I had a thorough planning session with myself yesterday and feel good about the upcoming month! September includes:
- no call
- 2 travel weekends (Keys with fam; Boston/Cape Cod with college BFFs)
- 2 weekends at home (Josh may be on call for one of them, TBD)
- a lot of fun social stuff (book club, school back-to-school stuff + Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur with family gatherings)
I have ~7 creative work days and 11 clinical days. I spent a long time mapping out creative projects to specific days and feel like everything fits in realistically! My goal is to NOT have work hanging over my head when I go on my girls’ trip — definitely a motivator.
MY THEME IS: FUN AND IN CONTROL. Here we go!
PERSONAL
- Continue Empowered workouts, aiming for 2-3 gym sessions (ie actual gym vs home weights) per week when home
- Keep phone in bag while in car. I admit sometimes I succumb to the temptation to look at it and I was thinking about how horrible it would be if something bad happened and I was looking at my phone. I want to never ever have that be a possibility so I’m going to set Google Maps & my music up before I head out and then keep it in my bag. Probably the most important goal on here! (Thankfully nothing happened to precipitate this, but I was just reflecting on how life is going well right now that how one careless moment while driving could ruin it. Maybe a little paranoid but also. . . true.)
- Play with drawing! I have some ideas and I’m talking LOOOOW stakes. Some doodles in my planner. That is all.
- Continue current protein-centered and intentional nutrition. I’m finding a good rhythm here and I just need to continue!
FAMILY / RELATIONSHIPS
- Date nights x 2. Could be a little harder to fit in with everything else we have going on, but I will try! At the very least, we’ll go out on the Friday night when Josh is not on call. And maybe we can go for a kid-free drink in the Keys and have that count.
- Continue structured Sunday fam meetings and even try for a family Seasonal check-in en route to the Keys. Not sure the kids will be as enthusiastic about this as I am, but I’ll have a captive audience!
- Weekly planning with C. He’s about to get wayyyyyy busier (robotics + basketball) and I want to sit with his planner and help him think though when to get things done.
- Book club (already on calendar) – just excited to get this reconnected AND ensure the next meeting is on the books. We took an unplanned summer hiatus but that’s okay!
HOME
- C’s room reset. (G will be October). This has to happen on those two HOME weekends. HAS TO! He is getting more into the idea of decor and having his room look cool, so I think he will be on board.
- Create list of fall dinners including 10 from my new cookbook.
- LOW EFFORT fall accents in the home. SOAP AT THE VERY LEAST. Jenny had some great ideas!
WORK
- Ongoing: Fall BLPA2.0, Planning By Season, podcasts, Patreon – make sure to schedule enough prep time for each and continue Wednesday Inbox Zero. My overarching goal is to be on top of all of this (and the tasks below) enough to NOT do much (if any) work while in Boston/Cape Cod.
- Finish Nested Goals workbook and send to designer
- Finish Planning By Season 2027 workbook and send to designer
- Finish CME annual planning slide decks
- Co-teach time management workshop for health care providers (free; you can still register here if interested!)
FUN
- ANNUAL TJ’S PUMPKIN LUNCH is happening and I’m pumped (penciled in for 9/20!)
- Bake one fall-ish thing
- Read one fall-ish book (Jenny mentioned this one and I’m thinking it’s a contender esp with New England themes and my upcoming trip. Jenny, you must be my Fall Muse.)
- See Hobonichi planners in person 🙂
- I am also considering a bright orange set of scrubs.
METAPLANNING
- Figure out next PHL trip. Probably another long weekend. Just need to figure out which!
- Figure out Kauai hotel situation. The one I had previously booked (Koloa Landing) is apparently already sold out!? This doesn’t even seem accurate and I’m wondering if there are weddings blocking rooms? But looking at alternatives, too. If you have a favorite place to stay in Kauai with a resort feel to it, let me know!
- Plan Robotics get-together (C’s in a group with 3 other kids — so not a huge gathering but some kind of meetup)
- Plan October while in Cape Cod or on journey home!
15 Comments
This was so fun to read. I need to do a giant brain dump/planning session tomorrow and while it feels a bit daunting (such a range of things on the horizon), I also realize I will feel an emotional/mental burden lifted when it’s all out of my head and on paper + I have some concrete timelines.
One of my to-dos is also to lean into some fall vibes (admittedly fairly easy to do as the weather is cooling down appreciably where I live). I want to hang up my leaf swag on the mantle and switch out a little bit of decor. I’m thinking of getting some new tea towels that have a fall theme (I figure I could have 4 sets for the year: fall, winter, summer, spring in neutralish prints… so not overtly Halloween/Christmas/Easter). I know where to go look, so that will be a fun to-do.
The Grand Hyatt on Kauai is amazing, we love it.
okay great to know bc it’s my frontrunner for backup!!!!
Oh that’s a really satisfying but achievable list of goals. I wrote them for the autumn as a whole, and then broke them down a bit. Just trying to focus on day by day. Teaching starts a week on Monday and I’ve got two big events next week, and have to move T out of his bedroom as they are refinishing floors next weekend.
What a great reminder! I told myself that I could add other projects to my list as soon as I cleared the backlog of presentations, letters of recommendation, journal reviews, along with the manuscript I have been trying to finish forever… and I am *finally* almost there!
hooray!!!!! feels so good to get out from under a pile . . .
Keeping your phone in your bag is a wonderful goal. I have also been trying to do that (or in my glove box if I don’t have a bag). Sadly, in my case it was inspired by the most unimaginably horrific thing which happened to a dear friend of mine this summer–another driver smashed into his car at 70mph while my friend was slowed almost to a stop in traffic on the freeway. We don’t know, but think it’s likely, that the other driver was looking at his phone and didn’t see that traffic had stopped. My friend was hospitalized for almost a month and, tragically, his two-year-old son was killed. The grief and anguish is just unimaginable. I don’t understand at this point why we don’t have technology in our cars to block the use of phones in this manner, because as human beings we collectively are clearly not doing a good job of curbing this epidemic of distracted driving. Sorry to be a downer but it is really just so important and I am glad you’re attuned to the problem.
On a lighter note, the Paper Palace is set on Cape Cod and is a fun read if you’re looking for somewhere in that setting. I can’t remember if you’re already read Sandwich, but that one is too. Also if you haven’t read the new Elizabeth Strout it was great and it is set in Massachusetts (not the Cape).
you are SOOOOO RIGHT about the blocking. in the meantime, I will do my part!!
I read Paper Palace AND Sandwich already 🙂 But not the new Strout!!! I definitely like her stuff so I will put it on hold!
Oooh, we should both read the book and discuss it! I’m waiting for my copy right now (being transferred to my library branch).
I love the phone/car resolution (and omg Emily’s comment above- so heartbreaking). Obviously I don’t text while I’m driving, but there are moments when I just glance at my phone for whatever reason- and it only takes a moment. Imagine how we could really screw up our lives by just one second of inattention in the car… I’m going to leave my phone in my bag from now on as well.
okay i’m ordering at MY library branch 🙂 Mini Fall Book Club!!! PIGI = Phone In Bag Initiative. Maybe not the prettiest name . . .
Fellowship Point has stayed with me since I read it in 2023. What a beautiful story of friendship love, nature, memory, identity, and death. Gorgeously crafted. I’ve been anxiously awaiting whatever the author writes next. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts in the book!
We stayed at Koloa Landing when we went to Kauai, and it would be hard to go wrong with anything in the Poipu beach area. In fact, if I could go back in time, I might have tried to stay a tiny bit closer to Poipu Beach. It might be worth calling the hotel if you particularly want the Marriott points. It was super chill when we were there (especially compared to our hotel in Oahu). Grand Hyatt looks gorgeous, too, and it’s right in that area. Definitely check out Poipu Beach (swimming, sea turtles, seals, puka dogs – “fancy” hot dogs – and shave ice) and Spouting Horn in that area. 🙂
great to know!!!! i did call but I’m having Josh’s aunt (who is serving as our travel agent 🙂 ) call as well! I also think they may relax the 7 day thing later on . . . so glad to know you loved it!!!!
I was coming to say that I will join the PIBI (could it be PAD—phone away: driving?). The story from Emily makes me sick. How absolutely horrible. Also, given it was a fatality, isn’t there a way to track the phone usage based on time to know that the other driver was on their phone? But I digress. Even sometimes looking to change a podcast or audiobook on the phone vs the screen can have horrible consequences and It. Is. Not. Worth. It!!!! I am so guilty of the glance even at my texts. That ends now. I’m so sorry for your friend, Emily.
Sarah, you’ve mentioned here in passing and on BOBW about macros tracking and your effort to eat more protein and I am wondering which macros do you track and how do you set a target for amount of protein and other macros? I’m a 44 year old and since turning 40 I have noticed a drastic shift in my ability to eat what I’d like and just work out a bit more if I’ve overindulged. Now I feel like I just look at a pastry and I gain weight. It’s frustrating! I’ve been thinking a higher protein and lower carb overall plan would be good for me but I feel overwhelmed and unsure how to approach this. Any ideas would be so appreciated! And maybe this is more of a full post or podcast episode topic! I don’t know. Thanks as always!!
I track protein and calories, aiming for 90+ grams protein/day (ideally closer to 100). (Do I always get there? No 🙂 But it’s an aim). I don’t worry about balance of carb vs fat as long as calories are around a given target! I would highly recommend checking out Emma Montgomery’s stuff – her podcast is EMPowered Radio. I am thinking about having her on as a guest!