Final April Goals Update and May Goals Announcement

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I had no real success with April’s goals but that’s okay I will revisit them another time. If you read last week’s post then you can understand why things didn’t work out so well. On the bright side sometime in the next few days I should have a phone and working oven.

May Goals:

Write an About Me Page.

My about me page has been in dire need of an update for months now so I deleted what I’d written and have slapped“Under Construction” up as a placeholder.

Comment on Seven Blogs a Week

I have gotten bad about not commenting on blogs and I miss doing that. Commenting on blogs is how I have made many of my blogging friends.

Finish the Summer Kick Off Series

This is a must do. I am working with a few other bloggers on a series of ways to kick start summer and it is going on the first week of June so this will be the first thing I accomplish.

April Goals Update

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I haven’t done so well this month with my goals. It seems as if all the electronic gadgets in my home have decided to rebel at one time. My cell phone quit working, the oven quit working, my favorite slow cooker went out, and my internet connection has been spotty.

With all the adjusting I’ve had to do with regards to making sure everyone eats and it is something other than sandwiches my blogging has fallen by the wayside. I did not realize how much I rely on my oven until it stopped working. Hopefully I will be oven-less just a few more days.

I still have over a week to work on my goals and even if I don’t get them done I’ll try again another time.

March Goals Final Update and April Goals

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This month has flown by. Hard to believe it’s almost April which means lovely sunny days and gorgeous blooms. I am so excited to share my progress on March’s goals:

Fill-in Food Blog Editorial Calendar:

Done. I have every post for the next three months planned out.It took a bit longer than I expected but that has to do with the fact I fancied it up a bit. Plain Excel Spreadsheets are rather drab and I like color. (As if you can’t tell from the blog)

Birthday Party Goodies:

Done sort of: As I mentioned last week the plan changed from me making the decoration for store bought cupcakes to just buying premade cupcakes. That turned out to be a really good thing since we had to bump the party back an hour or so and they would have melted in the 80+ degree weather.

Read Through Proverbs:

Done. Yay. While I didn’t accomplish my original goal of one book a day I did read the entire book this month.

April Goals:

My overall goal for April is to work smarter not harder. This blog has been on the back burner for months because the food blog takes up so much of my blogging time. I’m still trying to figure out what the vision for this blog which I think is a contributing factor to the infrequent updates as well. With that in mind here are my April goals:

Set Office Hours:

Instead of hopping on the computer off and on all day I am going to have set hours everyday to do things like Facebook and Twitter. It will mean more scheduling through apps like Buffer and Hootsuite for Twitter updates but it will free up more time.

Set aside one day each week to write the posts for each blog:

I sort of already do this. I try to get all my food posts scheduled a week ahead of time which help cut down on last minute mishaps. I think setting aside a day for each blog a week where I write as many posts as I can will help with both quantity and quality. Thursdays will be devoted to Cookin’ Mimi and Friday will be my day for here.

Take at least one day a week off:

I plan on Sunday being a day where the Internet doesn’t exist. I’ll avoid the computer, turn the email notifications off , and if I have to I’ll turn the data capabilities off my phone. A complete media fast each week isn’t feasible right now but one or two days of being offline will be a good thing.

 

 

March Goals Week 3 Progress

 

 

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I cannot believe I forgot to check-in last week. Here’s how the last couple of weeks progressed.

Fill-in Food Blog Editorial Calendar:

I keep dragging my feet on this for some reason. It really doesn’t take that long if I would just do it. I’m really going to need some accountability on this one.

Make Goodies for a Birthday Party:

The theme was changed from Lego to Transformers and I have nothing to make cupcakes or cookies that look like Optimus Prime or Bumblebee so we’re going store bought instead.

Read Through Proverbs:

I am on schedule with the reading. I’ve had to do a couple of catch up days but I am where I should be.

So how about you? How are you progressing?

March Goals Progress

 

 

This is the first week goal check in for March and so far I’m plugging away at them. This month has already been hectic and it has barely began.

Fill in the food blog’s editorial calendar:

I’ve made some progress on this. I’m trying to come up with the most time efficient way of doing it. I had grand ideas of filling it out for the year but I think I’ll worry about from now to July.

Making goodies for a birthday party:

This has been changed a little. The party will most likely be midweek and the cupcakes would have to travel 50 miles or so before they even made it to the party. I decided to go with plain store bought cupcakes purchased in the town the party will be and I will just make the decorations for the tops. It would be a lot easier to keep a small container of chocolate Legos from melting than it would two dozen cupcakes if it turns off warm here in Alabama. I still plan on making the marshmallow pops and cookies though.

Reading through Proverbs:

I have managed to keep up with my reading. A couple of times I will admit was on the Bible app on my phone, very close to bed time but, as of writing this post, I am right on time with my reading.

Have you made any goals this month? How are you doing on working toward them?

 

 

 

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March Goals

 

 

I am joining in once again with the 3 in 30 group where I choose 3 goals to conquer in 30 days. For March I have decided to go with concrete, once I’m done I’m done goals. One of these won’t be happening until the end of the month but that is okay.

Fill in my food blog’s editorial calendar

I already have the general themes for the year sketched out in a Word document I just need to fill out my calendar with what goes where and when.

Make goodies for a birthday party

I am making cupcakes, marshmallow pops, and cookies for a 5th birthday this month. I am excited about this.

Read one chapter of Proverbs a day.

Wisdom is a very good thing and we could all use a bit more.

 

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Not Perfect but Better Nonetheless : June 3 in 30 Final Check in

This is the second month I have participated in the 3 in 30 Challenge. I’m learning what types of goals work best for me and the most efficient way to accomplish them. I am really looking forward to July and crossing off a few more things from my check list.

Here is how June ended up:

• Recipe binder/household notebook. This is as finished as I can get it right now. We ran out of color ink for our printer and it won’t print at all until we replace the cartridge. If you’re curious as to what is in my notebook I wrote a post on it Thursday.
• Drinking More Water  This week was so much better. Matter of fact it isn’t 6 am yet and I am on my second large glass of water.
• 31 DBBB This has gone remarkably well. It is probably my largest success this month. It has improved my blogging already. I have focused more on Cookin’ Mimi during the challenges but I can apply what I’ve learned here easily.

June 3 in 30 : Week Two I am Making Progress

Progress is the name of the game here. Especially this week since we had some unexpected happenings. They were happenings of the wonderful variety but it did throw my week out of kilter.

• Recipe Binder. My recipe binder has morphed into more of a household binder which is actually better. I do have some recipes in it now which is an improvement over last week. It will have its own post next Thursday during my Time Management & Me post.
• Drinking More Water  That hasn’t happened much this week. There is always next week though.
• 31 DBBB I’m behind on that but it won’t take long to catch up.

How are your goals progressing?

June 3 in 30: Week One Check-in

 

My choices when it came to the goals for this month are a lot smarter than last month. Last month all the goals were so intertwined that if one didn’t work they all went out of whack.

Here is my progress:

• Make a recipe binder I actually have this one started. I’ve got my meal plan printables in the page protectors. I just need to start printing out recipes.
• Drink 64  ounces or more of water a day. This is my most difficult goal so far. I forget to drink water until I’ve got a headache. I must remember to fill my cup as soon as I get up.
• 31 Days to Build a Better Blog has been a blast so far. I’ve networked with some really great food bloggers and I’m learning a lot. Since we aren’t doing the challenges on the weekend this will probably spill over into July.

June 3 in 30: Week One

I’m doing something a little bit differently this month in regards to my goals. I am doing one home keeping/organization goal, one health goal and one blogging goal.

• Create a recipe binder I have tons of recipes printed out from various food blogs and they are just wherever I could stash them. That makes it difficult to find what I need.
  
• Drink at least 64 ounces of water a day I have a couple of 32 oz travel cups so I just need to drink two filled cups a day.
  
• Participate in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. This was not my original blogging goal. I had intended to comment on 5 other blogs a day but when I saw this I couldn't resist. 

The goal that will be the easiest to complete is the recipe binder and the one I look forward to the most is the Better Blog.

May 3 in 30: The Final Check-in

 

 

Well I made it through May. Overall, I would call the month a success. Some days were better than others but that’s how life goes, isn’t it?

 

The biggest change was limiting my social media time. As much as I enjoy Twitter and Facebook they are a giant time suck for me.  By making groups and lists the quality of my interactions increased while the time spent was decreased.

The goal I had the hardest time with was getting to bed before midnight. I will continue to work on going to bed at a decent hour. The nights I did I felt better the next morning even if I had only slept six hours compared to sleeping eight hours with a 1 AM bedtime

May 3 in 30: Week 3 Check-In

 

I’ve had highs and lows this week. Which were not helped by the unseasonable cold temperatures we had earlier this week. I think February and May switched for a few days.

• I met my bedtime goal every night but one I think.
• I’ve scheduled my social media time on my editorial calendar which has helped my focus on limiting my time on Facebook and Twitter
• I was not so successful on keeping my phone off all night this week due to the cold weather. I’d get too hot or too cold and would check to see how much longer till my alarm would buzz.

All in all I would say it was a pretty good week and I’m looking forward to making next week even better.

May 3 in 30 : Week Two Check-In

I mentioned last week that I wasn’t doing very well at meeting my goals for the month. I am very happy to report that this week is much better. Still some room for improvement but at least I’m in the ball park this week.

• My first goal is to go to sleep between 9 and 11 every night.  After a rocky start that is going much better. I just need to stay away from the computer. As a bonus goal my early bed time means an earlier morning which is something I've needed as well.
• I have cut way back on Facebook and Twitter. Instead of sitting around waiting for updates I’ve been making lists so I can see what I need to read first and the rest as I have time.
• Keeping my phone off has been the biggest challenge. I enabled the auto on/off function on my phone but I would turn it back on so I started keeping my phone on the other side of the room instead of keeping it in reach. Earth shattering I know.

May 3 in 30 : Week One Check-in

When I came up with my goals for the month I knew they were what I needed to work on first because they would be some of the hardest goals to meet. That also means that if I could conquer them life would generally be better. I’d be more well rested and everything would go like a well oiled machine.
Not happening this week. I have only managed to go to sleep before 11 pm once this week and that was the only night I turned off my phone . I have cut back on Facebook time, Twitter not so much.

I’m not going to beat myself up over this week. I’ll just have to re-evaluate what I need to do to ensure that next week is better.

May 3 in 30 Challenge

I am joining the 3 in 30 challenge for May. I’ve seen many tweets about it since its beginning in January and it intrigued me.
This is what Ashley one of the creators says about the challenge:

 It’s been said that it takes 21 days to create new habits. Each month (approximately each 30 days) the 3in30 Challenge starts fresh. Choose up to 3 goals you’d like to work on. Then, throughout the month there will be weekly link-ups and opportunities for daily encouragement and accountability.

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My 3 in 30 goals for May are:

• Go to bed between 9 and 11 pm every night I am a terrible night owl often staying up until 2 am even if I need to get up at 6 am to say cook Easter dinner.
  
• Schedule my Twitter and Facebook time. My goal is to allow 15 minutes for both in the morning, 15 minutes for Facebook after lunch and 30 minutes for Twitter in the evenings. Except for Tuesday because that’s #homechat night and once a month the 3 in 30 party.
  
• Turn off my phone each night. I have a Blackberry which is both awesome and awful. I love having instant access to the internet especially with the severe weather we’ve had lately keeping me off the desktop but I have a tendency to blog hop on it when I should be sleeping. This will make the first goal a thousand times easier.

Look for my first progress up post next Thursday.