieces of dark chocolate candy after lunch and my after-dinner dessert. That’s a starting point.
  • Cut down on the amount of creamer in my coffee. My coffee creamer doesn’t have a ton of added sugar (5g per tablespoon) but I could do a better job of having less of it.

2) Save $4,000 for a down payment. Ugh, barely any progress made. And I really need to get serious about this goal because every time I look at rent prices around me, I want to cry. (A coworker just told me she’s moving to a new apartment and her rent for a one-bedroom will be $2,200—utilities not included. All of the curse words!!)

3) Reorganize my blogging categories/tags. I set myself a specific goal for each quarter to tackle this massive goal. In Q1, I wanted to work through my blog posts from 2009-2015 and start a spreadsheet to list out each blog post and label the post with a specific category and some tags. I got that done, although it has turned into a much bigger project than I was expecting. Whew.

20 Fun Goals

1) Buy a new mattress. Not yet complete. I will likely get this done in Q3.

2) Complete the 2022 Unread Shelf Project. In progress. So far, I’ve read:

  • January (the book you’ve been putting off reading): The English Wife by Lauren Willig ★★★☆☆
  • February (a title you couldn’t resist): Wordslut by Amanda Montell ★★★☆☆
  • March (a memoir or biography): Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling ★★★★☆

3) Read all of the books added to my Goodreads TBR in 2017. (6/21) I need to read 5-6 books on this list per quarter to meet this goal, so I’m doing good so far! Some DNFs, some outstanding reads. It’s been a worthwhile project so far.

  • Columbine by Dave Cullen ★★★★★
  • I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson DNF
  • All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
  • Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit DNF
  • Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People by Nadia Bolz-Weber ★★★☆☆
  • Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
  • The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity Is Killing Young Women by Jessica Valenti
  • Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley ★★★★☆
  • Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
  • The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland by Rebekah Crane
  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
  • Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer
  • A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold
  • Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
  • Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
  • How to Be a Person in the World: Ask Polly’s Guide Through the Paradoxes of Modern Life by Heather Havrilesky
  • Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America by Jeff Chu ★★★☆☆
  • Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon
  • Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley
  • The Nix by Nathan Hill
  • The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord

4) Do 100 Peloton workouts. (17/100) I’m behind schedule with this goal by 8 workouts, thanks to a very lazy March. I’m hoping my goal of working out every day in April will help me catch up!

5) Restart my novel. No progress made.

6) Go back to therapy. Complete! I tried to start in January but that turned out to be a disaster. I had my first appointment with a new therapist on Monday, and it went really well. Fingers crossed she’s the one!

7) Watch 12 movies. (1/12) I may adjust this goal to include standup specials and documentaries, since I am just not someone who enjoys movies. I did watch Marry Me with a friend for Galentine’s Day and it was cute.

8) Watch 6 TV series. (1/6) So far, only one show and it was Only Murders in the Building. It only has one season so far, so it feels a bit like cheating to include it, but hey, it was a new show and I watched it and this is my goals list and I can do what I want. So there!

9) Visit NYC at Christmastime. Not complete.

10) Get my third tattoo. No progress made.

11) Walk one 5k a month, in a different place each time. (2/12) I missed doing a 5K in March, but I’m going to double-up in April to keep on track.

  • January 17, 2022 – Seminole Park – 2.82 miles with my mom and the dogs in 1 hour, 12 minutes
  • February 20, 2022 – Walsingham Park – 3.1 miles solo in 1 hour, 16 minutes

12) Redo my bathroom. No progress made.

13) Get microdermabrasion or laser treatment—whatever is the better option for dealing with my acne scars. No progress made.

14) Read Moby-Dick Emma. I switched this goal from Moby-Dick, which I could tell from the beginning wasn’t going to be for me, to Emma by Jane Austen. I’ve read 12% so far!

15) Go on one date a month. Zeroooo dates. Dating is stupid.

16) Put an extra $1,000 toward my car loan. No progress made.

17) Make 12 new recipes. (3/12) I’m doing well with this goal so far. It’s a pretty easy one!

18) Make a recipe book. No progress made. I need to find a good digital option for this!

19) Cut gluten out of my diet for one month. No progress made.

20) Buy a coffee table and a floor lamp. Complete! I bought a cute coffee table in January and a floor lamp in March.

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | April 2022

I did okay with my March goals – 6/10, and the ones I didn’t complete won’t be a huge surprise (walking, water, sigh). But I got the important goals done (like renewing my passport!) and I’m happy with how many goals I’ve been completing this year. I’m doing good! And I’m choosing to be proud of myself for what I have accomplished, not what I haven’t.

Here’s my report for March:

1) Renew my passport. Complete! There are so many steps to renewing a passport. I really wish I could just schedule an appointment and get it all done in one place! It’s nervewracking to have to mail it in and cross my fingers I did everything right. Anyway, the renewal has been mailed so now I just wait on pins and needles for it to go through!

2) Do a full-scale cleaning of my fridge and freezer. Complete! It felt so good to get this done. I was able to throw out so many expired condiments and freezer meals I have no intention of ever eating. (I was also very grateful that I didn’t find any troubling science experiments! Has that ever happened to you? I’ve had to throw out entire Tupperware containers of moldy food before. Ugh.) My fridge and freezer got a great wipe-down and everything is reorganized. It looks so much better!

3) Walk one mile every day (5/31). Oof.

4) Review 2014 and 2015 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. Complete! This is such a big goal, but I’m getting it done.

5) Track my time for a week. Complete! I enjoyed the experiment a lot. My thoughts here.

6) Fill up my water bottle every morning. Not complete. I am so bad at this.

7) Deal with my weird leg pain. Not complete. Most of you recommended that I see a PT about this leg pain. I meant to schedule a doctor’s appointment to get a referral, but just never got around to it.

8) Commit to a 10pm bedtime. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

9) Keep track of my phone usage throughout the month. Complete! It’s been very, very eye-opening to track my phone usage and see where I’ve been spending my time when I’m on my phone. A full report to come next week!

10) Start cutting down the girls’ treats. Complete! They are down to 22 calories/day in treatos, and I think that’s a good place for them to be. They haven’t been too annoyed with the reduced treats, so that’s a relief, ha.

April Goals

1) Have a no-spend month. I’ve decided that I want to challenge myself to a no-spend month once a quarter. I know some people don’t see the point in no-spend months because… when the challenge ends, won’t you just buy the things you put off buying? And maybe some people do, but that’s never something I’ve had to worry about for myself. A no-spend month for me is a lesson in discipline and not buying myself something I want just because I can. Plus, I am not a naturally frugal person and it’s good for me to give my bank account a break from the constant spending every now and then. My no-spend month means not spending money on frivolous purchases (toiletries and supplies are ok, nail polish and earrings are not) and I’m also going to challenge myself to abstain from takeout orders this month. Eeks!

2) Reorganize my Google Drive. I really wish there was a better way to organize my Google Drive. And maybe there is, but I just haven’t found it yet? (Please send me any links to beautifully organized Google Drives!) As it stands, I have a few color-coordinated folders that I forget to use. I have dozens and dozens and dozens of untitled documents and I have no idea what any of them are for. It’s time to dig in and figure out a better categorization system so that my Google Drive doesn’t feel like a digital wasteland anymore.

3) Move my body for 30 minutes every day. I am planning on alternating between Peloton workouts and long walks. I am committing to moving my body in some way every single day in April!

4) Review 2016 and 2017 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. Another month, another blog categorization goal.

5) Take the dogs to Salty Paws in Dunedin. I’ve been wanting to take Chip and Lucy to this adorable ice cream shop for dogs for a long time now. Making it a goal means I’m much more apt to make it happen!

6) Fill up my water bottle every morning. It’s going on the list until it becomes a habit.

7) Make a doctor’s appointment. I have a few concerns to address with my doctor: the weird leg pain as noted above, this lump on the arch of my foot (pretty sure it’s a fibroma, but my mom wants me to see my doc about it—in my 30s and still doing what my mom tells me to do!), and my hypoglycemia.

8) Eliminate red meat. One of the best ways to lower cholesterol is to eat less red meat and I tend to eat more of it than I should. I want to eliminate it fully from my diet in April and see how I feel.

9) Decide on my tattoo design. I have wanted to get a tattoo to commemorate my grandma for a while now but the pandemic put those plans on hold. I have a vague idea for my tattoo but I need to sketch it out so I at least have something to show the tattoo artist when it’s time to make the appointment.

10) Make an extra car payment. This will be a stretch goal, but I think I can get it done this month especially since it’s a three-paycheck month and I’m doing my no-spending, no-takeout challenge.

Do you have any goals this month?

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | March 2022

Happy Wednesday, friends! I woke up yesterday morning with a sore throat, and I was convinced the ‘rona had finally gotten to me. Thank goodness for those government-sponsored COVID-19 tests! I took one on Tuesday morning and it was clearly negative, which was a relief. Just your average, run-of-the-mill, off-brand virus, I guess!

I wasn’t as successful with my February goals as I was in January, but I still managed to knock off a good majority of them and I’m happy with my progress. Let’s review:

February Goals

1) Walk 1 mile every day (15/28). Well, I was more successful than not with this goal, but I could have done a lot better than I did. In general, I have enjoyed capping off my workday by shutting down my computer and going for a walk outside. The sun is just starting to set, it’s cool, and I usually use the time to send a Marco Polo video to Mikaela to catch her up on my life. I also cap off my workouts with a walk, so that’s an easy way to get in my mile. But then I also get lazy or it’s rainy or it’s too cold (<– I know, laugh all you want at me). But a habit usually takes a while to form, at least for me, so I’m just going to keep pushing myself to get outside and walk a mile until it feels like something I need to do.

2) Buy a coffee table. Complete! She’s a beauty and I love the way the coffee table ties my living room together.

3) Bring down my phone’s screen time average. Not complete. I’m still averaging about the same daily/weekly screen time as January. In fact, I think my screen time increased in February. Oops. But I have a plan for this in my March goals.

4) Review 2012 and 2013 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. Complete! I want to pat myself on the back for doing two month-long blogging breaks in 2012 and 2013. That helped speed up the process for me!

5) Clean my oven. Complete. I did this on Monday (nothing like waiting until the last second, huh?) and my oven looks so, so, so much better. I couldn’t get all of the grime off, but I get the majority of it off and that’s all I care about. (I used Easy-Off’s Fume Free oven cleaner, based on Nicole’s recommendation!)

6) Start Moby-Dick. Complete, but not in the way you think. I added Moby-Dick to the Serial app (where I read all my classics!) but I was so bored by the first few issues and then saw that it has a terrible Goodreads rating (3.5, which is astonishing for a classic!) so I’ve decided to scrap my plans to read Moby-Dick and am instead going to read Emma by Jane Austen. I haven’t liked a single Jane Austen book I’ve read (sorry, Austen-heads), but Emma seems to have been the inspiration for so many movies (Clueless, anyone?) so I think it may be one I actually end up liking! We’ll see.

7) Keep ice water near me at all times during my working hours. I was semi-successful with this goal, but not enough to consider it complete. I downloaded a habit tracker app and last week, I decided I needed “fill up water bottle” to be one of the habits I’m tracking. It’s truly insane that I have to do that, but hey, whatever it takes to help me drink more water and be goddamn hydrated throughout the day. If I have my water bottle near me, I’ll drink the water. It’s just the process of filling up my water bottle that I’m the most resistant to, it seems.

8) Research online mattress options. Complete! I reviewed 7 different mattress brands—Caspar, Helix, Tuft and Needle, Nectar, Tempur-Pedic, Purple, and Avocado—and my top choices right now are Caspar, Helix, and Tuft and Needle. They all have a 100-night trial period; Caspar and Helix will come and pick up the mattress after that trial period if it’s not working out while Tuft and Needle will help me arrange a place to donate the mattress. There are nearby stores that I can try out Caspar and Tuft and Needle mattresses, but Helix caught my eye because they have a mattress made for plus-sized individuals. In any event, I’m looking at easily spending $2,000+ for a new mattress (with a base) but I’ll likely wait for a good sale to bring that price down as much as possible.

9) Spend time every day on dating apps. Not complete. This was not a goal I should have made, ugh.

10) Reorganize my walk-in closet. Complete! I really needed to do this and I’m glad I did. My closet is usually pretty well-organized, but I was getting in the habit of just throwing things on the shelves with no rhyme or reason to the madness. I took everything off the shelves, figured out what to keep and what to toss, and then reorganized it all so that everything fits on the shelves in a much better way.

March Goals

1) Renew my passport. This was a goal I set for myself last year, and then I realized it’s quite expensive to renew your passport ($130). I didn’t plan on leaving the country anytime soon so I put it off. But since I’ll be in Canada in June, I need to renew my passport! There are a billion steps to this process and I’ve set them all out in my Todoist app, so I just need to start crossing things off!

2) Do a full-scale cleaning of my fridge and freezer. About once a year, I like to do a full-scale cleaning of my fridge and freezer. I’m forever tidying it up—throwing away old food and expired condiments—but I don’t do a full-scale cleaning where I take everything out, wipe down the shelves, and reorganize everything as often as I should. March seems like as good a time as any to do that.

3) Walk 1 mile every day. I’m going to keep this goal on my list until it becomes an ingrained habit.

4) Review 2014 and 2015 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. I’m just trucking along with this major goal.

5) Track my time for a week. Lisa recently did this exercise and I loved reading her synopsis of how she spends her time, and I’d love to do the same. It will be interesting to see how much time is devoted to things like work, exercise, reading, and blogging!

6) Fill up my water bottle every morning. This was a massive fail last month, although I started getting better about it near the end of the month and ended up drinking so much water! (I felt like I was peeing every 30 minutes, ugh.) I’m just going to keep this as a goal until it becomes ingrained in me, like the walking goal.

7) Deal with my weird leg pain. This is going to be hard to explain, so bear with me. For about 6 or so months now, I’ve had this weird thigh pain. It’s occurring on the side of my right thigh, and I’m not sure if it’s my IT band or another muscle that’s causing the pain. It only really causes me problems when I’m trying to cross my legs (like, it can be excruciatingly painful to lift my right foot to set it on my left thigh) and sometimes I’ll feel a throbbing pain in the area. Squats can be really difficult to do. Things like that. I don’t know what is causing this pain, but I need to figure it out. I’m debating if I want to see my doctor so she can refer me to a specialist, or if I want to just commit to a stretching/icing routine for a month to see if that provides any relief. But one way or another, I need to deal with this weird leg pain!

8) Commit to a 10pm bedtime. I’ve gotten into a really bad habit of staying up late and not crawling into bed until 11pm or later. I tell myself I’ll just sleep in until 8 or take a nap to counteract the effects of the late night, and then get frustrated with myself when I’m tired all day long. I used to be a stickler for my bedtime, but ever since working from home, I’ve veered away from that routine. I’d like to begin my routine at 8pm every night so that I can be in bed reading by 9 with lights out by 10. Let’s see if I can do it!

9) Keep track of my phone usage throughout the month. I want to do a deep dive into my phone usage this month to see how much time I’m spending on certain apps. How do my 6 hours of screen time break down? What apps do I spend the most time on? I want to take a close look at my screen time usage so I can set up time limits.

10) Start cutting down on the girls’ treats. Every time I take Lila to the vet, I’m worried they’re going to say something about her weight. At her appointment on Friday, she weighed in at 12.5 lbs, which means she gained a pound over the last year. (In contrast, Ellie is 9.5 lbs.) Of course, we are a fat-positive household with no diet talk allowed, but I do know I need to try to stem her, er, growth. Both girls are free-feeding and I really don’t think Lila is overeating (I give them 1 cup of food split between two bowls, and I’m often only filling up those bowls a few times a week), but I tend to overdo it in the snack department. On a good day, they’re getting 10 Temptations and 6 Greenies (32 calories) but sometimes I may give them an extra handful of Temptations or a Meaty Stick (about 9 calories). So that’s a good 40-50 calories in treats alone, when they should only be having 200 calories total per day. I just can’t say no to their sweet little faces, meowing at me for treats! Ugh. Anyway, I’m going to try to cut them down to 20 calories total between Temptations and Greenies with a Meaty Stick thrown in twice a week as an extra-special treat. Wish me luck!

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | February 2022

I killed it with my January goals. Straight-up killed it. I completed 8.5 of the 10 goals I set! Here’s what I think helped: using Todoist to list out my monthly goals and put in subtasks to help me complete each goal. For example, for the “get bloodwork done” goal, I set up three subtasks: call doctor for referral, schedule bloodwork appointment, and go to the appointment. Breaking down my goals into these smaller subtasks really helps my brain! What also helped was using a paper planner to write down weekly goals every Monday. I’m on attempt #850 on using a paper planner and maybe this time it will stick! I bought one that has a weekly spread with the days listed out on one side with room to write down appointments and other responsibilities; the other side has a lined section where I can write down my weekly goals. I’m hoping these tools can help me with my February goals, too!

But before we get into February, let’s look back on my January goals.

January Goals

1) Find a place to donate old prescription glasses. Complete! Visionworks was happy to take my old glasses, and I was happy to finally get them off my hands.

2) Have a no-spend month. Complete! I am so proud of myself for not spending any money on frivolous purchases in January. It was much-needed. Next, I want to do a no-spend money where I don’t spend money on frivolous purchases and restaurants. That will be the true test of strength.

3) Find a dermatologist. Complete! I was able to find one pretty easily by Googling “dermatologist near me” and the first one that popped up accepted my insurance! I have an appointment scheduled for next Friday.

4) Switch to having just one 10-ounce can of Dr. Pepper for lunch. Complete! (Mostly.) Of course, there were some days this month when I had a little more Dr. Pepper (usually on weekends), but for the most part, I did really well with this goal. My Dr. Pepper cans are actually 7.5 ounces, not 10 ounces, so I drank even less than I originally planned for! A lot of you suggested drinking flavored seltzer water in place of my soda, and I’ve started keeping lots of cans of Bubly on hand and it really does the trick for me!

5) Set up tracking spreadsheets for some of my yearly goals. Complete! This was a really easy goal to accomplish, and a fun one, too. I like having an easy place to look at all the goals I set for myself and to keep track of my progress.

6) Work through years 2009-2011 of blog posts and make a spreadsheet to list out the posts, categories, and tags. Complete! I finished up my 2011 blog posts in the nick of time.

7) Set up two recurring savings deposits: for my new mattress and for my house down payment. Not complete. My credit card bill was a bit out of control after the holidays and other stuff, so I prioritized paying that down, which meant I didn’t have a lot left over for savings.

8) Get bloodwork done. Complete! It’s good to have a starting point.

9) Clean my interior doors and baseboards. Complete! It wasn’t a fun job, but it was a job that got done. Woop!

10) Make one recipe in the air fryer each week. Half-complete. I was doing well with this goal in the first half of January, but fell off towards the latter part of the month. Oh well!

February Goals

1) Walk 1 mile every day. Based on my bloodwork report, I realized I need to take some steps to lower my cholesterol and I think daily activity can certainly help. My goal: Take a 1-mile walk every day. That’s all I have to do! Easy enough.

2) Buy a coffee table. I think February is the month I finally buy my coffee table. I have my eye on this one from Wayfair. Hopefully, it’s not too difficult to put together.

3) Bring down my phone’s screen time average. You guys, it’s embarrassing to receive my weekly screentime report every Sunday. Currently, my daily average is around 6 hours. !!! I use my phone to listen to podcasts/audiobooks, but I also spend a lot of time on Happy Color, playing silly phone games, scrolling through Instagram, etc. I’d love to bring down my daily average by at least one hour, but more would be better.

4) Review 2012 and 2013 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. It has definitely been an eye-opening experience to read through what I was writing about in my early twenties. In 2013, I started at the job I am still at, and I’m excited to see what I talked about at that time in my life!

5) Clean my oven. Remember how I had a goal every month in 2021 to clean my oven? I still haven’t cleaned it. But in February, it’s happening!

6) Start Moby-Dick. I have yet to begin my reading of Moby-Dick, mainly because I’m always intimidated to start a new classic on the Serial app (I don’t know why!), but I’m going to start the journey this month.

7) Keep ice water near me at all times during my working hours. I made this a goal for myself early in 2021, but never really followed through. I get really dehydrated during the day, but there’s something about going into the kitchen and filling up my water bottle with water and ice that is such a goddamn struggle. Instead, I’ll just go into the kitchen and take a long chug of Gatorade. My goal is to do this in the morning before I even sit down at my desk as part of my morning routine. I know I will sip on it throughout the day and hopefully end the day feeling a lot less dehydrated than I currently do.

8) Research online mattress options. I’m pretty sure I’ve never in my life bought a mattress for myself (whaaat), and when I have needed a mattress, we’ve always gone to a regular mattress store. But it’s 2022 and everyone buys their mattresses online now! I know of many different mattress brands (Caspar, Helix, Purple, etc.), but I’m not sure which option will be best for me in terms of comfort and price. I want to spend some time this month researching different mattress brands and maybe even make a comparison spreadsheet (!) to figure it out. (And if you’ve ever bought a mattress online, I want to know more!)

9) Spend time every day on my dating apps. Ugh, I have a goal to go on one date per month this year, but that goal will be hard to reach if I never open my dating apps! There are just so many other apps on my phone that I’d rather go to than Hinge or Bumble. But I also want to find love! The constant struggle of the single person, sigh.

10) Reorganize my walk-in closet. I spent some time in December reorganizing my walk-in closet, but it’s still not exactly where I want it to be. I need to spend a little more time reconfiguring how I want things to be organized on the shelves.

Do you have any goals for February?