January was not great over here. On several levels. So I am quite delighted (thus far, anyway!) with the new fresh start that is February.
I have finished my call week and am ready to charge into this month and just . . . try to enjoy it, within reasonable pandemic limits.
Personal
❏ Figure out how to take some sort of modified date night with Josh
❏ Make some progress on estate plan (omg . . . we have not done well with this and it should not be this hard . . .)
❏ Take Insta break. YES – I’m basically going to take the month off of Instagram other than needing to post on Mondays and Tuesdays for my 2 podcast accounts. I need this.
Work
❏ Meet with residents to work on IRB submission for small clinical project (retrospective chart review, can’t be TOOOO bad, right!?)
❏ Finish Wellcoaches phase 1 (almost done!)
❏ (Few other things, but not really necessary to detail here!)
Blog/Pod
❏ 2021 Reading List page!
❏ email prospective BLP guests x 3 (will keep their names secret for now . . . you never know who will say yes!)
❏ Try todoist for question organization.
Family
❏ Celebrate C’s bday in some way!
❏ Viva 3 year old well child check (better late than never)
❏ Start photo album!
HABITS OF FOCUS
Screen time
Nutrition – b/c it has been less than ideal lately. And unfortunately running seems to make me hungrier. I am enjoying it but finding I need to be (somewhat paradoxically) more careful with my eating. Or maybe it’s just b/c I’m over 40 now . . .
Looking forward to . . .
♥️ Annual Valentine’s Day Treasure Hunt! And V-day is on a Sunday this year – so we won’t even have to rush!
♥️ Taking a PTO day at end of month. Not sure what I’m going to do, but I’m going to make it relaxing & fun.
♥️ A month with no call!!! YESSS. Well, after today.
♥️ Thursday nights ‘off’. I see a lot of Crash Landing On You in bed being my theme for those nights . . .
Annabel’s school pic pandemic-style: (taken at home and submitted online):
15 Comments
Happy February! One of my goals for this month is 2020 photo book too (was also for January, oops). Which company do you use? This is only my 2nd year doing and I did Shutterfly last year, which was fine but I feel like their website is kind of clunky. Any other suggestions?
I was a huge fan of My Publisher, mostly because of their desktop app. When they folded a few years ago, the blogger who first turned me on to My Publisher, switched to Blurb.
I just ordered my 2020 book the other day, my 5th book with Blurb I think. Having a desktop app where I can drag and drop is huge to me (I just hate uploading and managing the photos online because I have such great folders on my desktop). The paper quality isn’t as thick as Shutterfly and maybe the deals aren’t quite as good…but other than that, I love Blurb!
I do use Shutterfly currently — I like their auto layout and then I just adjust. I’m definitely in the ‘done is better than perfect’ camp of photobook creators!
Ugh, January was the longest month. Workwise, I’m trying to finish off a few projects and make some progress on new ones. Still no childcare here so I’m on half time furlough, which doesn’t change my workload but seems to help mentally. We moved in December and are settled, but haven’t gotten pictures up on the wall yet, so doing a batch of those, painting and putting up some shelves, and prepping things for spring planting. Family-wise, my son seems to be struggling with the lack of nursery, the weather, and general boredom so trying to figure out ways to make life a bit more fun without buying more stuff. Visit a castle ruins, go to the beach, drive through food pickup somewhere.
I need to hear more about the Valentine’s Day Treasure Hunt!!! Sounds like fun!! My kids (5 & 3) don’t know anything about Valentine’s Day yet, so I want to make it fun!!! (especially tricky being isolated at home!!)
February goal: Transition to the GTD system so I can finally (hopefully) get control of all my work and projects. It’s a little overwhelming when you see the brain dump on paper, but I’m hoping it becomes more manageable when I schedule consistent times to review it.
I also want to hear more about the treasure hunt! Maybe detail it in a blog post? I bet our son would love it since he’s almost 3!
I was hoping to start a beach body program in February but some of my ab pain I had post c section came back – maybe from vigorously bouncing a fussy infant? So I am going to put it off for another month and try to see a pelvic floor specialist this month. Just want to make sure I don’t do more damage than good. So I will keep up my walks when the weather allows. January was so nice here – by nice I mean 15-30F most days. But this weekend the high is 0. Womp womp!!
Hi, thank you for this useful post. Do you always set 3 goals per category per month or is that a coincidence? I have the tendency to be too optimistic in my planning so would be useful to know how you make sure your goals are realistic.
Yes, I feel like it usually is between 2-4 per category!! Not always exactly 3 🙂
A V-day treasure hunt sounds like a great idea! We did a Halloween candy hunt this year instead of trick-or-treating, and it was a huge hit.
It’s actually a tradition from my childhood! My dad created elaborate hunts for my sister and I as far back as I can remember. In our teen years he even got pretty sneaky with the clues (one year they were all in French . . .)
I actually gained weight while training for my only long race (half-marathon) years ago. So frustrating! I am trying to so half running and half weights these days because running is fun and good for my mental health and weights are good for weight loss. But since I’m only working out 4 days a week it doesn’t seem like enough.
Tips for not over eating on running days are welcome! I get SO hungry and it’s easy to eat crap when there’s no time and I’m starving.
Yep, I recently started exercising again and put on weight at first, starting to lose now that I’m being more mindful. Best thing I’ve found for the ‘running hungries’ is easy protein – hard boiled eggs, hommus and carrots, tinned tuna on crackers.
I recently found a YouTube Channel called Diets are Fattening and have found it really empowering. Basically her theory is that you focus on your hunger and what sounds good and the nutrition and weight takes care of itself over time. Basically this is how I ate most of my life and was always thin. Only after I tried calorie counting to get even thinner did I have a weight problem…posting this in case I helps someone.
We’ve always done an Easter Egg hunt for our two daughters. The weather is generally better in the UK by then so it can range outside too. We often go on holiday at Easter so have done them at a number of holiday cottages as well as at home. My husband is great at cryptic clues. When they couldn’t read he took photos of the hiding places and printed those out. One year they did one for us, complete with their own cryptic clues, which was very cute. Now they will be 21 and very nearly 17 at Easter this year but I know they will still want an Easter Egg hunt, especially if we are still in lockdown or some kind of stay at home restraints, as seems very likely.