Tag Archives: planning

Still Setting Myself Up For A Good Year (or Transitioning From One Monthly Challenge To Another)

Posted on January 5, 2023 | 1 comment

My monthly challenge last month was to do what I needed to do in order to have a good 2023. This involved several different things, but the main ones I focused on were around setting up my living space for success. This included going through my clothes to see what I could get rid of and going through my kitchen to take an inventory and make sure I don’t have anything expired.

I know this wasn’t too crazy of a monthly challenge, but I’m glad I did it because sometimes the simplest things are the things you seem to put off the most. I really needed to do these things and I’m happy I had a push to do them. Even though I went through a lot of my clothes when I moved, there were still so many things I didn’t need and were taking up space. Since I want to redo my closet and I’m looking for a new dresser, getting rid of things I don’t need will help me figure out how to set up my clothing storage. And going through the stuff in my kitchen was very helpful too. Since I’m trying to cook more, I really don’t want to think I have a spice in my cabinet only to discover when I’m about to use it that it’s expired. I know that not all expired spices are bad, but I don’t want to use something that could make the food I make taste off. I still have more that I want to go through in my kitchen since I know that I have other things that may have gone bad, but at least I got through the things I’m expecting to use more frequently.

After getting some things set up for the new year, I wanted to continue that trend with my monthly challenge for January. This is a variation of something I’ve done before, but my challenge this month is to create a good weekly schedule for myself to get certain things done. What this means to me is to create a schedule that will help me figure out when I should do certain weekly errands, what days might be best for different cleaning tasks, and what days are best to try to cook. I know that doing this will help me not only stay on top of the regular things I need to get done, but it will make it easier for me to find where I do have free time to do other things.

The only regular task I’m good about doing on a schedule is doing laundry. I used to do laundry every Sunday, but now I do it every Saturday. I rarely have to do laundry other times, but now that I have my own washer and dryer I do sometimes do non-clothing laundry on other days. But having that routine makes things easy since I don’t have to think too much about when I can set aside time to make sure I have clean clothes each week. But I want to feel that way about other things that need to be done regularly like vacuuming and mopping. I know for some things like cleaning my bathroom and dusting, need to be done more frequently so it might not be as easy to schedule.

And in the same way, knowing what days I have free time after work to cook will help me plan what to make and what groceries to get each week. I also like knowing when I’ll have leftovers so I have easy things to make for lunch or get ready for dinner. I don’t always plan out leftovers well when I have them, but this will almost be a way to do some meal planning with less effort. If I know I’m cooking on a Monday and will have 3 meals of leftovers, I will know when I need to cook again or when I might have to have something easy to make. I also can use this planning to start stocking up my freezer with leftovers again, which I haven’t done much since I moved. All of this will help me not feel like ordering food because I should have options available for me.

I’m not sure if there are other things I want to figure out for a weekly schedule, but I feel like these are good things to start with. And as this month goes on, I guess I’ll see how it goes and if it works out to do this idea with more in my life. The more that I can get into a routine where I don’t need to think too much about it, the better.

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged free time, planning, scheduling, volt planner

My 2023 Goals (or Some New Goals and Some Repeats)

Posted on January 3, 2023 | Comments Off

As I have done each year for the last several years, I have set some goals for myself for 2023. I look at goals and resolutions as different things. Goals seem to have more of a concrete idea of what you want to get to versus resolutions that feel more abstract. I still have some goals that don’t have an exact thing to get to, but I still feel like there are better ways to track my results with goals than I do with resolutions. This might just be wording and the idea that resolutions typically are broken, but for me, I think whatever works is good. And for 2023, I have set 4 goals for myself.

The first goal is something I’ve done quite a bit. I want to make sure I do 200 Orangetheory workouts this year. This goal is the one that I feel is almost a guarantee I will be successful unless something crazy happens in my life. And if something does happen in my life that will prevent me from working out for a few weeks, then I’ll probably reevaluate this goal and make sure it’s still something I can get to. 200 workouts means I go 4 times a week for almost all the weeks of the year. I don’t have to go 4 times every week and I could have a few weeks of just going 3 times. But my plan is to go 4 times a week unless something comes up that make that impossible. But that’s why I have a bit of flexibility with having some weeks where I could go 3 times and still make it to my goal. Even though I look at this goal as something that should be accomplished with very little extra effort, I do like to have accountability.

My second goal for the year is to work on getting more sleep every night. I have been getting very little sleep for a while and I know it’s affecting me. I get up pretty early to be able to work out before work, but I haven’t really adjusted what time I go to bed with the earlier wake-up. There have been far too many nights where I get only about 4 hours of sleep, and that’s not something to be proud of. Since I can’t really adjust what time I get up, I need to work on going to bed earlier. That involves a few different things such as actually getting into bed earlier, not reading as late as I have, and not staying up late to catch up on a tv show or something. Nothing that I do late at night couldn’t wait until the next day, so I have to be better about not feeling a need to complete something at night.

My third goal is something similar to what I set for 2022. I want to keep setting up my condo. There aren’t too many things I have to do to get things set up the way I want to, but all of those things involve money. I want to get the furniture I want for my office since that will help move almost everything still in a box out of a box. I also am looking into redoing my closet since it’s not the best use of space for me. For my closet, I’m hoping this could possibly be something I do on my own to save money, but there are a few things that need to be considered first. But my parents and I are going to look into some options soon so hopefully I can have an idea of what that cost will be and when it can be done. I would love to say that by the end of this year, I won’t have anything left in a box, but I’m not sure if that will happen. But it’s something I’m going to work toward and see how close I can get.

And my last goal for the year is something I have talked about several times and just haven’t done it. I want to rebuild my acting life. I still have been pursuing acting and have been submitting myself for projects. And if I get an audition, I do everything I need to do to have the best audition possible. But I know that things aren’t going as great as they could be. Things still aren’t exactly where they were before the pandemic, but they are much closer so I should be at least closer to what they were like before. But I’m just not there. This will involve a few different things such as trying to get back into class or finding a group to work on scripts together, getting new headshots, and maybe looking into if a different agent could be a better fit for me. None of these things will guarantee that I will get more auditions or book work, but I want to do whatever I can that is in my control to feel like I’m not just playing around at being an actor but an active participant in that career. I know for the last few years I have had my focus on other things, but I’m ready to get back to what I love and hopefully see some results from my work.

I debated about doing some other goals this year and there are other things I might set as monthly challenges or just a smaller monthly goal so I can accomplish more this year, but I think for my big year-long goals, these 4 are really things I need and want to focus on and will help me to have a successful year.

And I hope in 12 months when I’m recapping how 2023 went, I will have a lot of success to share with you all!

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Posted in Acting, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

Tagged 2023, goals, planning

Looking Back At My 2022 Goals (or I Don’t Think I Did As Well As I Could Have)

Posted on December 30, 2022 | Comments Off

It’s my final post of 2022! This year has been a whirlwind in more ways than one and I think I’m ending this year in a very different place than I expected. I think things didn’t entirely turn out the way I wanted them to, but in other ways, things are better than I expected. I don’t think there’s usually a good way to predict how things will go over 12 months, but I try to do what I can that is in my control. And that’s why I’m always setting different goals for myself. It’s important to try to stay on the path you are hoping to go down. Even if you don’t get things completely right, you usually have at least made strides toward that goal.

And that’s how I feel about the goals I had set for this year. I really thought I picked out some great goals for myself and things just didn’t happen how I thought they would so I don’t feel like I’m as successful as I expected to be. But I still had victories even in the failures.

The first goal I had for myself was to do at least 200 Orangetheory classes. This is the goal that I felt very certain I would be able to achieve and I like having one goal that doesn’t feel like a stretch. But there were moments I was worried I wouldn’t make it to that number. After taking a week off after my foot surgery, I knew I had to limit how many rest days I took. I didn’t have that many weeks throughout the year that I only did 3 workouts in the week, so I was able to make up for that missed week in January. And I will be ending this year with 203 workouts after I do my workout tomorrow. Even though this was an easy goal for me to complete, I like having it because it held me accountable. I am in a routine right now, but I also know how easy it can be to get out of a routine and get into bad habits. So I’m glad that I was able to get this done.

My next goal was to move into my condo and get everything set up. I would say that I was almost fully successful with this goal. I am moved in and have nothing left at my old place (which is a big relief at this point), but I don’t feel like I have everything set up just yet. There are a few things that I haven’t bought that will help me complete my place. But some of them need me to save up money and some I just haven’t picked out the right things yet. I don’t want to buy something just to buy it, so I’m taking my time and being picky. But it’s just a matter of time before I can get everything done on my list. But even without having everything set up, I feel very much at home here and that’s probably the most important thing.

The next goal was to be more mindful of my time. This one was a real struggle for me and something that I will be continuing to work on in 2023. I got a bit better at managing my time and allowing myself to make plans outside of my work schedule, but I still had struggles with organizing my work time with completing tasks in the most efficient way. I’m getting better at it, but I know there is a lot of work I still need to do. And I need to be better about my free time because I also know that I’m wasting time there too. But there are other things I want to work on that I think will help with some of my wasted free time and I’ll be doing those in the new year.

One of the goals I didn’t do so well on was getting out of my house more. I was allowing myself to be more social and go out with friends, but I wasn’t being productive at making plans. I was depending a lot on others to ask me to do things and that wasn’t great. But I know I was doing things outside of my house a bit more than the year before even if it wasn’t exactly what I was hoping to do. I think there are a lot of reasons why this was a failure for me, but issues with free time and still being cautious with the pandemic are the main ones and I don’t know how I could have changed both of those as much as I needed to. But it’s not a total failure because I did do more, so that’s at least something.

And the final goal I had for this past year was to work on my budget more. This one wasn’t that great either, but it was for some things I wasn’t expecting. I am definitely doing better with my budget than I was before, but my tracking isn’t where it needs to be. I should be able to track better than I do and I’m still trying to find what system will work best for me. I was doing ok with this goal occasionally throughout the year, but then I’d have some sort of change that just brought me back to where I started. Whenever my salary changed or I went from an independent contractor to an employee, things should have been easy to change in my tracking but they just weren’t. I sound like I’m making excuses, but clearly, something in the way I was trying to do this wasn’t working for me and I just need to keep trying to see what will eventually work so I can feel better about my financial situation and start planning on how I can enjoy the money I have and not just survive on it.

Overall, my goals didn’t really go how I wanted them to go, but they also weren’t all failures or a waste of my time. I just ended up having different priorities or thoughts as the year went on that made these goals not the ones I put my time and energy onto. But I still had some progress with them all and I know I’m doing better with these things than I was 12 months ago. And I’ve got some goals figured out for 2023 that I’ll be sharing soon that hopefully will be some good ones that I will reflect back on in a year and feel a bit more successful with.

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Tagged 2022, 2023, goals, planning, volt planner

Getting Ready For The New Year (or Trying To Set Myself Up For Good Things)

Posted on December 1, 2022 | Comments Off

Happy December! Again, I feel like last month flew by. I don’t know how November is over when it feels like it was just Halloween. Maybe doing Fake Thanksgiving threw things off a bit for me? But it still feels like November was a month that wasn’t there. And I’m ready to have one last monthly challenge for 2022.

For November, I challenged myself to be more efficient and to be more open to asking for help. When I set that challenge, I really thought it would be more about my work than about my personal life. And of course, I didn’t have too many things going on with work that would have required help or that were different from what I had done before. But I did try to be more efficient in my workflow each day. I tried to do some planning with which tasks need to be done immediately and which tasks could wait so I could do them in batches. And I think I’ve gotten off to a good start with this because I have noticed that I’m not struggling as much to get through my work each day.

But I did have the chance to ask for help with a non-work thing. I’m pretty short and sometimes things at the grocery store are either on the tallest shelves or they are at the back of the shelf so I can’t reach them. I’m used to standing on the lowest shelves to reach things because they normally aren’t that out of my reach. But a few weeks ago, I couldn’t reach something I wanted and instead of climbing to reach it, I asked someone who was also in that aisle to help me. I don’t love asking for help because I feel like I need to prove to myself that I can do things on my own. But it was nice not having to worry about my balance or struggling to grab the things I wanted. And the person who helped me didn’t seem to be too bothered to help and they even asked if there was anything else on that aisle I couldn’t reach. I still think that I won’t always ask for help because I can usually do things on my own, but it was a good reminder that it’s not a huge task to ask for help.

And for my December challenge, I want to do things that will help me make 2023 another successful year. I have some things on my list that I haven’t done since the move that I need to stop putting off. I want to start next year off feeling organized and settled. I also want to get things ready like my new planner so I need to spend time planning out my goals for the year and maybe also making a list of potential monthly challenges. And I want to do some of the usual things people do when getting ready for a new year like going through my clothes again to see what I don’t need and making sure that I don’t have any expired food (I recently found expired spices so I’ve been working on going through those). I know everything won’t be perfect, but I know it will be nice to kick off a new year feeling like I have a clean slate and I’m ready for whatever the year will bring.

I have a feeling that December is going to fly by faster than other months this year and I don’t want the end of the year to be here before I’m ready for it! So hopefully what I can accomplish this month will really help me get set up and I can start 2023 feeling ready for whatever the year will bring my way!

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Tagged challenge, planning, volt planner

Resets And New Adventures (or Always Working To Improve My Life)

Posted on October 4, 2022 | Comments Off

Happy October! I feel like I say this every month, but it seems like time is flying by so quickly! I feel like we just started September and now it’s over. And I know before I know it, it will be the new year. I think having this feeling is one of the reasons I’m glad I set monthly challenges for myself. It gives me something to focus on accomplishing so the time just doesn’t slip by.

For September, my challenge was to do daily resets of my home. I had noticed that I was putting things off and saying to myself that I could just do it in the morning. But of course, I never did it the next day and some tasks were just not getting done in a timely manner. And because my condo is much bigger than my last place, it was easier to not see the mess that might have been left. For example, I could leave things in the sink and not see them compared to before when if I left something in the sink it basically made the sink unusable. And it was easy to use the excuse that I was still figuring out where I want things to be to not put away something I might have used. So I wanted to try to reset my home as much as I could each day so I felt like I started fresh in the morning.

I wasn’t perfect at all and there were still plenty of days when I wasn’t putting away all my dishes or leaving things for the next day. But I did make a much more conscious effort to be better about this. I also worked harder on finding places for some of my things. I’m still working on a list of things I need to get more organized, like ways I can organize under my kitchen and bathroom sink. And I know once I get those things it will be a little easier. But even without being perfect, I did notice a difference in how I felt in the morning when things weren’t still needing to be done and it felt like I was starting from neutral in the morning.

After working last month on getting a good reset system down in my home so I could feel like each day was a new day, for October I want to mix things up a bit more in my life. This month, I want to make an effort to try to do some new things or get out of the rut that I’m currently dealing with. I have a pretty set routine for weekdays. I go to the gym in the morning, work all day, and then after work I’m usually just sitting at home and trying to relax from my day. I feel like I’m a bit stuck since each week goes by and I don’t have a lot of variety in my life. I try to do things on weekends, but I work on Saturdays and on Sundays, I’m normally getting ready for the next week.

I feel like before the pandemic, I wasn’t in quite as bad of a rut. I know I was not doing as much as I could, but there is a big difference between being done with work at 3pm versus 5 or 6pm. When I was done at 3, I felt like I still had my afternoon and evening ahead of me and I could go out and do something. There were plenty of times I went to Disneyland after work since I had the afternoon free. But now, once I’m done with work I want to get dinner figured out and before I know it, it’s time to go to bed since I get up so early. There are a few wasted hours in my evening when I’m not doing much that I could take advantage of. And even though I try to go to bed early, I usually don’t. So I might as well go out with friends or something that keeps me out a bit later than to be up too late because I was scrolling on social media.

This goal is easier said than done. So many of my friends have moved away so I am working on rebuilding friendships that may have become acquaintanceships. I’m trying to ask more friends about meeting up for dinner or something simple like that to just get out of the house. But I’m hoping if I ask my friends if they want to go out and do something specific versus just asking if they are free and then trying to figure out something to do, hopefully, I will be able to make more plans and I’ll find things I like to do that I haven’t done in a while. Maybe I’ll find a new routine that adds a bit more social time to my week.

Having a routine isn’t bad, as long as it’s something you are having fun with. But now, I’m not having as much fun with my weekly routine and it feels like a rut, so I want to work on getting out of it and start enjoying my life again.

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Tagged challenge, planning, routine, scheduling, volt planner

Halfway Through The Year (or Focusing Again On My 2022 Goals)

Posted on July 1, 2022 | Comments Off

Happy July! It’s crazy to think this year is half over. It seems like so much has happened in the past 6 months but also that time has been dragging on. And as always, the start of a new month brings the end to one monthly challenge and the start of another.

In June, I had another challenge about organizing. But this time, I wanted to focus on organizing digital clutter. I’m very happy with how I did with this challenge. I did work on going through my DVR again and reviewing what I have set to record so I could get rid of any series that I am no longer interested in or that I don’t seem to be watching. There wasn’t much to do on my DVR since I had done this when I got a new device during my move, but it was still good to review what I had set up and what I really didn’t need to keep.

And I was really good with getting rid of podcasts I don’t enjoy anymore. There weren’t that many on that list, but it was good to think about what I really want to listen to and what I listen to just because I have been subscribed for so long. But besides unsubscribing from shows I don’t listen to anymore, I also went through individual episodes that I have been holding on to for one reason or another. These are from shows that I do enjoy, but they might have interviewed someone I wasn’t super excited to hear about or it was a subject that I wasn’t interested in. I kept telling myself that I would listen to those episodes eventually, but I know that I would never get to them because there were so many new episodes I would listen to each week. It’s weird to feel a sense of relief from getting rid of those, but they no longer feel like they are things I need to catch up on. I also went through all the shows I was subscribed to and looked and when they did their last episode. There are some shows that haven’t done a new episode in 6 months or longer. Unless I knew the show was taking a hiatus and would be back, I unsubscribed from shows that didn’t seem to be doing new episodes. I can always subscribe again if they start up, but for now, I don’t need that cluttering my podcast app.

And for July, I’m focusing on the fact that this year is half over and I feel a bit behind on my 2022 goals. I had that realization when I was looking at my tracking for my workouts and I wasn’t at quite 100 workouts for the year yet. Normally, I’m ahead of 100 by now. I know I had a setback with my foot so I missed a week of workouts and this wasn’t a huge surprise, but I still didn’t think about it too much until I saw it. And I do normally reflect on my annual goals halfway through the year so when I noticed I was a bit behind I wanted to focus on them for this month.

I’m not behind on all my goals. I am technically all moved into my condo. I might not have everything put away yet, but I am out of my old place. There will be things I can’t put away for a while because I’m saving up money to add furniture, but I am continuing to do what I can to get things put into the places I want them to be and to make my space look less like a moving zone.

I’m not doing great about being mindful of my time or getting out of my house more, but I have been making steps toward improving those. I need to work on these more, but I also know that I have made efforts to both of these goals. But I don’t want to settle and only do the goals halfway if I can help it. And I think remembering that I set a goal to get out of my house more is a good push for me to keep reaching out to friends to see who might want to go do some things this summer. I have been reconnecting with friends who I didn’t see as often, and it’s been so much fun to revive these friendships that may have slipped into acquaintances in the recent past. And I think a lot of people have been doing the same thing, so it’s not weird to be reaching out to people that I haven’t seen in a long time.

And while I have told myself a lot that I want to get my budget set up again, there were always excuses of why I wanted to wait. I need to stop using that as an excuse and really set aside time to buckle down and get to work. I know I don’t need things to be perfect when I set them up, but there are a few things I want to get in order and planned before I set up the new budget. It’s mainly about reevaluating my regular payments and looking at my recent bills to get an idea of what the charges are. Even with the same bills that I used to have, the price I pay is different between my old place and my new place. There’s nothing crazy, but the amounts I’m used to paying might be slightly higher or lower and I want to set up my budget with the new amounts.

I think that I could make some great progress toward most of my goals this month. Obviously, my workout goal is limited to how many days there are in the month so I just have to keep moving along with that one and making the best effort to go 4 times a week. But for my other goals, I think July could be a great month to really get back to these goals and make sure that in 6 months I can share that I have accomplished what I was hoping to do.

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Tagged 2022, challenge, goals, planning, volt planner

I Really Did Give Myself An Easy Monthly Challenge (or This Month Will Possibly Be Easy As Well)

Posted on May 3, 2022 | Comments Off

For my monthly challenge in April, I set it to be something that I had no choice but to accomplish. The challenge was to be completely out of my old place by the end of the month. Because the last month of my lease was April, I had to be out by the end of the month. Of course, I wanted it to be a bit easier than just rushing at the end of the month to get it done. And most of my things were out about a week before the end of the month. I did have a few last things I had to move or give away within the last few days, but on the last day of April, I did turn in my keys and officially said goodbye to my old home for the last time.

I know it was an easy challenge for me to set, but I wanted to make it an easy one since I was preparing for the month to be stressful and didn’t want to add any extra stress that I could avoid. Of course, I wasn’t fully prepared for how stressful moving would be. So I’m extra grateful that the challenge I set for April didn’t add to that stress and make things worse for me.

And my challenge this month is also connected to moving and hopefully will be a bit of an easy one as well. My challenge for May is to get most of my things out of boxes or into consolidated boxes. I know it won’t be possible to get everything out of the boxes by the end of the month because I still need to buy some furniture that will hold my things. And right now, I’m pulling a temporary hold on buying more stuff due to some things in the condo still needing to be worked on (more about that coming later). So things like my books will need to stay in boxes for a bit longer.

But I can get a lot of things out of boxes by the end of this month. And for what I can’t get out of boxes, I can get into boxes for each section of my house. For example, right now in my office, I have about 5 boxes with different things in them. Some of the boxes have things that won’t be going into my office and some of the things going into my office are in boxes in other parts of the condo. So if I could get all my office stuff into a few boxes in my office, that will make things easier when I do have the pieces I need to put things away.

Even though I got rid of a lot of things while I was packing up my house, I’m sure I will find things in these boxes that I might not want to keep. So organizing what is not put away will also help me make sure I don’t keep things just to have them. But I don’t think there will be too much that I find that I need to get rid of. It will be more about planning where I want to put things now that I have so much more space. So things that I had to put in one place because it’s the only place they fit before could be put somewhere else now that I have some options. Decorating this new space should be a fun process and I’m finally getting close to enjoying that part of my new home.

I would love it if most of the boxes were out of my condo by the end of the month, but I don’t know how possible that will be. So I just want to see how much I can get it down to and how much I can organize all the things that I haven’t put away just yet. And hopefully by doing that, I will feel even more at home by the end of May.

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Tagged challenge, moving, organization, planning, volt planner

Having Things Organized And Clean (or Not Slacking Off Because Of My Upcoming Move)

Posted on March 1, 2022 | Comments Off

Happy March! I’m hoping this will be an exciting month for me. I will either be moving this month or be very close to moving by the end of the month. Things with the pandemic seem to be getting better. And while this might not be able to happen, I might have a trip later this month (it’s very likely to not happen, but I’m still hopeful). And of course, I’m also starting a new monthly challenge.

For February, my challenge was all about working on to-do and task lists. I knew I needed to be more organized with my time, especially as I took on new projects at work. And I was hoping I could work on planning what I would be doing after work so I could be better about my free time. Well, I did do pretty well about making lists for work. I still have a running list of tasks and projects I’m working on and for some of them I have the due dates listed as well. But for my free time, I didn’t plan too much. I think this had more to do with not having much to do after work this past month and not as much about not wanting to do it. If I had an errand or a bunch of errands I needed to do after work, I did write things out and plan the order I wanted to do them in. Even without doing all the lists I was hoping I would do, I did feel more in control with my time than I did before so that was a positive result.

And this month, my challenge is something that I feel like I have to add in because I have noticed myself slipping. I am pretty clean and usually have a clean house. I’m not perfect and sometimes things build up, but I’ve been good in the past with having a regular cleaning routine and making sure I don’t slack off too much. But for the past two months, I have used the excuse of my upcoming move as a reason to not clean. Like not dusting because I’ll just be putting things into a box soon. Or not stressing that my floors haven’t been mopped because I am dragging something out of my house soon so I can clean after that. But what I think is the messiest thing lately is having piles of things I’m still sorting through and saying it’s ok to leave it and deal with it later.

But having a messy house is affecting me and despite me thinking it’s ok to put things off, it’s not good for me. So I want to get back to my regular cleaning routine as much as possible and to continue things as if I wasn’t going to be moving soon. There are some things that I can’t exactly do because of prepping for a move (some boxes are around and I can’t put things away since they are going to the new place soon), but those are the exceptions and not the rule. I know I could do a lot more with my cleaning and making my space feel more comfortable for me. I will still have some discomfort with how my place is coming apart and being put into boxes, but I shouldn’t be adding more stress to it when I can help it.

In the past, I have done speed cleaning every day and I kept that up for a while. But I stopped doing it when I got into a better routine and had regular days to do different tasks. But I think I need to get back into my daily speed clean just to make sure I’m not ignoring something that I am telling myself I can put off until later. And when I move, I will probably need to have a new routine so getting back into the groove with speed cleans will probably help me when figuring that out when I move.

I know I won’t be perfect with this challenge since as the month goes on I will have more obstacles to cleaning the way I want to. But I don’t want to use that as an excuse to not do the things I know I can get done now.

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Tagged challenge, clean, planning, scheduling, volt planner

Unexpected Challenges To My Monthly Challenge (or I’ll Be Planning More This Month)

Posted on February 1, 2022 | Comments Off

Happy February! I feel like January took a very long time and it was an overwhelming month. But I’m glad to be on to a fresh month with what feels like a fresh start! And that also means time for a new monthly challenge.

In January, I challenged myself to limit how often I ordered delivery food. I knew I was getting back into bad habits and wanted to break them before things got more out of control for me. I really hoped I would only order food maybe once a week if that. I would have loved to have had a month with no delivery food and I had tried to plan my grocery shopping around this idea.

And for a good portion of the month, I was doing ok with this challenge. I was ordering in once a week but I had planned for that. And I was really working on focusing on what I got at the grocery store so I felt like I had more than enough options at home. But this planning came to a halt after my recent doctor appointment. I had planned on going to the grocery store after that appointment, and because I was leaving the appointment on crutches that didn’t happen. I ordered in delivery food that night and I felt like I had earned it. But then the next day I forgot to order groceries to be delivered so I ordered in again. I finally got back on track over the weekend, but I hate that I ended the month having the worst time with my challenge. But I guess that is life, especially when you have unexpected things come up.

For this month, I want to try to plan for the unexpected a bit more. I want to work on task lists and to-do lists. I have done a similar challenge before, but the main idea is to have a running list of things I need to make sure I get done. If I need to reach out to someone or I need to remember to get something at the store, I want to have a list going so I don’t forget about it until it’s too late in the day. For example, right now I have to call some utility companies about setting things up in my condo. I have to work around certain business hours so I don’t want to forget to do that. I also know later this week I have to order something so it arrives on time. Again, I want this list next to me during the day so I see it and can do things when I have a break in my day.

I think besides making sure I don’t forget to do things, this list will help me feel like I have more free time in my day. Instead of remembering I need to do something in my free time so it is split up and not as relaxing, I will get the things done from my list before I get into a free time mindset. I know this won’t be perfect and there will still be things I forget, but this will hopefully help.

And I’m going pretty low-tech with my challenge. I know I could do a list on my phone or computer, but I just put scrap paper next to my computer (since most things involve being online at some point) so I can add things as I remember them and cross them off as I get them done.

Hopefully, doing this will help me be as productive as possible in February. It has the potential to be a crazy month with a lot of things happening, so I want to make sure I stay on top of as much as I can.

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Tagged challenge, planning, scheduling, volt planner

Planning Ahead and Getting Excited (or Working On Getting Back To The Old Me)

Posted on November 2, 2021 | Comments Off

A lot of my monthly challenge for October was about getting things back to how they were or resetting myself and my environment. And I know for sure that I needed this challenge. Things have been spiraling a bit for me lately and I wanted to work on getting back. I know I didn’t do this perfectly, but I made a good dent in things.

I really worked on cleaning and sorting through stuff in my house. I still have a lot to do, but I’m also not in a rush. Just getting back to a good weekly cleaning routine made a difference for me. But I also was doing extra cleaning as I was starting to go through more of my things. I have found a lot that I don’t want to move with me. Some of it I have given away and some are just going into the trash. I hate feeling wasteful, but there are things I’m getting rid of that can’t be donated (like finding expired contact lens solution or shoes that have the soles falling apart). I’m trying to focus on a small area at least a few times a week to go through and sort stuff. I haven’t started to pack, but I know that will come soon.

And while my food is still a struggle, I did get into a better plan this past month. I was trying to eat more fruits and vegetables, even if I still ate stuff I know I probably shouldn’t have. But at least I was getting in more good food even if I wasn’t getting rid of as much bad food. And I was getting better at eating on a more regular schedule, although last week ended up being a bit crazy and I wasn’t doing as well. But I do feel like my efforts were worth it since when I got my blood work back, a lot of things seem to be improving for me.

And this month, I want to continue on the theme of getting back to the old me. I have noticed more and more that I’m not as excited about some things as I used to be. Some of it is pandemic-related and not wanting to take a health risk if I don’t have to. So I haven’t gotten excited about going out to dinners, trying to get back to Disneyland, or being out in crowds. But I also don’t feel as excited about some of the other things in my life. \

I know this could be a sign of being depressed, but I think this is more that I have become very isolated and introverted over the past year and a half. I don’t want to get used to this because I miss being more outgoing and wanting to be around people. And while I can’t be around people as much as I used to, I can still work on being more excited about the things in my life.

I have thought about this a bunch the past week or two as I was deciding this would be my challenge, and I do think some of it comes down to having bad sleep habits again. I’m working on fixing this, but it’s not easy. But maybe if I wasn’t as tired, I would be more excited about things after work. Or maybe I’ve just had too much other stuff to do lately so I couldn’t focus on the fun. I’m not exactly sure why this is hitting me as much, but now that I know it’s happening I’m going to work on it. And I’m glad I made it my challenge this month.

Hopefully, by the time I recap this challenge, I will feel even more like myself again!

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Tagged challenge, planning, volt planner

Tag Archives: planning

Still Setting Myself Up For A Good Year (or Transitioning From One Monthly Challenge To Another)

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My 2023 Goals (or Some New Goals and Some Repeats)

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Looking Back At My 2022 Goals (or I Don’t Think I Did As Well As I Could Have)

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Getting Ready For The New Year (or Trying To Set Myself Up For Good Things)

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Resets And New Adventures (or Always Working To Improve My Life)

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Halfway Through The Year (or Focusing Again On My 2022 Goals)

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I Really Did Give Myself An Easy Monthly Challenge (or This Month Will Possibly Be Easy As Well)

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Having Things Organized And Clean (or Not Slacking Off Because Of My Upcoming Move)

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Unexpected Challenges To My Monthly Challenge (or I’ll Be Planning More This Month)

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Planning Ahead and Getting Excited (or Working On Getting Back To The Old Me)

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