[October Update]
WORK| Start Little Leaf Newsletter. Yes! I sent a newsletter out to my former clients and to my list. I got good feedback, which was a relief because I was surprisingly nervous about it.
LEARN | Do lesson two of development course. Errr, smallest step was still too big. About 17 minutes into the training video, but it might be over my head technically (like, the tech might be more than I can learn.)
LIFE | Start listening to finance podcast. Yep, and have A Plan for changing our emergency savings account to a higher yield savings since we have a lot (6 months) of savings in there. This is just the beginning of my understanding more about investing and the economy. And since it’s not something I naturally gravitate towards (like, say, learning about business or design), I’m going to keep on listening to entertaining podcasts that help me learn. (Like this & this).
HABIT | Save articles to Pocket. AKA: Learning to Single Task, Step 1. Yes! Every time I saw an article I wanted to read on Twitter or someone emailed me a link or I was researching something, I added it to Pocket instead of getting lost in the internet. I haven’t cleaned out the list, but it’s definitely a great method for my work/life flow. Better than having a million tabs open or emailing myself, that’s for sure.
RELATIONSHIPS | “Plant trees” for 2 hours each day on phone. I only achieved this about half the days, but some days I just forgot because I didn’t have my phone with me or was working. So, I’m considering it a success and think it’ll be my rough goal every day that I’m not working.
BLOG | Recategorize all of my posts. Yes! I am going from, like, 1,000 categories to six. (Did this on my development site so you can’t see it here yet). I converted most of the categories to tags to make it easier to sift through content. (Blah blah blah nerdery blah blah)
[November Goals]
HEALTH | 8,000 steps a day. I know you’re supposed to do 10,000, but what can I say? I’m an overachiever. As it gets darker and colder, I know that our regular walks will be a bit more of a challenge. (Only problem: I just use the health app on my phone, so this requires having my phone in my pocket, which can be a problem in yoga pants.)
HEALTH | Only bake dessert once all month. I am addicted to baked goods. It has sugar and butter? I am there. I love to bake and do it often. I have noticed that what I possess in baking talent, I lack in self-control, though, so I need to say no for awhile. I’ve been reaching for desserts after every single meal (or, um, instead of a meal), and I need to settle down. So I’m going to restrict myself to just baking one dessert this month. I feel a pang as I type those words. (Buying one at a time is okay because it doesn’t leave me with 3 dozen cookies I eat in 3 days*.) *Hyperbole. Or is it?
MARRIAGE | Make a jar of fun ideas. Mike and I fall into a nighttime TV rut a lot, which is fun! Don’t get me wrong. But I would like to see if we have any energy left to do fun stuff like play games or…see? This is why I need a jar of ideas. I have none. There are a billion ideas about this on Pinterest.
SANITY | Bed by 10:15 pm, up by 6 am. I’m hoping the time change will be on my side here. I just feel so much better starting the day on my own terms instead of being woken up by my children. Lately, though, toddler Theo has been waking up at night, so this might put a damper in my plans. So re-sleep training him might need to be on my to do list.
MONEY | Have a budget meeting with Mike. I am the money person in our family, but I want to start sitting down with Mike and setting financial goals for this month, next year, the next 5 years, and retirement. We have to make some decisions about whether we get a beach trip this winter, if we want to buy a house anytime soon, and other such we-are-totally-not-adult-for-this decisions.
And then we have a visit from parents, traveling back to Ohio (!!) for Thanksgiving, going to Boston, and other such adventures. NOVEMBER!
Sounds like November is going to be a great month! Also, I now want some butter and sugar. That was totally your point, right?
Butter and sugar can do no wrong. Mmmm.
Yay for visiting Ohio! I eat way more baked goods than you, but my response to that is to always have them around. Yummy.
I started listening to Money for the Rest of Us because of your suggestions and while I am not interested in the economics explanation (already took this classes at Uni.) it is fun to see how the “experts” have not idea of what the market/stocks will be like. I do love the Mr. Money Mustache blog for fun finance and investment advice, I think you would qualify as a “mustachian” :)
Ahh! Tell me about all the “we-are-not-adult-enough-for-this”-decisions!
I do not bake for that same reason… I always have to much left over that I have to eat up in three days. Why can’t you bake just 5 cookies? Or can you??
Now that it’s cooling off I just want to bake all of the things all of the time. I made cookies yesterday and I think I already ate half, WHOOPS.
Also, love the jar of activities. Matt and I get into a TV rut sometimes too, we’re just so tired. But I’m making a goal to do more than just lounge after we get Riley to bed.
I’m scared to start baking in my apartment for the holidays because then I will eat EVERYTHING. We moved in at the beginning of the summer, so I didn’t bake anything in the hot weather, but now all bets are off.
The struggle is real. Sugar is the besssst. And the worst.
November is gonna be a fun busy one for you! Looking forward to your December goals and intentions too!