Hello and welcome to the start of fall. I realize that fall actually starts on September 22 but Labor Day which is considered the official end of summer has just passed! As I type this, we are in a heatwave and it was 102 degrees today!
Anyway, with summer ending and fall starting, it’s time to look at our goals. We are 4 months until the end of the year and the final two months of the year are generally not a good time for at least major project completion.
As usual, we’ll start first with reviewing August goals and then jump into September.
August Review
Not to make excuses, but August was not a good time for completing goals. Summer can be a more lazy time which is okay. I really thought I would get more done though. Oh well……
HOME
Clean out 2 drawers-NOPE
Empty 1 box in the Dining Room-NOPE
CREATIVE
Organize scrap cart-NOPE
HEALTH/FITNESS
Steps-6,000 x 20 days-completed 14
Movement x 10 days-completed 8
SPIRITUAL
Meditate 3-5 times per week-12-15 times per month-completed 0
FINANCIAL
Do August budget-NOPE
Continue savings challenge-DONE
As I said, I’m not going to make excuses or beat myself up for what I didn’t do. It’s time to regroup and move ahead.
SEPTEMBER GOALS AND INTENTIONS
HOME
Clean out 2 drawers
Clean out one area of guest closet
Goodwill Run
Clean out one box in dining room
CREATIVE
Start researching holiday card design-I didn’t send out cards last year (2021) because my creative mojo was really in the dumps. I am excited about making and sending out cards this year and the best way to maintain that mojo is to be organized and prepared.
HEALTH/FITNESS
Exercise 10 times
Steps 6000 x 15 days
Do not buy candy to have at home-I’m trying to work on my sweet tooth which is a monster. I’m not going to deny myself having sweets but I want to have them when I’m out and about and not have them sitting in my pantry. This is going to be a hard one because not only I am trying to break a habit but I will also have to deal with the physical impact. My plan is to use fruit as a substitute.
SPIRITUAL
Investigate transcendental meditation(TM)-there are many reasons that I was not successful in reaching my meditation goal last month. After speaking with a friend, TM has a great deal of scientific research behind it and offers many health benefits that I’m looking for namely more energy and focus.
Mask-1 per week
Exfoliate-3 per week
I really want to do better about taking care of my skin. I do ok but there is definitely room for improvement!
FINANCIAL
Weekly spending tracking
Weekly savings challenge
RANDOM THOUGHT
Productivity
One of the things that I realized (and I don’t know why it has taken me so long) is that I really need to schedule the things that I want to get done. I have a tendency to focus on the home things and tell myself that I can’t do the more creative things until I get the “important” things done like cleaning, dishes, laundry, etc…
The problem with that is that if I don’t do those “important” things then I feel like I can’t do the creative things because it would be “wasting” time. This is clearly a place where a mind shift that needs to occur. I also know logically that no one thing is more important than any other. I can make the case as to why I should focus on the creative first which may lend itself to getting the other tasks done.
Things that I am going to work on scheduling include:
Exercise
Creative Time for card making, scrapbooking, etc…
Cleaning
Budgeting
Taking Skillshare classes-I signed up for a year of video lessons and I want to actually USE the membership. I can take classes in all sorts of areas and I want to continue to take advantage. So far, I’ve done a couple of classes on productivity and iPhone photography.
I know that scheduling time to get things done is a part of being productive as well as disciplined. My aim is to schedule time for each item and give myself a time limit. It’s very easy to spend hours crafting but then other important things get neglected. For the tasks I like the least like cleaning, I’ll give myself a time limit-about 30 minutes. I can generally get done what I want in that time and it’s not so daunting to think about it.
I’ll let you know how it goes and if you have any ideas on how to best schedule tasks, please share in the comments.
