This year I’ve decided to set three monthly goals for myself each month. These will be lighter goals that I should be able to finish within the month. I used to do yearly resolutions, but I wanted to try out monthly goals this year. I am really enjoying it so far and I feel like I accomplished a lot with my January, February and March Goals. The recap for my March Goals will be at the bottom of this post.
So, here are my April Goals!
1. For the Home – Shop for Patio Furniture. We really, really need some new patio furniture! The furniture out there now is at least 10 years old and in bad shape. I want to go with Brian to look at furniture at a few places and after that I want to start working on decorating the patio space, too.
We have put a pop up pool on the patio the last couple summers and we decided not to do that this year. The kids would probably enjoy a day or two at an actual pool instead and this will free up our patio for socializing, BBQ’ing and lounging! We do have a nice patio swing still, a Weber grill and I have a little fruit garden that I grow on the patio every year. So, I’ll probably add some decor to the patio space and maybe a rug. I’d like to add some flowers, too. Should be fun to decorate once we get the new patio furniture.
2. Health – Run Outside Once a Week
I run on the treadmill A LOT… it is convenient and quick. Plus, I can control the exact pace of my runs, etc. However, I need to push myself to run outside more. I am hoping to run outside once a week in April. April is such a good month for running, since I don’t enjoy running in the humidity in May. I also have my NINTH half marathon in April, so that will count as one of my outdoor runs! Yay! The photo above is of me finishing the Spring half marathon I ran in last April.
3. Blog – Make an Unboxing Video
This Christmas my husband surprised me with a new Canon Rebel that takes videos. And, you know what? I haven’t taken any videos for the blog yet. It is one of my goals for this year! I think my first video will be me unboxing a new subscription service (to me) that I just started and can’t wait to share with you! This is going to be a challenging goal, but a good one for ME! I hope this will get me started on many more videos down the road.
How did I do on my March Goals?
1. Time Management – Get up 30-60 Minutes Earlier in the Morning.
This was the HARDEST goal of the month. It wasn’t until the last week and a half of March when I KNEW I had to start working towards it, or I would have to admit on the blog {big gulp} that I failed. 😉
So, this is what I am doing and it is working for me. I set my alarm clock for 5:00 a.m. and I get up and give myself until 5:45 a.m. to eat breakfast (usually a protein shake) and get caught up on my emails, social media and I do some blog reading. Then, from 5:45-6:40 p.m. I have almost an entire UNINTERRUPTED hour to get ready before I need to wake up the kids for school.
45 minutes of quiet time. 55 minutes to get ready. It makes my mornings SO much better. I’m loving it. I hope I can continue this… this is a goal I want to keep doing! Oh, and I go to bed at 10:00 p.m. sharp!
2. Spend 2 Nights a Week NOT blogging after kids are in bed.
This was REALLY hard, because the evening is when I work on the writing aspect of the blog. Crafts, outfits and photos are all done during the daylight (obviously).
On Sunday, I decide what nights that will be ‘blog free’… it is usually either Tuesday and Thursday OR Tuesday and Saturday. Brian and I go out on a date night every other Saturday, so this schedule seems to work. If anything, it makes me get stuff done quicker on the nights that I do blog… which means, I am better at pushing content out under pressure. Ha. 🙂 Or, what it really means is I stay off of my social media in the evening more and WORK my bum off to get stuff done. All in all, I think it is a win.
So, I’ve been enjoying some bubble baths, reading, time with the husband and I’ve also been enjoying some movies! Not bad!
3. Get It Done Already – Visit the new St. Louis IKEA store.
This was the easiest goal. 🙂 Except, I did drag the husband with me. I think he had fun, though. The food was good and I even came home with two items. You can see my first IKEA visit post by clicking HERE. I really need to go back, there are some items I left without and now I wish I had purchased them. Darn, IKEA! 😉
Are you doing monthly goals? What are they? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
