Making adjustments

Working for yourself can be a challenge and a blessing at the same time. While I can do my work at the best times for me and for my family, I also have no accountability. For someone like me, who has a hard time getting things done if I don't feel like it and/or don't have a hard deadline, it's easy to slip into complacency.

I have plenty of time. 

I can work on it later. 

I've already done most of it.

I always mean well, and I'm not lazy. I'm just a wherever-the-wind-takes-me sort of person. It's easy to lose perspective and momentum. Add the unpredictability of life to that, and things get, well, unpredictable.

I found an old drafted post about Camp NaNoWriMo April 2019, in which I had to adjust my expectations because of a hospital stay.

I disappeared in April, didn’t I? I was distracted by Camp NaNoWriMo, a fun, informal challenge by NaNoWriMo, a writing challenge in November, National Novel Writing Month (hence the name). I had a self-set goal to write 40,000 words, and I was on pace until my son was hospitalized because his finger tried to explode (not literally, but impressive nonetheless), and I lost my momentum. I ended up lowering my goal by half to accommodate the two weeks I was wrapped up in hospital stay and doctor visits (and scheduling, which can take as long as the appointment...). I met it! Only about half of that was one book. The rest was story starts, creative writing prompts and a couple of poems. It was both very easy and very hard. Some days I knocked out 3000 to 4000 words in a couple hours. Other days I struggle to even hit 1000. Some days were zero days. For never having a writing routine before, I feel really good about what I accomplished.

There’s another camp in July, and I definitely plan on participating. The inspiration, motivation, resources, and friendships I found during the April camp are irreplaceable. It also brought me closer to a friend I’ve had for years because we were able to bond over our mutual interest. I will definitely be recommending her book when she’s ready. It’s fantastic!

For a completely different reason, I had to change my expectations for NaNoWriMo 2022.

Day 11: Today I had to make one of those decisions that hurt. I had to scrap my novel. It just was not going to work the way it was going. I haven’t totally abandoned it, though. I may try to fix it later, or I may scrap it for parts. For now, it’s in the drawer. I decided to become a #nanorebel and not write a novel this month. Instead, I am going to work on short stories. If I only hit my par each day, I will have a new short story every 1 to 4 days. I’m kind of excited to see what I can do. The story I started today may or may not have a ghost goat in it.

Day 21: So…life happened. I couldn’t do what needed done, and I had to take a break. But it’s not over yet. There are more days and more words to write.

NaNoWriMo isn't the only time I've had to shift my expectations, of course. In February, I ran into technical issues, and then allergies took me out, and I had to abandon all of my blog plans for three weeks. I felt like a failure, showing "once again" that I just can't stick with it, and only six weeks into the year.

But then I rallied. I pulled up my blog schedule and began rearranging. (Thank goodness for digital calendars with a click-and-drag function instead of erasers and whiteout.) I changed my schedule for regular posts to better accommodate the unpredictability of life. As a bonus, they line up better with my physical planner. I had to rethink a few posts, and one I pushed off entirely until next year. I didn't want to set myself up for failure, so I pushed out some plans (by a lot) to give myself some grace.

As I looked at my beautiful new calendar, even better than it was, I started to feel bad about empty February again. But this time I wasn't going to let myself go to the dark place. I'd venture than most of my very-small audience did not notice the missing posts. I still had content each week, which is better than the last ten years!

Growth isn't linear. Oftentimes progress isn't either. Personal development is more like an outward spiral. Time and again you find yourself in the same place, but you have more knowledge and more experience. I like to use the saying "two steps forward, one step back" to remind myself that progress is still progress. I've also had the same mantra for more than two decades: Every little bit counts.

I've trained myself in a new habit. When I'm feeling down about my lack of consistency, I look at what I did accomplish and how it compares to last attempts. Almost every time I did far better. I've also taught myself to look at cutting my losses as making the right decision instead of giving up or failing.

This was all a long way of saying I gave myself grace this week. I changed my expectations again, and I actually ended up in a better situation this time.

Give yourself grace, too, when you need it.

February Review and Planning for March

It's cliché, but I can't believe February is already gone. Everyone says January lasts forever, but it didn't for me, and February was a blink. It was just winter solstice, and now I'm planning for the equinox! Daffodils are everywhere, snowdrops have appeared like magic, and the willow tree is covered in tiny spring-green leaves. Slow down!

February was not the productive month I'd hoped. I ended up completely beaten down by allergies and couldn't even concentrate enough to get out my blog posts. My goal had been to finally take care of the tasks I've been rolling over for months, and I did make progress, though they're not done.

I successfully completed a workout challenge put on by MapMyRun, and I feel good about that. Most of their challenges are measured by distance or workouts, and with all my walking, I have no problem finished them. This one was specific to gym or gym-style workouts, and I had to push myself to get them done. But I did!

I didn't finish the Polarthon reading challenge put on by Jadeyraereads, but I will finish all the books I chose. I really stretched myself to find books to meet the challenge, books I might never have seen otherwise!

Looking forward into March and April, I have a lot on my plate. Goal number one is making sure my number three kid has a fabulous birthday this month. It's pretty much all planned, but there are always last-minute tasks, like the cake. I am prepping for Camp NaNoWriMo in April, and that brings with it getting as much April stuff off my plate as I can. So goal number two is finishing and scheduling all the non-NaNo (and weekly reading) April blog posts. Third, I have to do a not-insignificant amount of travel planning to do that cannot wait. Finally, I absolutely have to finish all the outstanding tasks I've been putting off. The longer I wait, the more work they'll be to complete!

How did you do in February? Do you have anything exciting planned for March?

January Review and Planning for February

Sometimes you plan a month and then you do something completely different. That’s what happened to me this month. I gave myself a pass because January is a chaotic birthday month, so being productive is a challenge, and sometimes you just need to prioritize the things that revitalize you over productivity.

January Review

January was very productive, though not in the way as I had planned. I went into January with very little to do because I knew I would feel the letdown from the holidays being over, and we had two family birthdays this month. I only had three monthly goals for January, but I let myself off the hook for two of them.

I ended up being exceptionally productive, however, just not in any way I could’ve foreseen. I decided to create an actual system for something I’ve been wanting to do and just haphazardly throwing stones at. I also created and re-did systems for other goals and tracking. All of this system management has made me more productive on those habits and goals!

February Planning

When I gave myself that pass in January, I realized my monthly goals have been the same for months. Not only that, but I’m only focusing on the same couple of areas for months at a time, and I’m not really making progress on other goals. I decided to try something different for February. It’s not generally the best practice to try to work on all of your goals all of the time, habits aside, but I have a tendency to take that belief too far and never create action steps for some goals. This month I decided to create an action step for each yearly goal just to shake things up.

I always try to find ways to work my goals into routines I already have because trying to add something else is usually the quickest way for me to fail. For example, for two of the new goals, I simply set reading goals; I will read books that will better inform me about the topics. Since I already read more than a book a day, I’m not adding anything, simply being intentional about the choices I make. I did add one thing to my plate, but I set the bar very low to ease into it. I have no idea if it’s something I will be able to maintain, so it’s just an experiment this month.

Other Thoughts

I have done some other brainstorming inspired by YouTuber Kate Cavanaugh. She did a video about trying to live her ideal author day, and I decided to write down what my ideal author day would look like and see what I can do about making my days look like that. So far I have not adhered to my ideal schedule even once, but it’s only been a short while since I wrote it down. I’m not looking for perfection, just progress.

I made a change in how I view my productivity, and so far it is proving very positive. I decided that I will not adhere to my daily productivity goals or schedule any work for myself on the weekends. If there’s something I want to do, I will do it, but I will not set myself up to have something to do on Saturday and Sunday. I am really feeling calm and much less stressed about my to-do list by intentionally leaving Saturday and Sunday open.

Wrap-Up

So I guess January was a month of figuring it out. I like that I am someone who is always learning and evolving because I'm a lot easier on myself than I used to be when I thought I had to pick something and stick with it. I already have ideas of changes I'm looking to make for March, but I'm not going to rush into anything. One step at a time.

How did you do in January? Are you making any changes for February? What kind of goals do you like to set? What works for you?

Planning and Goal Setting for 2023

There’s something so satisfying in setting up a planning system and goals for the next year. It’s like back-to-school for grown ups. I finished mine in the eleventh hour (or 31st day of the 12th month, as it were). Some years take more work than others, and some years I choose to put in more work. This year I left behind some old reliables and tried some completely new tools.

First, the planning system

How you do your planning is entirely personal. You have to consider every aspect of your life, from practical considerations, like commuting, to psychological considerations, such as ADHD, to emotional considerations, like colors. There is no one-size-fits-all planning approach, and sometimes it takes a lot of trial and error to find what works for you.

I had to work for my system this year. For the last handful of years, I have used a couple of different systems that were fabulous and really helped me grow and develop in so many ways. This year, however, I’ve run into some snags, so I had to dig deep and go my own way.

I used the Dragontree Dreambook and Planner for years. I adored it and the company that made it, and the community of users was wonderful. It really stretched how I thought about goals and dreams and, subsequently, how I made plans to achieve those. I loved that it was relatively small, small enough to put in a purse, anyway, and there was a lot of room to mark it up.

One of the things I wished were different about it was I wanted more scribble space. There is some in there, but I was really turning the book into a scrapbook as time went on. I ended up taping in extra pages, which was fine as long as I didn’t need an extra page every week! I decided to try the digital version, printing it out and putting it in a binder so I could add pages. I ended up quitting that system after a few months. It was just too cumbersome. I also outgrew the planning prompts. Following the same map year after year loses some of its impact. I had some thinking to do.

I decided to try the One-Year Powersheets Goal Planner from Cultivate What Matters. I had previously used their 90-Day Powersheets and really liked them. I’d almost purchased the one-year planner after those, but I found the Dreambook and decided to try it out. So last year was my first go with the one-year Powersheets planner. I loved the planner, but I didn’t use most of it. I did all of the goal prep work at the beginning of the year and got a lot out of it. It was very similar to the way the Dreambook and Planner does goal prep work, but slightly different, and the nuance of the Powersheets combined with my years using the Dreambook really helped me set better goals.

My favorite part of the Powersheets planning system was the monthly-specific goals and all of the color coding for goals. That is something that I have taken away from the Cultivate What Matters planner system and will use for the foreseeable future in any planner system I purchase or set up for myself. It really helps to have the intention of setting small goals each month that work toward your big goals.

I didn’t like how large the planner was, though. I ended up purchasing a small wire-bound planner from a box store to use for managing my day-to-day activities and tasks. Just as I set up my Powersheets every month with stickers and intentions for the month, each week I set up my small planner. The two books were my planning tag team.

Since I'm living in Ireland this year, I can't order either planner or most of the popular planners out there - or won’t because of shipping costs and customs fees, so this year I just got another little planner. I’ve found that I can do most of the Powersheets and Dreambook work on my own in the little planner, and I refer back to both when I am doing goal prep work and seasonal life reviews. If I want to do any journaling during goal prep or reviews, I do it in a small paper journal that I buy in bulk and completely wreck with stickers and stamps and sketches and scribbles and anything else I want. The best part of my new system is that both books - the planner and the journal - are small and portable.

Would I recommend the Dreambook and Planner or the Powersheets planner? Absolutely. They are both wonderful products, albeit not friendly to every budget. Both have great customer service and community groups on Facebook. Both companies have YouTube channels with videos about using the products. Powersheets has a leg up here, however, because so many users share their experiences online, especially on YouTube. That increases the sense of community and can be great inspiration.

Which one I would recommend would be totally personal. The Powersheets system is more prescriptive, so that can be good if you are very analytical or need step-by-step hand-holding, as we all do sometimes. The Dreambook does guide you well, but the whole system is more holistic than prescriptive. Both systems break the process down into similar life areas, both have quarterly check-ins with a numerical scale, both help you break down your big goals and dreams into manageable action steps, and, best of all, both encourage you to think beyond the to-do list, beyond this year, beyond measurable goals, and beyond your biggest dreams.

Whew. That was a sentence.

I am also using the Notion app to organize my life this year. I have a page to track all of my yearly goals, and each goal has its own page. For each goal, I documented the type of goal, what the goal looks like, a big goal, and a follow-up goal, in case I reach the goal early, where applicable. I also listed the how and why for each goal: Methods/Steps, How it will be measured, What else I will get from pursuing this goal (e.g. reduced symptoms, writing material, improved spiritual practice), Additional thoughts (e.g. I have no control over getting published, but I do have control over practice, work, editing, and submissions!), and Action ideas (monthly/weekly/daily).

Finally, I set up quarterly reviews with the following questions:

What worked

What didn’t work

Biggest success

Biggest obstacle

What I learned

What I will take forward

I also have a database with all of my monthly goals for the year, and I set up a view for the current month's goals on my Notion home page. I have a lot more pages to support my system, but these are the main planning pages.

Now, how I created my goals

I have taken the 1-year, 3-year, 10-year approach from the Dreambook and the life-area approach from the Powersheets and mashed them into a messy mind map. I love mind maps. Ever since I learned about them in elementary school, I have used them for so many things. My favorite part is when I’ve written out all my goals and all the little steps I can think of to achieve them and then I draw the lines between everything that is connected and can immediately see what should take priority. (For what it’s worth, I’m a huge geek, and I also Pareto-analyze the heck out of my life on the regular. And I love spreadsheets.)

I don’t set a goal for each area of my life, and some of my goals greatly overlap. I do not settle on a goal until I have fully thought out how I might approach the goal over the next year. I have been known to defer goals, even though the goal seems perfect on paper, because life would prevent me from making worthwhile progress right now, like while I’m living abroad. I have also changed goals temporarily to accommodate my life at the moment. Three of my goals this year are specific to where I’m living. I would not have them, at least in the form they’re in, if I were living in the states. For example, my big dream of seeing the world was changed to “See Europe,” since I’m living here, and it’s so accessible.

Finally, the goals

In the interest of privacy, I will not be sharing an exhaustive list of my goals and plans for 2023. However, I am very proud of my planning and thought it might inspire some of you. Additionally, it might give you a peek into my brain.

My first goal is health-related and has been rolling over for a while. Achieving good health can be like peeling an onion: just when you fix one problem, you discover another one. I don’t feel bad carrying over the same goal for all these years. Nor do I think I have made any sort of misjudgment in setting the goal, as some "experts" might argue. The goal is completely achievable in the time-frame prescribed. However, until we find the reason or reasons I remain unhealthy, the start of said time-frame remains a mystery. So the goal gets pushed. Yet it remains because I am working toward it continuously. Don’t be afraid to set the big, unknown goals, because the steps you take toward achieving them advance you no matter what pace you are going.

My second goal, which has also rolled over,  is not technically measurable. However, I have set smaller, measurable goals that show me I’m achieving the big dream goal. The goal is to build a writing career. I decided to measure it in different ways. I set small, medium, and big goals for each category. Income is the most obvious way of measuring career success. It’s not always the best way, though. If you’re trying to make a living, then it’s a necessary metric and can be used to make important decisions about your path. However, you can also measure the success of a career using other metrics, such as reaching a level on the corporate ladder or, in my case, getting published. I have tasted the success of having a short story published, so this metric excites me far more than income right now.

I have a couple of goals that are open-ended and related to learning. I have set up a self-guided education plan with a variety of learning methods represented, like field trips (yes, grown ups go on field trips, too), nonfiction books, historical fiction books, and online courses. These goals overlap a lot with my goal to travel Europe.

I have a total of eight goals this year. Some of my goals may seem vague and immeasurable. Regardless of whether you create daily tick boxes in a bullet journal or buy an expensive planner system or just carry around a discount-store wire notebook, the key is to keep checking in on your goals, making sure they’re still applicable, and continuing to take actions to achieve them. As long as you are doing this, your planning will advance you toward your goals and dreams. Goal setting isn’t passive, and goal achieving is even less so.

In conclusion, I’m a nerd

Did I totally just nerd-out about planning and goal setting? Yes, yes I did. I’ve always loved planners and planning and goal setting, but I’ve actually been making real progress these last few years, so my enthusiasm has grown exponentially.

Over the years, I've tried many tools and bits and bobs to make planning more fun and personal. But the bottom line is I know for a fact that the work I’m doing here will produce results, and quickly, in some cases. There’s nothing more motivating in goal work than seeing the fruits of your labor.

Stickers don’t hurt, though.

Happy planning!