By the time you’re reading this, it’s most definitely not January 2020 anymore! I realize that this is coming a bit late by the time that the blog is launching, but better late than never. I debated just starting with February, but I wanted to have the whole year’s goals to look back on. Let’s start the year off right with my goals for January 2020.
How I Keep Track of My Goals
Goals are just empty promises if you don’t have a system in place that helps you actually get where you want to be. Writing them down, in whatever form works for you, gives you a visual to refer back to. When you can see the goals, it keeps them fresh in your mind so you work on them more often.
I have two different categories that I sort my goals into: one-time checklist goals and habitual goals. I’ve found that it’s helpful to distinguish between the two because I approach them in different ways.
Checklist goals are specific tasks that can be done in one sitting, or at least they won’t require the whole month to complete. These are great for things that you know you should do, but you never seem to get around to doing them. Appointments, decluttering, and infrequent cleaning tasks can all become checklist goals.
I have a note in Evernote for tasks like this. At the beginning of the month, I’ll make a list of those to-dos. Then I’ll spread them out and pencil them into my planner. They’re usually flexible, so it doesn’t matter if I can’t do something on the exact day that I planned. The important thing is that I’m not forgetting about the little things and they’ll get done sometime within the month.
Habitual goals, like the name implies, are things that I want to do consistently. They may be new habits that I want to try, or things that I’m already doing but want to emphasize more. I don’t go overboard with this, but it is helpful to be more intentional with the things I do on a daily basis. I use my planner or a separate notebook to make a habit tracker for the month. (There’s a full post on habit trackers coming soon!)
My Goals for January
Be consistent with yoga
This month, being consistent with yoga means participating in Home, Yoga with Adriene’s 30-day challenge. (Look out for a post with my thoughts on this once I’ve finished it.) It’s going okay so far. I knew I wouldn’t finish all 30 days within the month but I thought I would be a little further along. To be fair, I went to the gym somewhere in the middle and mildly injured myself. I decided to take a few days off yoga to let that heal before I started pushing myself again.
Yoga, or workouts in general, is often the first thing to drop off when I’m busy. I’m aware that this is counterproductive! Yoga helps me stay grounded and it’s an excellent way to clear my head when my thoughts are racing. My yoga goal is always a work in progress. I would love to get to a place where making time for my yoga practice is second nature and I’m able to prioritize that consistently.
Track my spending
I have a pretty basic spreadsheet that I use for budgeting and tracking my spending. This is something that I’ve already been doing for a few months and I want to keep it up. It’s so easy to just spend mindlessly. Recording each charge on my credit card forces me to pay attention and look at where my money is going.
I also categorize each purchase which makes it easier to analyze, I can see if I’m spending way more than usual on eating out, for example, and then know what to cut back on a bit. My budgeting system isn’t exactly what I want it to be yet, but I hope to overhaul that sometime soon.
Start this blog!
Obviously, it’s going well, because you’re reading this now! It’s definitely my biggest goal for the month. This is all brand new so I had no idea what a reasonable amount of time to give myself was, but I’ve made more progress than I thought I would. I really wanted to capitalize on the urge that I felt to do this at the end of December, and I wanted to just go for it.
This launch is the reason I don’t have a ton of goals for the month. Blogging is exciting and it has been the most important thing for me lately. I’ve been spending a good chunk of my free time here, creating and researching and trying things out. It’s made the month go by fast, I come home from work every day and can’t wait to settle in and do some blog work.
I love learning and challenging myself. When things get too easy, I tend to get bored. I’ve discovered blogging is a good mix of things that I enjoy (like writing and talking about plants) and things that I have no clue about (like running a website and marketing it). Even when things get frustrating, I’m still grateful that I’m sticking to it. I’m doing something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time.
So those are my goals for January 2020! You might’ve noticed that I haven’t included any checklist goals this month. I tried to get a lot of that stuff done in December, so I didn’t have anything urgent left to do. I also really prioritized blog stuff, so I was more focused on that than anything else.
I hope your year is going well so far! If your goals or resolutions haven’t gone well so far, don’t give up. You still have the whole year ahead of you to achieve your goals and use habits to shape your daily life.
If you want to try a new habit, start small. You don’t need to make any extreme changes to see results. Pick one thing that you think would improve your life, and stick to it.
Leave me a comment letting me know how January went for you. Share your accomplishments, I’d love to hear about them!
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