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2019 Goals: Organization and Personal Development
Projects
- Edit and better organize and back up photos (and obtain as main old photos as I can), especially in order to make photobooks
- Determine old computer issues, try to get files (those on old C.D.’s if necessary); have back up plans for current computer
- Complete all my random unfinished projects (art journals, quilt top, embroidery, shells/coral)
- Complete 24 major knitting projects from my stash (average 2 a month)
- Complete 24 major sewing projects from my project pile/stash (average 2 a month)
- Complete room renovation one small step at a time; optimize for organization, sleep, ease of daily life, and sewing
- Work on genealogy (excel sheets and family book); do free stuff first and then DNA
- Take one solo trip, even if it’s small
- Complete regency outfit in time for 2019 JA festival
Skills to Learn (I tried to put this in order of importance, the last few are highly unlikely; also, I’m not aiming for these all at the same time, right now, the first two are in my habits)
- Spanish
- Graphic design
- Photography
- Drawing (be sure to utilize Craftsy, CreativeBug, and YouTube)
- Watercolor (be sure to utilize Craftsy, CreativeBug, and YouTube)
- Lettering (be sure to utilize Craftsy, CreativeBug, and YouTube)
- Mental Math
- Liquid eyeliner, lipstick, quick and professional hair curling/styling
- Dyeing
- Formal Logic
- Jewelry-making
- Piano
- Storytelling
- Mountain dulcimer
- Horseback riding
- Tennis
Work Through Several Self-Help Books (not merely read, but follow as guides)
- Sleep: Sleep Smarter: 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to A Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success
- Thinking: 5 Elements of Effective Thinking
- Habits and Time Management: Miracle Morning, Atomic Habits, The Power of Habit
- Personal finance and investment books: some Dave Ramsey books as well as others
- Organization: Essentialism?
- EQ: Emotional Intelligence 2.0?
Memories
- Keep all journaling, office, and art supplies together
- Journal everyday; mark memories in calendar also
- Art journal, travel journal
- Get better at photography and photo editing, storage, and development
- Phone photo printer
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2019 Goals: Health
Why is this the hardest thing?
Main goal: Improve habits so that overall health is improved in a sustainable way.
Specifics:
- Lose 30 pounds and build muscle, build flexibility, and develop good posture habits
- Eat better and make that a habit
- Set easily obtainable exercise and stretch goals
- Obtain medical records
- If I’ve reached health goals, find a doctor and schedule appointment
- Schedule dental visit and build that habit
- Schedule eye doctor visit and build habit and buy glasses for driving and for blue light
- Personal goal
- Build sleep habit and follow sleep books, particularly Sleep Smarter: 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to A Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success by Shawn Stevenson
- Regular haircut habit (I don’t remember my last haircut, it’s been at least a year)
- Regular skincare habits and investments (especially SUNSCREEN)
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2019 Goals: Financial and Career
My work history isn’t pretty. I’ve been mainly temping and will probably continue to do so for awhile, but is really not enough on it’s own. I’m trying to work on being more proactive and less dependent. I don’t know how to explain this all; I’m very tired of being given stale advice that is really opinion, and I know I haven’t tried hard enough or worked enough, but I do want something that I feel decent about, so I need to find a balance of my.own.thing and still be a responsible adult. Here are my (edited for privacy) goals in the area of finance and career.
Financial
- Pay off short term debt
- Try to earn a certain amount this year before taxes
- Fill an emergency fund to at least a certain amount and then continually build with regularly small additions
- Live off last month’s income!
- Keep and gift/experiences/travel fund (or perhaps a fund for each category)
- Private goal
- Start investing (regular and retirement)
- Generally follow a basic budget (quarterly with monthly adjustments)
- Have no debt and bills paid by end of year
- Buy a decent used car and have it paid off
Career Goals
- Have a stable source of income or a clear path to one by 2020
- Work on tech degree as hard as possible with a plan; I must be in a bachelor’s program by Spring 2020 semester
- Get a couple of certifications for other job options
- Work on soft-skills & genuine networking
- Work more and earn more (be proactive about looking for assignments and side gigs that suit me)
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2019 Goals: Systems
One of my resolutions this years is to add processes and products into my life to make things easier. Much of these ideas for routines and organization came from MuchelleB’s channel.
Since I got my new phone, I finally jumped on the bandwagon to using Evernote. I’m so glad I need. I put my checklists for my daily routines, weekly reset list, etc. on there.
I’m still in the middle of working my plans and such into habits, and I never have the same schedule for long, so we will see how it works, but I’m pretty happy write now. I have my daily routine sheets (I’m still need to print the one that has everything on one page), my habit chart page, and my weekly spread and those things hold all I need to do. I’m still trying to wean myself off of stickies, but I think I’m far better or maybe fine as I’m just using them for notes rather than to-do’s.
- Make Life Overall Easier
- Implement Life Admin Days (one per quarter), Weekly Reset Days, Morning Routine, NIghttme Routine. I got these ideas from MuchelleB’s channel, and I loved them.
- Make Habits Easier
- Build into routine (morning/evening), schedule appointments at appointments. I’m easing into my goals and processes. I found the way that AmandaRachLee does her habits in multiple mini calenders makes it much more appealing for me to track them. I have split my day into Morning, Lunch, and Evening and tried to work all my habits from my habits chart into this.
- Make Health Easier
- Clear floor for exercise, pick out outfits, make simple schedule
- Plan and prep meals, keep decent snacks, invest in helpful appliances (lunch warmer, crockpot, Instantpot), keep good grocery lists
- Get huge water jug (set reminder if I must)
- Make Daily Life Easier
- Set routines
- Laundry: (4 basket bin, clean/ironing basket, steamer, schedule)
- Cleaning: get proper tools and keep together
- Renovate bedroom, get more bathroom organization
- Stuff control (tips: one in one out; “where will it go?” “do I own similar?” “do I really need this?”; play minimalist game/get rid of 500 items, once per quarter?), buy safe/locked fire safe filing cabinet
- Have a place for everything & group everything by category (my sticky points: library books, current reads, office supplies/notes, quote notebook, reading notebooks, borrowed books, school, journal)
- Make School Easier
- Set up space with everything needed
- Knock out work at the earliest possible
- Make Sewing and Crafts Easier
- Set up a space
- Get better organization
- Make Fashion Easier
- Streamline underthings and basics
- Avoid items with special needs/extras (e.g. something that needs an accessory in a color I don’t currently own, something that needs extra underlayers, etc.)
- Have one wedding and one funeral outfit with shoes, accessories, under things, and outerwear
- Have multiple business professional, business casual, dressy casual, outdoors (including hiking), and dress outfits with shoes, accessories, under things, and outerwear
- Make Tech/Web Control Easier (i.e. make it easier to not be on them all the time)
- Books
- Puzzles
- Journal
- Projects
- Drawing
- Audiobooks, audiodramas, podcasts
- Boardgames
- I need all these to be things that I like, so for some, such as the audio ones, I might need to come up with lists since I do NOT gravitate towards them at ALL.
- Make Travel and Exploring Easier
- Travel fund
- Travel tools
- Pinpoint fears
- Go with family
- Folk school and similar planned/controlled excursions
- Map out plans, costs, and answers to fears
- Make Life Overall Easier
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My Year in Movies: 2019
I don’t track my movies with near the precision of my books (I don’t bother with re-watches, I’d quickly lose track), but I have started tracking movies with Letterboxd. And a few days ago, I received an email with my movie year in review from Letterboxd which was a fun surprise. I think I didn’t put all my Hallmarks for this season in yet though, so its not totally accurate on the number of films and hours. I did some updating.
And then I realized that Letterboxd has a duplication problem; you can have multiple entries (and multiple counts) of the same movie, so that completely defeats the purpose. I then exported, deleted, updated, and edited my list of watched movies. So now I have an Excel list, but I’ll have to manually add the date of the movie, etc. However, it is easier to mass add the category tags in Excel. I wish there was a better site, but there doesn’t seem to be. Maybe I can somehow juggle both (clear out my account and import everything back in, and then add movies more carefully? And then export, cut the ones I’ve recently added and brush it up?).
I probably should track re-watches to track my overall movie watching habit, clearly the Hallmarks are waaaaay out of hand.
Per the email and my memory/Wikipedia. I think I watched some Hallmarks that were new to me but not new this year, I’d have to check. This is as accurate as its getting right now.
- I watched 61 new-to-me films
- My two biggest categories were Hallmark at 27 titles (I’ve watched 140 Hallmark movies out of 437 movies I’ve counted, this merits another post) and Classics at 16 titles
- My most watched actor/actress was Lauren Bacall (6: Designing Woman, How to Marry a Millionaire, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Key Largo, and Dark Passage)
- My most watched director was Howard Hawks
- My 4 highest rated films were Spider Man: Homecoming, Testament of Youth, I am Dragon, and Thor: Ragnarok
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New Year Resolutions and Planning
I’ve spent a lot of time planning, several drafts of resolutions, goals, etc. I watched tons of YouTube, mostly MuchelleB for ideas and inspiration (last year Lavendaire was the go-to YouTuber) plus lots of AmandaRachLee and others (see my Pinterest board section for more of them) for the practical, physical planner pages.
I’d decided on a lot about my physical planner system that I wanted: letter-sized (I prefer larger, and letter is more practical for print-outs here in the U.S.), dot-grid paper, bullet journal layouts, and removable pages. However, I did make some changes, I changed from Filofax to Staples Arc (I got this one), because of color mainly, but also the price (since the Staples notebook was on sale). I still have yet to get the punch for my notebook.
I then tried to research a good paper thickness. I ended up with 28lbs paper, but I definitely go thicker next/when I get the chance). I found this free bullet journal dot paper print-out (I’m going to have to work with my printer settings in order to try to get it to be perfectly symmetrical, also not sure my printer likes the thick paper).
I’m keeping my yearly, quarterly, monthly goal breakdown, but I’m trying to aim for more practical and achievable (for me personally) goals. Again, I’m not holding myself to these strictly, but if I aim and get many things partially completed and constantly readjust, I will be doing quite well. This time I also set some basic resolutions that my goals will fall under. These are:
- Achieve a basic level of financial and career security
- Make a significant improvement in overall health
- Implement systems and organizations to make life easier
- Make more serious and systematic strides in skills
My word of the year is: Security
My focus of the year is: Aiming for independence with comfort
My goals are quite long (and are the details of the resolutions) and have been broken down into categories (I’ve posted the reading ones already, I think I might make each category a separate post, at least for the less personal ones).
I’ll probably post pictures, but maybe after I get the planner looking a little prettier.
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My 2018 Goals
I have nine categories of goals. I’ve already changed some, and I’m sure others will be amended. Some items are hard to set in stone or I have/will learned of better options. Also, I will selectively edit what I choose to show, some of my goals are too personal or to uncertain for me to put here.
Financial
~Pay of debts and dues and stay out of debt
~Begin investing a significant portion of my income (this is new)
~Purchase a TEFL certification course
~Save and pay for CLEPs and tuition (including Spring 2019)
~Put certain amounts in a ROTH IRA, in an emergency fund, and in a savings accountCareer
~Work with Lumerit on my schooling (this is new; we are trying to find the best option for me)
~Achieve TEFL certification and try to find an online job
~Complete other career training and add good job experience to resumeHealth
~Achieve healthy/weight muscle balance
~Increase my flexibility considerably and improve my posture
~GO OUTSIDE! Make it a habit
~Get various beauty and health treatments
~Healthy sleep habits
~Take regular screen vacations and find a better usage system
~Build up better eating and hydration habits, and a decent recipe and meal plan selectionPersonal Development
~Relearn math
~Work on EQ, interpersonal communication, critical thinking, and logic
~Learn Spanish and start a second language
~Work on geography
~Work on developing my artistic skills (complete all my Craftsy and Creativebug art courses and this YouTube course and work through some of our books and some library books)
~Work on my music deficiency and relearn piano
~Possibly take some lessons (dancing, ice-skating, horse-back riding, tennis)Travel and Explore
~Explore my area (with my grandparents for some of this)
~Explore my state
~Visit 2-3 new states/explore states I’ve been to more
~Visit 1-2 new countriesOthers
~Finish overdue gifts, finish 4 baby blankets, be timely with gifts
~Spend more mindful time with family, particularly my grandparents
~Give blood a couple timesHomemaking and Holidays
~Redesign my room
~Reorganize and purge (finish all scrapbooks, photo editing, and photobooks; organize and streamline recipe and other folders/binders; organize, streamline, and back up my computer and documents; find a better place for Christmas, gift, office, craft, etc. supplies)
~Work on my cleaning systems
~Work on holiday/Christmas planning to minimize stress and maximize my enjoyment!Sewing and Making
~Learn tatting, improve jewelry making and embroidery
~Develop my sewing and knitting skills along with my wardrobe (including hard items like lingerie, sweater dresses, cardigans, silks); complete wardrobe!
~Work on art/travel journalsRead
~Keep improving in depth and intensity (see my 2018 reading tab for more details) -
New Year Plans
I read a couple of posts that mentioned that in order for a person to read his/her goals said person must plan out and break down goals (light bulb). Is this one of the most obvious statements ever? Yes, probably. But I’ve never made goals for anything, I’ve never planned really. I’ve made lists, which mostly aren’t completed, and I’ve floated along doing or not-doing (the usual) activities as they came along. So, once college was completed, I had no plan, no steps, no practical knowledge. So I’ve been stuck/wandering in circles aimlessly for a while with plenty of random paths taken. Now, I will never be a one goal, one interest person, but I want to actually do all the activities I talk/dream about, and I really need to become more independent.
While on vacation in early January, I started typing out and organizing my goals. I highly recommend this since you can move everything around and continually add as you think of ideas. I was planning to buy a new bullet journal, and I wanted everything to be sketched out first, so my goals would be neat and organized. I had accumulated a small bookmark folder of New Year type posts as well.
When I got home I ordered the bullet journal, washi tape (12 designs which worked out neatly), page flags, sticky notes, pen holder, and pens. I love the concept of a bullet journal because as I’ve mentioned before I need flexible structure, and regular planners are far to cement structured for me. And that is also why I’ve always opted for a larger bullet journal. I used a (Letter-sized) Moleskine half-heartedly (I didn’t truly utilize it as a planner fully) for two years. This time I bought this Leuchtturm1917 journal in emerald with dotted pages (B5 is very close to our “Letter” just a tad narrower and perhaps a cm taller) and a matching pen holder.
I spent considerably time laying everything out. Its hardly perfect. I forgot to add monthly goals pages, so I have to use the “free pages” for that, and my calendar pages are a little rough, but I’m really happy with the structure. And I can always tweak things. I’ve recently added my book goals (I intentionally left that for a different page because I had so many, but they aren’t important in the way by other goals are, and I didn’t want to distract from those other goals).
- I wrote out my word (Bloom) and focus for the year (Discipline and Diligence) on the first place.
- I divided my 2018 goals into categories which I color co-ordinated; these took up the next four pages.
- I delineated my first quarter goals (again, by category)
- I laid out the first quarter months (for each: calendar of month with room for narrow sticky, monthly and Internet brain dump pages, free page, weekly page, habit tracker, weekly goals)
- I left a blank set of pages for second quarter goals and laid out second quarter months, and repeated for last two quarters.
- At the back of my bullet journal I left two pages for 2018 review.
- I’ve since added my book goals (trying to break them down a bit).
- I’ve also discovered, like I said that I need to break quarterly goals down into monthly. From there they are either in the habit tracker (things that should be habits/require discipline) or go to weekly and then daily goals (specific, unique goals). Although if they fall in the latter category, I’m more likely to wing it.
I’m going to do a separate post of my yearly goals, and I’m hoping to post my quarterly goals and monthly goals as appropriate. I’ve read bloggers who grade their monthly goals according to a letter system, and I find this a far more helpful system that did or did not because it shows how a person made progress even if the person didn’t complete everything. Again, not everything is set in stone (especially for some of the long term goals) because I’m learning new things and doors open and shut. And full disclosure, I didn’t accomplish much (in proportion to the time available to me) in January. But I’m trying to be growth minded; previously, I would think, “Well, then I’m done, I blew it,” instead of looking at the positive. I have too much of an all or nothing mindset which for me is usually nothing.
Anyway, here are some iPhone photos of my bullet journal:
Here are some links from my collection:
Internet/Social Media Vacations
