Stephany Writes

Categories: Life

My Ideal Schedule

I’ve been struggling with my schedule for a long while now. Working from home was always my dream (as someone with high sensitivity and social anxiety, being able to control my environment and not be around people all the time has done wonders for my mental health). While I never thought a global pandemic would be the reason I started working from home full time, that’s just what happened and I am thankful that I really, really enjoy WFH life. I also realized that work from home devops jobs, as the remote work trend creates opportunities for individuals worldwide, fostering economic growth and inclusivity.

But my schedule? It’s been all over the place since March 2020. At first, I wasn’t worried about giving myself some sort of schedule. We were all struggling through the scary early days of a pandemic and just making it through each day was enough. But it’s now been almost two years of working from home and it’s more than time for me to have a better daily schedule/routine.

Before I talk about what I envision my ideal schedule being, let’s first discuss what my schedule looks like these days:

  • 6:30ish: If it’s a workout day, I’m up around 6:15-6:30 to do my workout. It’s either a 30-minute spin class followed by a 1-mile walk or a 1-mile walk followed by a 20-minute strength class. (All on the Peloton app.) My goal is always to be up and out of bed by 6, but I usually snooze my alarm until 6:30.
  • 7:30ish: Breakfast time. I make eggs (either fried or scrambled) and cinnamon toast. I usually have iced coffee, too. These days, I read blogs while eating breakfast.
  • 8:30ish: I wash all of my breakfast dishes, brush my teeth, and do my skincare routine. Sometimes I run out of time to do all of this, so I have to do it during a work break.
  • 9:00-6:00: Work! Throughout the workday, I take lots of breaks. (Typically, I work for about an hour and then take a 15-20 minute break and continue to do that throughout the day, depending on the meetings I have.) The break may entail reading on the couch, doing a cleaning task, reading blogs, or working on a blog post.
  • 6:00-6:45: I’m usually wrapping up my workday sometime around 6, maybe closer to 6:30 if I get caught up in a work task. And then I need a moment to veg on the couch before starting dinner. I’ll either listen to a podcast and play Happy Color on my phone, or read my book. Sometimes, my mom and I will FaceTime with each other.
  • 7:00ish: I make dinner and eat it while watching something on TV. I’ll usually watch two episodes if it’s a 30-minute show.
  • 9:00ish: Since I’m usually not sitting down and having dinner until 7:30 or later, I often don’t start preparing for bed until after 9. My nighttime routine involves tidying up my apartment, washing the dinner dishes, scooping litter boxes (I do this every other night), brushing my teeth, and doing my skincare routine. And I am so slow about it! Usually, I’ll set a time for 10 minutes and try to do as much as I can, and then I’ll take a break. (I try not to sit down with my phone because then I’ll get sucked into social media and I’ll be on the couch for dayssss.)
  • 10:30ish: I’ll finally finish up my nighttime routine so I can go to bed! I’ll read for a bit and then turn on ASMR Youtube videos to help me fall asleep.
  • 11:30ish: Lights out.

Kinda chaotic, kinda exhausting, eh? One thing to note is that my work schedule is very flexible. While I need to be logged in and available during “normal” work hours (9am-5pm), I don’t have a specific time I have to start working. I could start my workday much earlier so that I could log off around 4 or 5, but I just really like having a slow, relaxing morning. My mornings used to be so busy and rushed when I worked in an office, and I hated it. Ideally, I’d start my workday at 8 so I can log off by 5, but that just feels very ambitious right now.

Here’s what I want my days to look like:

  • 6:00am-7:00am: Some sort of exercise. It would be nice to make this a normal part of every morning. Three days a week (likely Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays), I’d do a “hard” workout: a 30-minute spin or strength class followed by a 1-mile walk. Two days a week, I’d do two loops around my apartment (nearly 1.5 miles) followed by a short, gentle stretching class.
  • 7:00am-8:00am: Make breakfast for myself, eat while reading blogs, and tidy up the kitchen afterward.
  • 8:00am-8:30am: Take a shower, do my skincare routine, and make my bed.
  • 8:30am-5:30pm: Work! It would be nice to log in by 8:30 so I can be done for the workday before 6.
  • 5:30pm-6:00pm: Reading block. I really crave a bit of breathing room between logging off work and starting my evening routine. Having a half-hour to lay on the couch and read would feel so rewarding.
  • 6:00pm-7:30pm: Make dinner. Watch one 30-minute show while eating. Clean kitchen afterward. Instead of spending your precious time scrubbing floors, consider outsourcing this task to a local floor cleaner.
  • 7:30pm-8:00pm: Blogging block. I can use this time to work on a blog post, read blogs, respond to comments, answer emails, etc.
  • 8:00pm-9:00pm: Do my nighttime routine (clean litter boxes, tidy apartment, do my skincare routine/brush teeth).
  • 9:00pm-10:00pm: Get into bed. Read my book and watch ASMR videos on Youtube until I’m sleepy.
  • 10:00pm: Lights out!

Looking at this schedule makes me sigh with happiness. I want this schedule! There are just a few new habits I need to implement to make it work:

  • First, I need to stop hitting the snooze button. It’s just so tempting to hit snooze and give myself 10-15 minutes to wake up. I’m just not the type of person who can get out of bed right when my alarm goes off. I need at least 10 minutes to wake myself up. How I’m going to solve this: I’m planning on re-downloading the Sleep Cycle app. I used to use this app religiously many years ago, but stopped because it required leaving my phone under my pillow all night long and that was annoying. I did like that it tracked my sleeping habits, though, and had a very gentle alarm that would slowly start going off about 15-20 minutes before I set my wake-up time. The alarm starts going off when I’m in my lightest phase of sleep, so that the wake-up isn’t so jarring. (And with the new version of the app, I can leave my phone on my bedside table!)
  • Second, I need to stop using my phone in the morning. I’ll usually spend a few minutes in the morning sleepily reading any notifications that came through overnight, scrolling through Instagram, and going through my emails. Then I’ll bring my phone in the bathroom with me as I do my morning pee where I’ll play Happy Color. I’m embarrassed to admit how long I can stay in the bathroom as I try to finish up a picture I’m coloring, but it’s very ridiculous and leads to me not starting my workout until 6:45 or later. So, anyway, I really need to get in the habit of not using my phone in the morning. How I’m going to solve this: I’m going to change my Do Not Disturb settings to last until 8 a.m. That way, I won’t see any notifications when I wake up. I can just turn off my alarm and then not use my phone until my workout is over.
  • Lastly, I need to work through my nighttime routine in a much more efficient manner. I am sooo very slow with my nighttime routine. In reality, it shouldn’t take me more than 30 minutes, but I can stretch it into an hour and a half if I’m not careful. I need to be more efficient so I can get into bed at a reasonable hour. How I’m going to solve this: With a timer! When I start my nighttime routine, I’m going to set a 15-minute timer and try to get as many things done in that time as I can. Then, I’ll set a 5-minute timer for a short break. And then I’ll set another 15-minute timer. I think setting a timer not only as I go about my nighttime routine but also as I take a short break will help me get through it much, much quicker. (Maybe I will one day get to a place where I can speed through my nighttime routine without breaks, but right now, I need those breaks.)

I really hope that, by figuring out what my ideal schedule looks like and what changes I need to implement to make sure I can actually make it happen (i.e., stop hitting that snooze button!) that I can enjoy a schedule that more closely aligns with my goals and needs.

Do you have any bad habits related to your daily routine that you’d like to change?

Categories: Life

My Budgeting Process

My budgeting process has evolved greatly throughout the years, and I’ve tried a whole range of budgeting tools. Spreadsheets, software, budgeting journals—you name it, I’ve probably tried it. And while there are some great apps like Mint and You Need a Budget out there, I’ve returned again and again to my tried and true method of meticulously detailing my spending on a spreadsheet. I know I could automate my budgeting, but it just works best for me to make it a manual process so I can really see where my money is going and how I need to adjust during any given month.

The first thing I want to talk about is why I detail my budgeting and spending this way. I have a very complicated history with personal finance, as I grew up poor and never learned proper budgeting skills. My father struggled with multiple addictions and my mom’s job as a preschool teacher didn’t provide her with enough financial stability to make it on her own (especially with two kids), so we struggled a lot. We were evicted from multiple apartments, depended on cash advances and family support, and lived with my grandparents for a time while my mom got on her feet after leaving my dad. My mom went back to school after the divorce and the school loans she got were how we survived. (Fun side note: My mom recently paid off all of her school loans! She really never thought she would be able to do that, considering at one point they were in the six figures.)

After graduating college, I started working at a job that paid me $28,000 a year, which is not enough to survive on as a single person. Most of my twenties were spent just trying to get by, saving very little and dealing with massive credit card debt. (So much so that one of my credit cards put me on a forgiveness loan.) And my student loans? I deferred them year after year (my income level qualified me for that).

Suffice it to say, I really didn’t think about budgeting until I was in my late twenties when I finally had some semblance of financial stability. Of course, that’s not to say that those who are struggling paycheck to paycheck cannot budget, they absolutely can. But it just wasn’t something I had the wherewithal to think about. And it’s really, really not fun to budget when all of your money goes to bills with maybe $20 leftover for yourself.

But here I am now: much more financially stable, making a great living for myself, and no longer living from paycheck to paycheck. It’s a great feeling, one I do not take for granted.

Once I got to a place where I needed to be much more diligent about budgeting, I started to think about the best system for me to keep track of my income, my bills, and my savings. That’s when I began to dabble in budgeting apps, different spreadsheet systems, and budgeting journals, eventually settling on a simple but effective spreadsheet system that works for my life and my needs.

Step 1: Plan Out My Paychecks

I’ve always struggled with setting a monthly budget; I’d much rather work in two-week sprints, since that’s the cadence of my paychecks. It’s just easier for me to set up my budget for each paycheck than to take a wholesale look at my budget for the month, estimating what I think I’ll spend. I’ll usually try to plan out my next few paychecks, so I’m not hit by any surprises.

Here’s what it looks like:

For each paycheck, I list out what bills will be due and then I have a color-coded section for other expenses: food, toiletries/supplies, savings, and subscriptions. I budget $300 per paycheck for food expenses and $50 per paycheck for toiletries/supplies. Savings and subscriptions vary. Some of my savings I allot to purchasing gold from the best place to buy gold in Brisbane. At the end of the column, I have a formula that subtracts all of my expenses from my paycheck amount to give me an idea of how much “fun money” I have to play with in a given two-week cycle. I don’t really do much with my budget beyond this. I’m not into zero-based budgeting (wherein every dollar gets assigned out). Instead, it gives me an idea of what I can expect from this pay cycle and how much fun money will be available for me.

To the right of these cells, I have two tables: one lists out all of my different subscriptions with due dates and costs, the other lists out all of my different bills with due dates and estimated (in some cases) costs. I use that to ensure I’m remembering to include the right bills into each paycheck cycle.

NOTE: Almost all of my bills are on auto-payment, which is something I just put into practice maybe a year or so ago. There was a time in my life when having bills on auto-payment was more stressful than helpful because I had to be sure I always had enough money in my account to cover the payment. I’ve overdrafted a lot in my life, and it’s one of the worst feelings. So there’s something really heartening to know I can put my bills on auto-payment and not worry about overdrafting! (The only bill that’s not automated is my electric bill because they make it really complicated and I keep forgetting to call the company to set it up.)

Step 2: Itemize My Spending

Itemizing my spending is probably the most time-consuming part of monitoring my budget. I do this once a week (usually while I’m in a meeting where I don’t need to pay too close attention, lol) and I’ll simply open up my budgeting spreadsheet and my bank account. I like doing this on my work computer since I have two screens. I have a tab on my budgeting spreadsheet that I label “Categories” with the month listed and that’s where I will start to itemize what I’m spending. Here’s what the categories tab looks like:

Click to enlarge. 

Each different part of my budget gets its own special box where I can list out what I’ve spent so far. I’ve listed out certain subcategories within the bigger categories, like bills, food, and subscriptions. Everything else just gets listed out one by one. I also have a formula at the top of each box that adds up my purchases so I can keep an eye on how much I’m spending. This is mostly useful for my food spending, since it’s always out of control, sigh. I don’t have every single category listed, just the most popular ones. I keep an “Other” category so I can add purchases that are not as frequent (like my yearly payment to TurboTax to do my taxes!)

It’s really not that difficult to itemize my purchases, especially since I’m doing this weekly. (I get behind on itemizing my spending, though, and it can get a lot more difficult when I have a few weeks to itemize.) Thankfully, so much of what I spend is online (even if I go to Target—since I use their debit card, everything is easily viewed in the Target app) so I can quickly pull up Amazon or Target or Chewy to figure out how much I spent on certain purchases. If I do make a purchase in-store (like if I buy a couple bottles of body wash while shopping for groceries), I’ll just save the receipt and place it on my desk so I can easily review it while I’m itemizing. If I don’t have the receipt on my desk, I’ll know that grocery visit was all for groceries, no supplies.

At the bottom-right corner of this section of my spreadsheet, are two dates with a price and company listed. This just helps me know where I stopped when I last itemized my spending. I itemized my spending yesterday and the last purchase I itemized in my bank account was a $68.90 purchase at Publix while the last purchase I itemized on my credit card was a $21.40 purchase at Second Nature. Now I won’t have to try to figure out where I stopped and which purchases haven’t been itemized yet the next time I do this process.

A new addition to my categories this year is my shopping section:

 

Click to enlarge

I may end up adding to this category section, but these are my top shopping categories. As you can see, February has been a bit on the spendy side but it’s all good! It’s really interesting to see it all laid out like this so I can get a fuller picture of how I’m spending money and where I’m spending money.

Step 3: Organize All Monthly Purchases Into My Yearly Budget

At the end of every month, I take all of the info from my monthly category tab and input it into my yearly category tab. Here’s what it looks like:

Click to enlarge

This is just a portion of the tab, but you get the idea. I list out some of my purchases per month (second row of boxes) and some per quarter (first row of boxes). As the quarters go by, I will add a new column to the first row until there are four columns marking each quarter. I really like seeing how different my spending is from either month-to-month or quarter-to-quarter so I enjoy this process a lot. Plus, it makes putting together my quarterly budget posts so, so easy.

But that’s my budgeting process! I guess it’s less “budgeting” for the purpose of estimating how much money I will spend in different categories and more a function of tracking my spending, but this is the system that works for me and helps me keep tabs on my spending habits. I always feel a little vulnerable to talk about personal finance because my spending habits are not anything like those of personal finance bloggers who are way, way, way more frugal than me. But I also think it’s good to see the other side of things: someone who does spend money because that’s what makes me happy. I have budgeted $600 per month for food (for one person!) because I genuinely enjoy eating out and I don’t want to limit myself. I have budgeted for spa appointments, book shopping, and a ton of subscriptions because they bring be great joy, happiness, and fulfillment. And I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. Be frugal, be spendy. Do what makes you feel good. Pay your bills, try to save some money, maybe donate a little bit to charity if you can, and do what you want with the rest of it. 🙂

Categories: Life

10 Things I Loved in December

1) A belated birthday date with Bri. The first Friday of December, Bri took me out for my birthday. We went to a fancy Italian restaurant in Tampa where we filled our bellies with delicious apps and pasta. We ordered a side of Brussels sprouts and, I kid you not, I am still thinking about them today. They have to be one of the top-3 foods I’ve ever had. I’d go back to this restaurant in a heartbeat just for those Brussels sprouts. Anyway, Bri spoiled me way more than I deserved and I am so lucky to have someone like her in my life.

2) Making gingerbread houses with coworkers. I got together with three coworkers in mid-December to decorate gingerbread houses. It was so much fun! My friend who hosted has an adorable dog who was so friendly and just wanted us to pay attention to him all night. No problem there, bud! I haven’t seen any of these coworkers since March of 2020, and it was so, so nice to see them and hug them and talk IN PERSON.

3) My promotion. In mid-December, my VP set up a last-second meeting with me. I don’t know about you, but those last-second meetings are always anxiety-inducing. Am I getting fired??? The opposite, in fact! She wanted to let me know that she was promoting me to content team manager in January. !!! This was something we had talked about at length, specifically at my review in January 2021. Over the course of 2021, she had given me lots of management-like tasks to help me hone my skills and explore that side of things. I have loved (and excelled in, if I do say so myself) those tasks, so it was truly an exciting conversation to have. I’m really looking forward to this new role and all it will entail (like no more writing!!!).

4) A sweet package from Kim. You guys, I can’t even tell you how much this Christmas package from Kim meant to me. She spoiled me! She sent me the softest cat blanket, a pair of adorable cat earrings, Christmas dish towels and a sweet toy for the cats that they just loved. But the sweetest present, the one that made me all teary, was this beautiful painting of Eloise and Lila. Look at my babies! I was particularly impressed with how she got Lila’s calico markings just perfect as well as Ellie’s. She even got Ellie’s little patch of white between her eyes and her uneven white feet markings. I have it displayed on a floating shelf in my dining room, and it makes me smile every time I see it. (The painting is by Sunrise Stone Art!)

5) A Christmas brunch. The week before Christmas, I got together with some friends to have a Christmas brunch followed by a Blind Date with a Book exchange and a Christmas movie. It was so much fun! The brunch was delicious and I was really happy with the book I “blindly” picked (it was Last Girl Ghosted by Lisa Unger!) And then we watched Home Alone. While that’s not my favorite Christmas movie ever, it was super enjoyable, mostly because Kevin reminded me so much of my younger nephew!

6) Annual Christmas cookie decorating night. Our annual Christmas cookie decorating night took place on December 23rd (we usually do it much earlier in the month, but we had scheduling difficulties). My brother and nephews came over and we had such a fun time cutting out the shapes and frosting the cookies. My younger nephew was adorable, too, saying things like “I tried my best on this one!” and using up all of the sprinkles on one cookie. He’s six, so he’s still getting the hang of cookie decorating!

7) Christmas Eve dinner. Going out for a fancy Christmas Eve dinner is a new-ish tradition (this was our fifth year doing it!) This year, we went to Bern’s, which is a Tampa establishment, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I always love getting dressed up and having a super delicious meal with my mom and stepdad. Bern’s has a special dessert room (yes, a dessert room) and of course we had to finish off the night with something sweet. My mom and I shared a seven-layer chocolate cake that was to die for.

8) Christmas! I had a lovely Christmas Day with my family. I slept in, lazily got ready, and headed over to my mom’s around 11:30. I played with the dogs while waiting for my brother and his family to arrive and gave them one of their presents, which they promptly set about destroying. Of course! My brother, sister-in-law, and nephews arrived around 1 and we ate a delicious meal that was mostly cooked by my stepdad. He did a great job! Then, we opened presents and afterward, my younger nephew asked if we could get Lucy out to play with. (We always put the dogs away when my younger nephew is over, as he’s timid around dogs.) She’s 1000x more relaxed than Chip and is so, so, so sweet around my nephew. He will even tug on her ears, play with her feet, or touch her snout and she won’t do anything! She doesn’t bark or growl or do anything that would scare him. It’s like she knows he’s not completely comfortable with dogs and alters her behavior to suit him. Anyway, we all headed home around 4:30 and it was a very successful Christmas, if I do say so myself.

9) A week off. My last day of work for the year was December 22nd. It was so amazing to have 11 days off work, and I was really proud of myself for not turning on my work computer once during my time off. A part of me felt guilty for that, but a larger part of me felt very silly for feeling guilty. I have earned this time off! I am not obligated to work! Argh. (Work/life balance was never an issue for me until I started working from home full-time!) Anyway, I used my week+ off to reorganize my kitchen (I pulled everything out of the cabinets!), have a fun day date with friends, meet up with a friend for a coffee date, and take looooots of naps. It was the perfect mix of relaxation, friend time, and productivity.

10) New Year’s Eve. I spent NYE at home for the first time in quite a few years. At one point, I looked at myself in the mirror and had to laugh because I looked like a hot mess. Sweatpants, big t-shirt, hair in a messy bun… I was the epitome of I Give No Shits About NYE this year. I spent the night reading, working on blog posts, and watching episodes of Brooklyn 99. I was snuggled in bed with the cats when I looked at my phone and saw that it was 12:20am—I hadn’t even rung in the new year properly! Ah, well. I said “Happy New Year” to my girls and that was that.

Tell me one good thing that happened to you in December!

Categories: Life

10 Things I Loved in November

1) NaBloPoMo. A true highlight of November was participating in NaBloPoMo this year. I’ve never attempted a blogging challenge like this because writing a post every day for 30 days straight sounds really overwhelming. But it was actually super fun and I’m glad that everyone who reads my blog also enjoyed hearing from me every day in November, haha. I hope to do it again in 2022!

2) Turning 34. I had a wonderful birthday this year! I truly felt the love from all of my friends and family—and from all of you wonderful people who read my blog. I enjoyed a handful of birthday dinners, a special birthday pedicure, and lots of birthday kisses from the dogs and birthday snuggles from the cats (okay, so they probably would have done those anyway, but just pretend for me). I am really excited for what awaits me at 34!

3) Day of Stephany. I had another successful “Day of Stephany” this year! I woke up around 8, showered, and then headed to McDonald’s for a quick breakfast. While my massage was a bit of a disappointment, it was still relaxing and isn’t that the point? Afterward, I met with Mikaela for a pedicure, which was so enjoyable. (Side note: The salon had The Princess Switch 3 playing and now I must do a marathon of all three movies sometime this December!) I then went home, took a nap, and then went to dinner with my mom, stepdad, brother, and nephews. It was such a lovely day!

4) Running of the Wieners. It was so fun to return to our annual Running of the Wieners event, which was canceled last year. While Chip and Lucy didn’t win their heats, they seemed to have fun and enjoyed being around all the doggos. Plus, they were so good at the event! I was convinced Chip was going to bark at all of the other dogs, but he was just happy to walk around with us and sniff some butts. 🙂 Maybe next year will be their year?!

5) Olive’s birthday party. What a joyous celebration! There was an almost 90% chance that she wouldn’t be here to celebrate her second birthday, which is just unfathomable. She’s here and she’s thriving. We celebrated with an outdoor party and Olive truly had a blast. For my part, I got to hang out with a few of my closest friends so that was really fun!

6) Returning to Starbucks for writing dates. As I mentioned in a weekend recap post, Mikaela and I returned to Starbucks for our writing dates. We’ve been doing these writing dates for many, many years now, typically at Starbucks, but then the pandemic happened and we moved our writing dates to Zoom. Once we both felt comfortable meeting in person for writing dates, Starbucks’s dining rooms were closed so we opted for Panera. But now Starbucks is back open for in-person dining and so are we! It feels so good to be back.

7) Turning my apartment into a Christmas wonderland. I always love decorating my apartment for Christmas. Every year, I seem to accumulate more decorations—I can’t help it! I love them so much. I’m usually pretty minimalist in my decor, but all bets are off when Christmas comes along. I have a lot more places for decorations this year—two extra bookshelves and two floating shelves—which means more places for cute decorations, garland, and lights. I can’t wait to show you my little Christmas wonderland soon!

8) Buying a new car. I didn’t expect to buy a car this year, but I received quite a generous raise at work last month and it made me start seriously looking at buying a car. Before this raise, adding a car payment to my budget would have made things very, very tight. But now, the car payment won’t even cancel out the raise! So it was a no-brainer for me. It was definitely time for a new car (I didn’t even have Bluetooth!) and I am so happy with my new baby. She is everything I wanted in a new car, and I still smile so big when I see her in a parking lot. She’s just so pretty!

9) Thanksgiving 2021. I had such a lovely Thanksgiving with my family. My cousin and her husband hosted us. They supplied the turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing and everyone else supplied the sides. (I brought deviled eggs and cookies.) My cousin killed it with the food—the turkey was so tender, the mashed potatoes creamy, and the stuffing delicious. I left with a full belly (and a full plate of food to eat later, hehe). It was such a lovely day, though, and I feel very lucky to have the family I have.

10) A much-needed hair appointment. I haven’t had a hair appointment since June and my hair was a bit of a mess. It needed fresh highlights and it definitely needed a fresh cut. I was shocked when I called my salon in November and was able to get an appointment with my stylist the day before Thanksgiving! (She’s a popular stylist, so I usually have to wait much longer for an appointment, especially during the holidays.) It was lovely to finally get all those split ends cut off.

What was something you loved in November?

Categories: Life

NaBloPoMo Wrap-Up

It’s the last day of November, which means it’s the last day of NaBloPoMo! Noooooo.

I am finding myself very sad to be ending this blogging challenge because I had so much fun with it. It was also fun to follow along with the other bloggers doing NaBloPoMo—it felt like we were all in this together! I’m really proud of myself for sticking with the challenge and publishing a blog post every day this month. And I am definitely ready to do it again next year.

Here are some of the things that I think helped me make it through NaBloPoMo:

  • I was coming off a three-week blogging break.

Before November started, I hadn’t published a post on my blog since October 6th. I was more than ready to get back into my blogging habit. I decided to do NaBloPoMo on a whim, after seeing San post about it a few days before the challenge was set to begin, and I had a ton of blogging mojo built up.

  • I planned out my entire month ahead of time.

This was probably the best thing I could have done for myself! Before NaBloPoMo started, I opened up Google Calendar and planned every blog post I would write in November. There was only one time when I nearly ran into the issue (the blog post I planned for, I didn’t end up wanting to write), but then I drew on inspiration from another blogger doing NaBloPoMo and used one of her post ideas as my own! (Thanks, NGS!)

  • I set up recurring blog features four days a week.

On Mondays, I had “A Weekend in Pictures.” On Fridays, I had “TGIF.” On Saturdays, I had “Ask Stephany Anything.” And on Sundays, I had “Stream of Consciousness Sundays.” This meant that I only had to figure out blog topics for three days per week, which made planning out my posts much, much easier. I always keep a running list in my Notes app of blog post ideas so I just pulled from that list. I also utilized some of my semi-regular series, like Three Things Thursday, Snapshot of my Day, etc.

  • I lessened the pressure I place on myself.

My normal blogging schedule is MWF and I really try to make each blog post a sensational one. If a blog post is under 500 words, I wonder if it’s really worth pushing publish on. I hold myself to a really high standard when it comes to the blog posts I publish, and I’m proud of that standard, but sometimes it can make me hold onto blog posts if they aren’t perfect. During NaBloPoMo, you can’t do that! You must publish a post every day, which means you just have to get it done. Telling myself that I didn’t have to publish long-winded blog posts and giving myself the grace to publish something even if it doesn’t meet my high standards helped me get through NaBloPoMo with my sanity intact. I’m hopeful that I can continue to lessen some of the pressure I have on myself when it comes to the blog posts I publish—it’s just a blog and it’s supposed to be something I’m doing for fun.

  • I knew I wasn’t in this alone.

I think the most fun part of NaBloPoMo was doing it with a cohort of other bloggers. Some of them I didn’t know before the challenge began and others I had been following for a while but got to know much better during November. It felt like we were all in this together, working hard to publish original blog posts every day. And we did it!

I am so happy that I took on this challenge and I am forever grateful to San for organizing it and keeping all of us motivated. Thank you all for reading my many thousands of words this month and for cheering me on from afar. I can’t wait for November 2022 when I can do it all over again!