I'm revamping the goals a bit this month! I'm going to try to focus on one bigger goal that's geared toward healthier living and then a few smaller but clearly actionable goals that I just keep forgetting to do. When I try to make a bunch of big changes (eat better! no caffeine!) at once, I usually get frustrated quickly and abandon them all. So maybe this method will help
So this month's big goal is *drumroll please*... get 8 hours of sleep a night!
I don't know about you, but I exist in a state of near-constant sleep deprivation. And I don't even have a kid or anything! Back in high school, I started prioritizing schoolwork or other obligations over sleep and have just never stopped. I try to catch up on weekends, which is not great, and I rely on caffeine to get me through the day (especially on weekdays). But trying to go to bed earlier usually makes me anxious because sleep deprivation makes going through the motions so easy--I just have no energy to do anything different. And going to bed before 11:30-12 makes me feel guilty, like I'm not being productive enough. So as easy as this goal may sound, it's going to be a serious challenge for me. I mean, in the last three weeks, I've only gotten 8 hours of sleep THREE TIMES, all on weekends. Yikes. (Thank you, Fitbit, for making this horrifying information available to me!)
So that's this month's main goal. The other two are calling my insurance company to see if I can get one stupidly expensive prescription by mail, and trying to figure out if I can get my gmail associated with my iTunes account. Yippee.
Let's see how last month's goals went:
1. Check bank account daily: CHECK! Okay, so I didn't do it every day, but I'm giving myself a pass for doing it 90% of the time, which is a big improvement for me. I set a daily reminder on my phone, and that has been a huge help. I've also been writing down my balance and subtracting transactions every time I check my bank account, which has really brought my bad spending habits to my attention. 😒
2. Do one thing that makes me happy every day: CHECK! I still have a hard time remembering to do it (how sad), but I'm getting better, especially at making time for fun things before work. (In fact, I'm currently working on this post in a Starbucks before going to work!)
3. Creative writing: Hmm. I maybe worked on my story once, but I'm giving myself a HALF-CHECK because I signed up and started doing Shonda Rhimes's (!!) online Master Class. I'm still in the early stages of the course (so analyzing TV shows rather than writing myself), but just signing up is a step toward taking my creative writing more seriously.
4. Keep using the Calm app: HALF-CHECK because I used it faithfully through the first half of the month and then things fell off a cliff. Which is disappointing, since I do like the app and usually feel calmer when I use it. I just have such revulsion toward sitting still and/or meditating that it's easy to talk myself out of doing it.
5. Less screen time: Meh? I don't know how to grade this because some days I was better about it than usual and some days I wasn't.
This was a pretty darn good month for my Phrase of the Year ("out of hiding"): I went to a Fourth of July party that I was invited to at the last minute (last-minute invites are usually the easiest for me to wiggle out of), I brunched with my grad school friends, had an especially social Saturday in which I had lunch with Deena and then saw another friend later that same day (!!), and oh yeah, I drove to the freakin' SHORE! Not too shabby.
Linking up with Nicole at Writes Like a Girl!