After today, we’re officially through the first quarter of 2025. (And almost through the first quarter of the new administration, sigh. It feels much, much longer.) So that means it’s time to take a look at my quarterly goals and set some new ones for Q2! Let’s get into it:
Q1 Goals
HOME
1) Buy a new area rug for my living room. Complete! I bought a new rug last week and it should arrive today!
2) Declutter my dresser and buy drawer organizers to keep everything tidy. Complete! I love my drawer organizers so much. It’s so nice to have everything nicely put away in their own spots.
3) Itemize everything in my bedroom. Not complete. I took a video of my bedroom. But I did not itemize a single thing.
ADULTING
1) Set up my new primary email address and link it to my current Gmail account. Change the primary email address of all household accounts. Half-complete. The new primary email address has been set up and I was able to add it to my other Gmail account. But I did not change any email addresses for household accounts, oops.
2) Set up my budget and update it every two days. LOL, no. I was lucky if I did this once a week.
3) Do a Goodwill dropoff. Complete! My car was filled with Goodwill donations and it felt so good to drop everything off.
HEALTH
1) Start using time blocking for my daily routines. Complete! I really like this productivity method. It allows me to schedule my days in a way that makes sense depending on what I need to do, whether that’s working in a therapy appointment in the middle of my day or setting aside time to get my chores done. This method works for me because I have a flexible job where I can work in 90-minute or 2-hour blocks and then take a 30-minute break to handle some personal tasks if I need to.
2) Use a posture app to improve my posture. Not complete. I have looked at posture apps on the App Store and even asked ChatGPT to provide me a list (which was a bust), but didn’t download a single one in Q1.
3) Log my food for a month. Complete! I did this with my dietician and it was a very helpful exercise. It’s not something I want to do long-term, though.
HOBBIES
1) Read The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher. Complete! This was one of the first books I read in 2025 and I liked it, but didn’t love it. If it had been 100 pages shorter, I would have enjoyed it more.
2) Go to at least two Silent Book Club Meetings. Not complete. I tried going to a meeting in January but wound up at the wrong brewery! And then I just got lazy about checking on meeting times and making a plan to go.
3) Hang up my floating bookshelves in my reading nook. Complete. I started to hang up the floating shelves… and then I realized I didn’t really like them. The reason I wanted to hang up these floating bookshelves was to hold my Anne of Green Gables collection (I collect all different editions!), so instead, I created a spot on my favorites bookshelf for this collection. I’d love to add some specific AoGG trinkets to this shelf at some point.
FUN
1) Watch one of these movies from 1987: Good Morning Vietnam; Planes, Trains, and Automobiles; Can’t Buy Me Love; Three Men and a Baby; or Dirty Dancing. Not complete. I planned to watch Dirty Dancing but kept putting it off until suddenly, it was the end of Q1. Oops.
2) Watch one season of Suits and two seasons of New Girl. Not complete. I’m halfway through season 2 of New Girl, but I definitely barely attempted this goal.
3) Get my nose repierced. Complete!
Q2 Goals
HOME
1) Buy a new coffee table. I’d like to buy one secondhand if I can find one I like on Facebook Marketplace or Goodwill.
2) Declutter my kitchen. My kitchen is mostly well-organized, but some cabinets need to be decluttered and reorganized, so that’s a project for Q2.
3) Itemize everything in my bedroom and office area. It’s a big goal but I can do it!
ADULTING
1) Go through my file box and shred old documents. Boring adult task that I haven’t done in a few years, whoops.
2) Complete “Admin Days” every Sunday. I’m cultivating a Sunday routine that will allow me to get set up for the week and have all of my ducks in a row. More to come!
3) Change the primary email address of at least one account every week. This feels very doable, even if I’m sure it won’t happen every week. But if I can have a 75% success rate, I’ll be happy with that.
HEALTH
1) Get into bed at 10 p.m. Sundays – Thursdays. This doesn’t mean I need to be asleep at 10 p.m., but I just need to have completed all of my evening tasks so I can be all tucked in bed at a decent hour.
2) Use a posture app to improve my posture. Rollover goal.
3) Eat five servings of fruits and veggies every day. This is ambitious for me, as I typically eat maybe 2-3 servings a day (and way less on the weekends), but it’s good to have ambitious goals!
HOBBIES
1) Read Five Days at Memorial by Sherry Fink. I’m going to read this during my reading retreat next month!
2) Go to a Silent Book Club meeting. Let’s make this easier for me and just try to get to one event this quarter. Bonus points if I attend more!
3) Send snail mail to at least five people. I gathered addresses in November so I can deliver more snail mail to people, and I haven’t really done that, so one the goals list it goes! (And you can still send me your address if you’d like snail mail from me!)
FUN
1) Watch Dirty Dancing and one of these movies from 1988: Rain Man, The Thin Blue Line, Bull Durham, Heathers, or Working Girl. Okay, friends: It’s once again time to weigh in on the movie I should watch. Which one?! I’m leaning towards Heathers, but willing to be convinced to see one of the other options.
2) Watch one episode of Suits during lunch Monday-Thursday and watch three seasons of New Girl. Another ambitious goal for me, ha. I think I can get through three seasons of New Girl in Q2 since those 20-minute episodes go quickly. And we’ll see how I do if I make Suits my lunchtime show this quarter (previously, it was Brooklyn 99.) Fingers crossed!
3) Buy a new swimsuit. I need a new swimsuit because the ones I’ve been using for a few years are getting threadbare. I just need to find a supplier I like since my swimsuits were previously from Amazon. Time to do some research!
Do you eat five servings of fruits and veggies daily (or more?!)? Weigh in on which 1988 movie I should watch this quarter!
I DO eat a TON of fruits and veggies. If you add fruit to your breakfast and a morning snack and then eat veggies with lunch and dinner and have fruit with an afternoon snack, you’re at 5! Sometimes my afternoon snack is fruit and veggies because I am in a hummus era. I also love salad kits.
This is very inspiring! I usually eat fruit with breakfast, SOMETIMES with lunch, and usually have fruit at an afternoon snack. And maybe a veggie with dinner. So 3 servings is a GOOD day. The weekends are where I really struggle, though!
I have no idea how many servings of fruit and veggies I have, because I find that when I focus on “have to” stuff that eating becomes a chore. I usually have a serving of fruit with breakfast and a veggie at dinner plus other veggies here and there, so if it’s not five at least it’s not zero.
I really got out of the habit of watching TV regularly but in the last month I watched two TV series, which is very unusual for me. It’s odd to go from just letting Youtube play out in the background to actually having to focus and pay attention.
I saw Heathers recently (meaning in the past few years) and I can give it a thumbs up. I’m interested in seeing Rain Man, Bull, and Working Girl (if you want to be taken seriously, you need serious hair), so maybe I’ll add one of those to my list for April.
Yes, I totally get you. Sometimes keeping track of stuff like fruits/veggies can be very hard! Not fun at all.
I am leaning towards Working Girl after Nicole warned me how dark Heathers is. I’m not sure I’m in the mood for something like that!
Well, I love Heathers, but it’s super dark, Stephany. Like, super super dark. It has a special place in my heart as I watched it many times as a youth, but IT IS A REALLY DARK PLOTLINE. I had SUCH a thing for Christian Slater back in the day.
I think there is a really good sex scene in Bill Durum (it’s been years since I watched it) and I’m not sure how Rain Man would hold up these days.
I guess we are in Q2 tomorrow! That went fast.
Okay, I think you have convinced me not to try Heathers. I don’t know if I’m in the mood for something super dark. And you may have convinced me with the “really good sex scene in Bull Durham” HA.
Crazy that we’re in Q2 already!
I vote for Heathers!
Your furniture goals have me really wanting to make progress on my own furniture goals: namely, find a home for the furniture we have replaced with new items. We have had a new media console and TV since… a long while ago and we STILL have the old media console and TV just hanging out in our basement, plus there is a random couch in our entryway that makes our house feel like a trash heap.
Getting rid of furniture is SO MUCH WORK. I feel you on that. You may be able to get Goodwill to come by and pick it all up! Couldn’t hurt to try so at least it’s out of your home BUT you don’t have to do any of the heavy lifting (literally).
I still remember the first time I saw Dirty Dancing. I had rented it from the movie shop in my university town. Watching a movie was always my “reward” on Saturday night after a busy week of studying, etc.
I watched Dirty Dancing, finished the movie and immediately restarted it. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before or since. It is such a classic story, though I’ve only ever watched it twice – in a single sitting!
That is such a classic memory, Elisabeth! I miss Friday nights at Blockbuster. A whole world of movies available to me, and I can choose whatever I want! I mean, I can still do that but there is something nostalgic about the experience of going to Blockbuster and having to decide on a movie with my whole family.
Heathers all the way! It was one of “those” formative movies for me when I saw it in the mid-90s (I was a little too young in ’87 haha!)… Movies like that and Pump Up the Volume (obviously an old school Christian Slater fan here) were snarky and dark and emotional – everything teen me wanted to be haha!
I am on team Admin Sunday – we call it “mail Sunday” because I go through paper mail and email and try to move on and move out as much as I can. It was supposed to be “mail hour Sunday” but things have gotten a little out of control, haha sigh!
I am a little deterred from Heathers now with Nicole cautioning me how dark it is, but I’m also getting so many votes for it, too. We’ll see if I’m in the mood for it!
Yes to admin/mail Sundays! I try to keep on top of email but it’s hard!
The Thin Blue Line is an amazing movie, but it’s quiet and dark. I would say it is my favorite war movie ever, though I’m not really a war movie fan. It’s amazing if you’re in the mood for something serious.
Heathers is the other kind of dark, meaning dark comedy. I love it so much that we own the DVD. I think my daughter watched it and found it disturbing. One of my best friends hated it. So clearly, your mileage may vary.
I also really like Working Girl, it’s a cute fun movie. Rain Man is good, I’ve never seen Bull Durham. I’m pretty sure you can’t go wrong with any of these movies.
Oh, also…regarding fruits and veggies. I would pay attention to serving size, you may be eating more than you think. For example, I sometimes have a breakfast of oatmeal with raspberries, blueberries, nuts, and banana. I put in a lot of berries. That’s at least 2 servings of fruit, maybe 2 1/2 or even 3 if the banana is large. So saying ‘fruit with breakfast’ may count for more than one serving if you eat a lot of it. Same if you were to have a big salad with some protein for lunch or dinner. That would count for a couple of servings I would think.
Oh, you are so sweet but I am definitely NOT eating more fruits/veggies than I think. I don’t always eat fruit with breakfast (if I do, it’s usually one clementine so just one serving), and I NEVER eat salad at home. I don’t know why! I just don’t find them all that satisfying, sigh. I need to just get over myself, but it’s hard.
I think I might have to give Working Girl a try. I am more in the mood for something cute and fun than dark and disturbing, haha.
I definitely get five servings of fruits and veggies a day. I eat fruit with breakfast and my lunch is generally a big pile of veggies and some guac. But I also eat way too much candy, so don’t model your eating behavior after mine!
I am also really bad about recording my spending on a regular basis. Sometimes two or three weeks will go by and then I’ll have to do some forensic accounting. I should just do it every night, right? But I don’t. LOL.
I am trying to use Sundays at my budgeting day. I would like to be someone who looks at it every day (or even every other day), but I am just NOT so Sundays seem to be a good time to review the week’s spending and see what’s coming up for the following week.
Kudos to getting your five servings! I realllllly struggle with getting enough veggies.
Your goals are good! You would think that, being vegan, I would obviously be eating tons of fruit and vegetables. But it doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes I’ll have oatmeal for breakfast and then a protein shake for lunch, and then it’s dinner and I’ll realize I have had NO fruits or vegetables all day. I definitely always have vegetables for dinner- but I need to make some changes throughout the day.
I’m probably one of the few people in the world who hasn’t seen Heathers. If you watch it I’ll be interested to hear what you think!
That makes me feel better! I didn’t realize everyone else was so good at getting their five servings, haha. I need to be a better adult, sigh.
Some people cautioned me that Heathers is VERY dark and I’m not sure I’m in the mood for that. I might try Working Girl!
Your ability to keep track of your goals and progress is outstanding. I probably would be better off if I did that, but I go with the flow. That being said, I eat 5 fruits/veggies per day without fail. I’d watch Bull Durham it’s my #1 feel good movie of choice, but Heathers is great too. Very dark humor.
That’s such a sweet compliment, thank you! I am slightly obsessed with goal-setting haha.
I’m leaning between Bull Durham and Working Girl at this point. I don’t know if I’m quite in the mood for dark humor right now!
You did really great on your goals! Whether I hit 5 fruits/veggies per day depends on whether I eat a salad for lunch. That gives me probably 3+ serving in that meal alone. I always have blueberries with my yogurt and lately I have been having a grapefruit for an afternoon or evening snack. But I’m not great at including veggies in dinner unless it’s a stir fry or we are grilling asparagus. So there is room for improvement!
My bedtime has been slipping lately. I think I need to set a bedtime alarm. Paul goes to bed just a bit later (8:15 instead of 8) and he will push to read more HP so sometimes his bedtime slips later. Then Phil and I watch 20-45 minutes of a show so I get up to bed later than I was, and then I get sucked into a book and keep reading and reading. I need to nip that in the bud and set an alarm for 9;45 and be stringent about reading until I get to a page where the page ends w/ a sentence (I can’t stop reading in the middle of a page!!).
I should be better about eating salads at home, but ugh, they just do not satisfy me! But it’s a great way to get SO MANY veggies at once, and I really struggle getting enough veggies vs fruit.
Ooh, I am definitely someone who will only stop if there’s a page break OR I reach the end of the chapter. I’m impressed you can stop if the page ends with a sentence!
Fruit and vegetables… It’s a hit or miss. Now that T took over dinners I do eat better lol. I am Russian so a meat and potatoes kind of gal, not sure if potatoes are vegetables lol
My teeth has become very sensitive with age plus I have receding gums so apples and citrus give me sensitivity pain.
1988 movies, I think they are al great, for a variety of reasons. I saw Nicole mention that Bill D is dark and now I want to watch it! I remember liking Working Girl and Rainman.
I think potatoes are considered vegetables? Maybe? But a starchy vegetable, so not always the recommended source, sigh. I wish! I could live on potatoes.
I love citrus fruit so it would make me sad to give it up!
It looks like you did really really good on your goals. Kudos.
I only usually eat twice a day so I wouldn’t be able to fit in 5 servings of fruit and veggie. I guess every once in a while I have a snack of apple slices in between or a handful of berries if at hand.
You still haven’t watched dirty dancing… hahah….
Oh wow… I definitely eat more than twice a day! Usually three times with snacks in between. So I *should* be able to get those five servings in, but I’m just lazy about it.
I am super-impressed with your quarterly goals lists… I’d really like to come up with a list myself but I am not sure if I would be able to keep up with it. How do you keep track? Do you look at it regularly to make sure your goals are at the forefront of your mind?
I don’t know if I missed it but why are you changing email accounts? Does it have to do with moving away from Google?
Yes, at the beginning of every month, I look at the list of quarterly goals I set and I choose about 10 to work on. I put it all in my bullet journal with some tracking metrics (like boxes if I want to track how many times I ate 5 fruits/veggies a day or something like that) and that journal is always open on my dining room table throughout the month. I also use the monthly goals I set to set WEEKLY goals, and those I put in my planner. And then… every day I have a to-do list that includes cleaning tasks + 1-2 of these weekly goals to complete.
I’m still using Gmail – I just wanted to move some of my other accounts to a more “professional” sounding email address, lol. I use my stephanywrites email address for EVERYTHING and would like to use it only for blog stuff.
I love your goals posts (goal posts? LOL…). I hope that the fruit and veggie consumption goal isn’t as difficult as you seem to think it will be. Apple slices? Carrots and hummus? Carrots and cheese? Celery and peanut butter? I do hummus and I love weird hummus flavors (dill pickle ftw, seriously).
I love Dirty Dancing, never saw Rain Main or Bull Durham, and now want to know if you saw Top Gun?
Also, PLEASE share more about your organization methods? I am working on mine with moderate success but your apartment is #goals when it comes to organization. Seriously.