Hi, friends! Thanks for all of your sweet words about launching our podcast into the world. I promise this blog is going to stay the same as ever, but maybe with some podcasting news sprinkled in from time to time. 🙂
My July goals did not go great (4.5 out of 10 complete), but it’s all good. I’m not much of a perfectionist when it comes to the monthly goals I set. A lot of the goals I set are just for fun and if I don’t complete them this month, they can roll over to next month, and it will all be okay. There are much bigger things to fret over than my monthly goals.
July Goals
1) 31 Peloton workouts in 31 days. (16/31) Oof, I did not meet my goal here, not even close! However, I am now at 60 Peloton workouts for the year (of 20 minutes or more), which puts me right on target for my goal of doing 100 Peloton workouts this year. I’ve been falling behind on this goal every month, so it feels good to be back on track.
2) Finish categorizing 2021 blog posts + figure out the 10 categories I want to use when recategorizing my blog posts. Well, I finally finished my categorization project! Now it’s time to figure out the 10 categories and to start the process of recategorizing and retagging blog posts. I’m also going to need to update the images on some older blog posts, so I think this is going to be a loooong process.
3) Fill up my water bottle every morning. You guys, I am so proud of myself for figuring out how to meet this goal! While I wasn’t perfect at this goal, I did achieve it more days of the month than I didn’t, and that’s a major success for me! What changed? The timing. Instead of filling up my water bottle every morning, I have made it part of my nighttime routine. As I’m winding down for the night, doing my skincare routine and picking up around my apartment, I also make sure to fill up my water bottle and stick it in the fridge. Easy as that! I’ve been drinking so much more water with this simple change!
4) Finish updating all of my blog pages. Complete! The last thing I want to do is update my blog photo, but that will happen in August.
5) Work on our podcast cover art + social media posts. Complete-ish. I started working on some social media posts but then… they disappeared from my drafts on Instagram for some reason. Not cool, Instagram! I’m nervous to draft anything else in case it happens again. In any event, I did complete our podcast cover art (and I love it so much!) and draft our intro Instagram post.
6) Be in bed, lights out, at 10:45pm every night. Ugh, I struggled with this goal so much in July! Not complete.
7) Organize my iPhone photos from 2017-2019. I didn’t quite make it through 2019 pictures, so this goal is not complete.
8) Clear out my junk bin. Not complete. I just didn’t make time for this in July.
9) Go for at least two 5K walks. Not complete. I think we’re just going to go ahead and call time of death on this goal of walking a 5K every month.
10) Buy some new bras. Complete! I purchased two really nice bras from Torrid and I’m really happy with them. They were having a sale, too, so the price of two bras was less than the price of one Thirdlove bra, haha.
August Goals
1) Make my bed every morning. I’ve never been someone who makes my bed because what’s the point when I live alone? But there is just something about putting in the effort to make my bed every morning that helps me feel a little more ready to tackle my day. I want to get into the habit of doing so!
2) Figure out the 10 categories I want to use when recategorizing my blog posts and update all of my blog posts from 2009. Here we go! It’s time to start step 2 of this big blog recategorization project.
3) Fill up my water bottle nightly. Now that I’ve sort of made this a habit, I want to continue doing it until it becomes a regular part of my nighttime routine.
4) Start time blocking. One of my biggest productivity struggles is transitioning from one task to another in a timely manner. It’s not so much an issue in my work life, but it’s a big issue in my personal life. For example, if I’ve been reading on the couch for 20 minutes and I know I need to get up and start dinner, I’ll usually start scrolling through my phone before making that activity transition. Then, before I know it, it’s 7:00 and I haven’t even thought about dinner. So I’ve come up with the idea of time blocking my day: I got a new planner that has a daily spread where I can list out my work priorities and goals for the day, as well as schedule how I want to spend every hour of the day. For example, this is what today looks like:
I’ve been doing this time blocking exercise for a few days now and I am really, really enjoying it! It helps me to understand when I need to be doing every task that’s on my to-do list for the day and make sure I’m transitioning to the next task when I need to. I’m going to experiment with time blocking in August and if it’s working for me, I’ll keep doing it!
5) Post regularly on our podcast Instagram. My goal is 2-3 posts per week so we can start gaining a little traction in the podcasting world. We’re not trying to become famous podcasters or anything like that and this is a zero-pressure type of creative project, but I want to at least try to have some sort of presence on social media, especially in the early stages.
6) Be in bed, lights out, at 10:45pm every night. Let’s try this for a third time. Hopefully, my time blocking exercise will help me adhere to a more reasonable bedtime.
7) Organize my iPhone photos from 2019-2021. More photo organizing to do this month! I always forget that I have this as a goal, even though it’s not really that hard to organize my photos. It just takes time.
8) Clear out my junk bin. Rollover goal.
9) Brush the cats once a week. I am terrible about brushing the cats, even though Lila really needs frequent brushing with her fluffy coat. But she is not great about letting me brush her and acts like I’m coming at her with a pitchfork when I get out the brush. (But then, if I’m able to get a few brushes in, she realizes she really likes being brushed and acquiesces.) Eloise, on the other hand, thinks being brushed is heaven on earth. So at least one cat will enjoy this goal!
10) Bring my bank savings account back up to $500. I have a CapitalOne savings account and then I have my bank savings account. The one in my banking account is used as a fail-safe if I need to quickly transfer money into my checking account to avoid overdrafting. I like to keep $500 in there, and for the longest time, I didn’t touch that money. But lately, I’ve had to dip into it more than I’d like so I want to prioritize bringing that savings account back up to $500. Having that money in there provides me with so much comfort!\
Do you have any goals for August?
Because I am a 1, I do not like setting goals and not achieving them! I wish I could have your approach to goals but I am just not built that way!
July was a really really busy month for us so I am not asking much of myself in August. I want to get back to my routines and get more sleep than I did in July. I had fun in July but it was kind of a case of “The Berenstein Bears and too much fun.” Ha. We have our August vacation to my parents lake home the 3rd week of the month and I want to really try to go out to dinner w/ Phil and leave the boys with my parents. We’ll see if I can make that happen – maybe on Phil’s bday? We get so little quality time together so it would be nice to take advantage of having my parents there to help with the boys! I also want to book our Mexico trip for December. We have it narrowed down to 2 places so just need to make a decision!
Hehe, I was thinking of you when I typed out my intro paragraph! This is when my “go with the flow” 9-ness comes in handy.
I really, really hope you and Phil can get away during your trip to the lake! That would be so wonderful for the two of you. Will Mexico just be the two of you, or are you taking the boys along?
I always love reading about your goals!
Your goal to start making your bed every morning made me happy! I used to be a person who NEVER made my bed. It felt so silly, to then mess it up again every night. But then at some point I started doing it and it clicked and it is one of my favorite things. It takes two minutes (TOPS!) and it makes my bedroom look so neat and tidy and it’s something I can accomplish IMMEDIATELY every day. It’s such a tiny thing, but I genuinely feel like it makes my life better and boosts my mood. I hope it’s something you find easy to do and that it makes your life better!
Making my bed every morning has been such a wonderful change! There is something about taking 5 minutes (less than that, really!) to get my room in order that makes me feel so much more ready to tackle the day ahead.
You really are a goal setting superstar. I am very stressed looking at your time blocking – isn’t it crazy how some people react to things and other people do not? I think that with all the traveling you did, having COVID, and starting your podcast, you have a good attitude about your goals in July.
Zelda the Cat has long fur and hates being brushed, so I brush her every morning (first thing! I walk down the stairs and go get her brush) for about twenty seconds. I hit her problem areas (her mane and haunches) and just hope for the best on the rest of it. She’s so soft and she gets mats very easily if we don’t stick to this routine. I’m envious of your ability to do just once a week!
NGS, I was thinking of you when I wrote this time blocking goal and knew it would give you anxiety! Haha. For me, it gives me a sense of peace and calmness but I know other people react entirely differently to something like that!
I’m not even brushing the cats once a week NOW. I honestly can’t remember the last time I brushed the cats, it’s been that long! Thankfully, they’re both short-haired and do a great job of grooming, but Lila just has a LOT of fur and needs to get brushed more frequently (or, like, BRUSHED PERIOD!) So I’m going to try to make this a weekly priority moving forward!
I’m so excited about your podcast! I listened to your trailer and I was so happy to hear your voice. Now, to figure out what kind of enneagram/ Myers Briggs type that I am so I can follow along!
Aww, this makes me so happy! I’m so curious as to what your enneagram is! I can usually figure people’s numbers out, haha, but I’m not quite sure what yours would be!
I haven’t been doing monthly goal posts since the pandemic started, but this has me thinking it’s time to get back into them…
I am so impressed with your goal lists every month… and even if you don’t achieve everything that you set out to do? So what, you’ve still made progress somewhere. I love that… and that you can look back and identify things that you want to work on. Yay for finding a way to drink more water. That’s huge!
Wow on the water goal! Go, you! I’m glad you changed something to actually, you know, make it work for your life. 🙂 And also – you worked out >50% of the days in July. I think that’s pretty darn good, myself. <3