I’m very pleased with how I’m knocking out my monthly goals so far in 2026. I didn’t have a 100% success rate in February, but 80% ain’t bad either!
February Goals
1) Book my Airbnb for my reading retreat. Complete! I booked the cutest little house in North Port for mid-April.
2) Visit a thrift shop. Complete! I left with three books and one cat-shaped sign. I’m nothing if not predictable.
3) Buy the girls new collars. Complete! Lila now has the cutest pink book-themed collar, and Eloise has a set of pearls because she’s fancy.
4) Spend five hours working on my novel idea. Complete! It has been such a joy to spend time brainstorming about these characters and the town I’m creating.
5) Figure out my 401K situation. Not complete. I didn’t even start this process.
March Goals
1) Schedule an eye appointment. I had LASIK surgery in 2023, and my last follow-up was sometime in early 2024. I’ve been having some weird blurriness only when I’m looking at the TV or when I’m trying to look at the time on my oven/microwave. I’ve been doing eye drops to see if it’s dry eye related, but not seeing much difference. So, I figure I should do my due diligence and schedule an eye appointment. Hopefully, all is well!
2) Make two new recipes. I’m not exactly in a food rut, but I haven’t made a new recipe in months.
3) Get Lila set up at the new vet. I’ve been waiting to get Lila set up with my new vet since she wasn’t due for an exam/vaccinations until March. I need to schedule an appointment and set up her wellness plan.
4) Complete two character studies for my two main characters and start working on my plot. Last month was all about nurturing this tiny flame of a novel idea, and now that I feel like it has potential, I am all in.
5) Figure out my 401K situation. Rollover goal.
What are your March goals? Any go-to recipe ideas for me?
What a productive month! I love hearing about your writing process. It must be so gratifying to grow th characters and develop the world. And, yay for booking the reading retreat!
Thank you! It’s been fun to brainstorm this plot, even though the idea is still very, very new. 🙂
OMG I am so excited about your novel! It’s starting! You’re doing it!
4/5 goals complete – that’s a great month, and you can do the 401K this month! You can do it! *shakes pom poms*
I CAN DO IT! I just need to break this down into smaller goals so it feels less overwhelming.
Great job on your goals! What is the 401(k) situation that you are trying to figure out? How much to contribute, or where to allocate your funds? My only advice (and maybe someone can correct me if I’m wrong) is to pay attention to the fees. They give you that information if you dig in there. Index funds generally have much lower fees than other funds, so I tend to go that way.
My March goals – I need a haircut (last one was in November), we will celebrate my daughter’s birthday, and I need to do taxes. Boo! We always owe.
No, the 401k situation is that my organization was bought by another company on Jan 1 so I need to move the 401K that is with a different provider to the provider that the new company uses. It’s not a complicated process, but it’s just a PROCESS that I have to do and involves a lot of money, so it makes me very anxious!
I also need to do my taxes. I usually only owe a small amount, but I keep waiting for the day when it’s much more than I expect!
In March, my goal is to book an appointment with a PCP. I had one booked in February and then that provider resigned and the clinic isn’t taking on new patients. My OBGYN office hired a PCP so I am going to try to see that person as I figure she’s well-versed in perimenopause/etc.
The 401k rollover can be such a pain but you can do it!!!
Finding a new PCP can be so challenging, so I wish you luck!
March is going to be a long month because we all are crawling to the finish line- spring break!
I don’t really have goals apart from the ones that I made back in December which are kind of vague, so I will create opportunities to do exactly this:
“Take good care of my physical health.
Take good care of my mental health.
Read
Blog
Monthly dates
Check in with friends, etc”
So this is straight from my annual goals list.
I also have on it “get cultured and don’t be cheap” I think I’m gonna go ahead and treat myself to a Diana Krall concert ticket ($130 :()
YES! Treat yourself to those tickets! You have had a hard start to the year, and you deserve something fun. <3
I’m excited to hear more about your novel writing process. Also, I’ll be curious what new recipes you try 🙂 I feel like a make a lot of things without specific recipes (chicken tray bakes, salmon in japanese bbq sauce w/ veggies and rice, pasta, burritos), but I did make a chicken Tikka masala that was really good recently! Here’s the link https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chicken_tikka_masala/
Thank you for the recipe!
Hopefully I can keep the novel inspiration going long enough to actual start the WRITING process and talk about how its going.
Oooh! Your novel- that’s so exciting. So you accomplished 4/5 goals for February. I had to laugh a little, because if there’s one I wouldn’t have accomplished, it would be the 401K as well.
Muffin needs a trip to the vet for shots and I’m dreading it SO MUCH. It’s going to be terrible for everyone involved.
I hate taking Lila to the vet. She’s absolutely fine AT the vet, but getting her into the carrier is a nightmare. I timed it, and it once took me 16 minutes from start to finish and by the end, we were ALL traumatized.
Your reading retreat in mid April will be here so fast! Yay!
I really want to ask so many questions about your novel but… do you want to talk about it? Like the deets?
I’m happy to talk about my novel, but I’m still hammering out the specific details. The little bud of an idea I have is a queer romance about a woman who moves to a small town when she inherits her aunt’s bookstore and the butch lesbian who runs a construction company in town and helps her get the bookstore ready for a grand opening. And they fall in love!
Love all these goals! That’s great you are making progress on your novel planning, I’m at the early stage of writing a novel too – my characters and plot are more developed, and I’ve started a bit of writing. But now I’m working on getting a couple of locations into focus. Looking forward to hearing more about your progress 🙂
I am so so excited to hear you are working on a novel.
And the reading retreat. Hope you will have a wonderful time.