February definitely had some highlights, but from a goals perspective I ended up treating it as a bit of a ‘down’ month, and that was what I needed. I am entering March itching to get moving on various Q1 (Quintile 1) goals I set out in the beginning of the year. Here are my March intentions:
PERSONAL:
Strength Train: Time to get back on the wagon, as I absolutely fell off in February! I hope to get in at least 10 strength sessions over the course of the month using Sohee Carpenter‘s Momentum program. These are 30 minute sessions that can be done at home and should be doable! I feel motivated for both vanity and injury prevention reasons (and honestly more the latter these days).
Build in Good Breaks. This means taking a clearly defined lunch break when working from home, and using ‘off’ time well. This ties very well into the next goal . . .
NO REDDIT. None. I did not look at it once in January and there is absolutely no reason I need to, ever. Kae has agreed to be my accountability on this š
Other habits to focus on: nails; email use
RELATIONSHIPS
Figure out school stuff. I probably need to have this basically figured out within the next ~6 weeks. I want to approach this from a rational headspace and not with panic and I don’t want it (the decision itself, not the kid) to take up more brain space than it needs to.
Go on 2 date nights. This may mean trying to get in one on a weekday. Can we do it!? Josh is interested in trying a yoga class too and I would LOOOOVE to go to one together. This in theory should be possible . . .
Continue kid 1:1 time and make sure every kid gets at least one dedicated afternoon or evening this month.
HOME
Declutter G’s room. I am going to harness new month energy and start this TOMORROW. Wish me luck. Ideally I’d like to jump into C’s room, too. He still has ‘little kid’ toys in there and I think he’d be ready to let some things go (or at least box them and put them in the garage).
Tax prep. Well, it’s that time again. BLAHHHH, but have to do it.
CLINICAL
Continue office declutter. I actually HAVE been doing decently at slowly decluttering my office! I think this month I can get rid of almost everything in paper files (random academic papers or journals that I NEVER refer to, I exclusively look things up online).
Handle call week well! January was really successful so hoping to stay in a similar headspace.
CREATIVE
Work through Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book and have basic template for book proposal complete (not filled in, but at least the template in place)
COMING UP:
- call week
- spring break in Montana (skiing!)
- lots of soccer
- ridiculous ’80s concert (Tiffany, Sheena Easton, and Taylor Dayne) with a friend
NEED TO BOOK:
- Montana restaurants
- SUMMER TRIP (the Maine/NH one — this has been on hold because I am waiting for things in Josh’s call schedule to get sorted out but I am itching to get this finalized!)
February recap coming over the weekend! There were struggles but still things to celebrate that I want to give their due!
20 Comments
I am taking this responsibility very seriously. I’m on it! Don’t even think about opening Reddit or I’ll be on the next flight down to slap your hand and/ or steal your iPhone. š š
GOOD!!!!!! I am very glad you are leaning into this role!!!
I have a daughter with a mild intellectual disability and we are also trying to figure out school decisions for next year. We have already done this massive decision making process last year and thought we were done making a decision for the next few years, but now we are doing it again because needs and options change. It is such a mental struggle because you want to make the right choice for the child, your entire family, and yourself and sometimes there are conflicts in between what would be right for one of those parties and what is easier for the rest of them. So then-is it right if itās good for the child but worse for overall family functioning? I canāt say how much I appreciate your transparency in sharing that you are struggling with this decision, too, and how youāre trying to approach it. I told my husband at bedtime last night that my brain just goes to this āpuzzleā of school decisions any time itās not occupied. Iām looking forward to both of us having it ironed out soon.
Iām not sure why it posted as a reply. Sigh! Sorry.
yes 100% get it! Trying not to let it distract me too much but it is hard. It just is going to have such an impact no matter what!
you book restaurants for your trips??? wooo! I don’t even have an itinerary for Paris yet. I guess because usually I’m so relax with food when traveling… eat what’s there, close by, than going all the way to a specific place for food. But soon I’ll book Louvre and Eiffel towel, once we have daddy’s visa (finger crossed!).
yoga with Josh sounds fun! I don’t think I’ll ever get my husband to do that with me.
Going with all 3 kids, it is far more relaxing to have reservations than to be trying to figure out dinner on the fly š We probably will do some really casual nights but yeah – much rather have figured out in advance! (Also, ski resort areas get crowded during ski seasons so reservations are really helpful!)
oh and you can bet when i go to france someday I will ABSOLUTELY book some specific restaurants. That would be really fun for me!
If you find any good resources to deal with nail biting please let me know. Iāve bitten my nails my whole life and itās only gotten worse with age. Iāve actually googled, ācan you bite nails to cuticleā and if it is, indeed possible, my pinkie nails might be the proof one day. But I donāt want them to be! Iāve tried stuff that makes them taste bad and gloves for the car (that is where I do it the most). I donāt know if I could ever stop completely but Iād love to just do it less, because they are so damaged that I think they are altered forever. Itās not good.
So anyway, if you come across some good nail specific resources please share. (Walks awkwardly awayā¦)
oh man – the thing that works best for me is to get a professional manicure!! not sure if you’ve tried that, but i will not bite freshly painted nice looking nails. i probably should schedule one in March!
Hi! Do you mind sharing what planner you have pictured?
That is a cloth and paper disc bound with monthly inserts!
Wow, you’ve got a lot going on. I read (but didn’t comment on) your previous posts. So I didn’t realize non-celebrity podcasts were struggling- is it because there are so many podcasts now? Or is it that more and more celebrities are now podcasting, crowding out the “little people?” Anyway- I’ll leave a review on both of yours.
I’ll be interested to hear how you like that strength program! Kae sent me the link to it because I want to get my strength training more organized, but I can’t start anything until my ankle heals up (insert all the swear words here.)
Good luck with the school decisions- I know it’s not easy! I basically told both my kids they were going to the elementary, middle and high schools that we’re zoned for, period. Luckily, they’re good schools that had what we wanted (strong music programs.) If not, we would have made a change- but I’m glad we didn’t have to go through that.
I think it’s just a super crowded market and there were some recent issues with how Apple Podcasts downloads eps that changed numbers (and therefore ad compensations) for almost every podcast.
I’m joining you on the office declutter this month… I’ve got the roomba running in there now and have the spray at the ready to clean my dusty desk. I need to get to IKEA to get one of those magazine racks, one for each project. I don’t use a ton of paper but the paper I do need needs organising into projects rather than in a pile on the desk. I flipped my monitor vertical to help with data analysis and weirdly this has massively improved my life. Kid’s room could use a good tidy, we’re doing a book swap for world book day so I’ve done a big purge but I need to remove the CD player (???) and use the surfaces better.
Also, I’ll be your book proposal buddy. My goal is to get the data collection done for my book done by June, proposal over the summer, and sample chapters (a bit tricky as I need to do at least part of the data analysis) in by October. This is a long overdue project, but I spent 5 hours on it this week, which was 5 more hours than I’ve spent on it in the last 2 years in total.
yay!! Love it! Very interesting about the monitor. I only have one screen at home (two at work!). Probably something to think about changing though my husband has a 2 screen setup next to me so I guess I could just use that if he isn’t there!
Iām interested in the podcast commentā¦ do you find youāre losing listens to the Celebes or just not growing as much as you were ? And by celebs do you mean Hollywood? Or broader?
Itās a great question. In part Iāve based on what Iāve heard on other shows. The numbers arenāt bad (could be worse!) bit itās just an incredibly crowded market now and yes, true Hollywood celebs is what I mean. Many have shows now and listening time is limited!!
T is from Maine! Bar Harbor. A beautiful area but expensive holy moly.
Talking about podcasts, I just came across this podcast (along with the accelerator), and thought of your work on your book.
https://www.bookboundpodcast.com/
They are not celebrities from what I know, and I would definitely listen to their podcast if I had the time even though I don’t think I am their target audience.