Gemma v.2018: Planned Upgrades

[Gemma]

December of 2017 was my first time in 51 years of life doing a formal year-end inventory, and I am using the data I gleaned from that experience to formulate my goals for 2018. I modified the categories from Level 10 Life, and came up with what I want to focus my attention on for this year. I'm stashing these here so I have a place to look for inspiration to create my four-week challenge goals more intentionally vice haphazardly as I have been doing. 

 

Spirituality:

• Add a daily prayer focus to the beginning of every day; add a brief gratitude bullet at the end of every day (record in BuJo)
• Re-boot prayer journalling habit, using The Power of Prayer Journal because that actually worked out great for me when I used to use it

 

Physical Health:

• Participate in my gym's annual 3-month nutrition Transformation Challenge, starting Jan 13
• Figure out what my actual maintenance calories are
• Learn to do unassisted chin-ups
• Squat my bodyweight 
• Add HIIT sessions to strength workouts 3x/week 

 

Marriage:

• Verbally express gratitude/appreciation at least daily

 

Environment:

• Convert horribly cluttered and neglected bonus room/junk storage room to cozy, welcoming Hobbit Hole/library/writer's sanctuary
• Incorporate Weekly Home Blessings into weekly routine (FlyLady quickie whole-house-cleaning)
• Commit at least 15 minutes/day to de-cluttering and tidying up using combination of FlyLady and Marie Kondo methods

 

 Relationships:

• Commit at least two days a month to face-to-face time with friends (women's ministry events, coffee dates, Wednesday studies)
• Call at least two out-of-town family members (mom, one of the sisters, eldest) every month

 

Career: 

• Schedule specific daily times for records maintenance and reporting
• Use Pomodoro technique for mundane tasks
   

Finances: 

• Pay of three smallest of remaining student loans using snowball method
• Replenish emergency savings used during recent emergency veterinary surgery
• Pay off medical/veterinary bills by July

 

Helping: 

• Volunteer at domestic violence shelter
• Take supplies to DV shelter at least monthly
• Buy at least one thing for food pantry at every weekly grocery trip

 

Mental: 

• Take another Coursera course, possibly Stanford's "Mathematical Thinking" 
• Learn contact juggling "Butterfly"
• Finish Duolingo French, start Duolingo Welsh
• Complete BookRiot 2018 Read Harder challenge
• Read 120 books (Goodreads goal)

 

Emotional/Personal Development: 

• Continue daily meditation
• Write Morning Pages
• Finish rough draft of novel 

 

The BIG THREE goals for the year are officially:

1. Finish novel
2. Create library/writer's sanctuary
3. Pay off three student loans

 

I plan to re-visit these at least quarterly, modify or add to as needed.

 

 

[Gemma]

First Quarter results:

 

Spirituality:

• Add a daily prayer focus to the beginning of every day; add a brief gratitude bullet at the end of every day (record in BuJo)
• Re-boot prayer journalling habit, using The Power of Prayer Journal because that actually worked out great for me when I used to use it
• UPDATE: I did not actually do either of these. Am currently trying to re-boot prayer journal habit as part of 4-week challenge. Success = about 20%

 

Physical Health:

• Participate in my gym's annual 3-month nutrition Transformation Challenge, starting Jan 13
• Figure out what my actual maintenance calories are
• Learn to do unassisted chin-ups
• Squat my bodyweight 
• Add HIIT sessions to strength workouts 3x/week 
• UPDATE: Nutrition Challenge complete, maintenance calories determined. No HIIT yet. Injuries and illnesses and procrastination = zero progress on chin-ups and squats

Marriage:

• Verbally express gratitude/appreciation at least daily
• UPDATE: I feel I am doing this well, but don't want to take my eye off the ball

 

Environment:

• Convert horribly cluttered and neglected bonus room/junk storage room to cozy, welcoming Hobbit Hole/library/writer's sanctuary
• Incorporate Weekly Home Blessings into weekly routine (FlyLady quickie whole-house-cleaning)
• Commit at least 15 minutes/day to de-cluttering and tidying up using combination of FlyLady and Marie Kondo methods
• UPDATE: Bonus room partially de-cluttered, one wall prepped and awaiting primer. Once wall is painted will buy shelves to help organize/de-clutter remainder. No WHB; no 15 minutes yet. Add to future four week challenge.

 

 Relationships:

• Commit at least two days a month to face-to-face time with friends (women's ministry events, coffee dates, Wednesday studies)
• Call at least two out-of-town family members (mom, one of the sisters, eldest) every month
• UPDATE: I did pretty good at this through January, then forgot all about it. Add to future four week challenge.

 

Career: 

• Schedule specific daily times for records maintenance and reporting
• Use Pomodoro technique for mundane tasks
• UPDATE: I did neither of these things, but I did effectively keep track of and accomplish tasks using BuJo rapid logging/running task list
• New goal: do at least ONE USEFUL THING for the Academy every work day
   

Finances: 

• Pay of three smallest of remaining student loans using snowball method
• Replenish emergency savings used during recent emergency veterinary surgery
• Pay off medical/veterinary bills by July
• UPDATE: One loan paid. Veterinary bills nearly paid off. No progress yet on e-savings.

 

Helping: 

• Volunteer at domestic violence shelter
• Take supplies to DV shelter at least monthly
• Buy at least one thing for food pantry at every weekly grocery trip
• UPDATE: Buying stuff - yes. Volunteering - no.

 

Mental: 

• Take another Coursera course, possibly Stanford's "Mathematical Thinking" 
• Learn contact juggling "Butterfly"
• Finish Duolingo French, start Duolingo Welsh
• Complete BookRiot 2018 Read Harder challenge
• Read 120 books (Goodreads goal)
• UPDATE: Duolingo French/Welsh going well, reading going well, enrolled in MT, no juggling practice yet

 

Emotional/Personal Development: 

• Continue daily meditation
• Write Morning Pages
• Finish rough draft of novel 
• UPDATE: Meditation is good, but many days I "cop out" and do the three minute daily. Morning Pages were not helpful, discontinued. Novel is still in a state of "I love this idea, I will work on it until ... oh wait, I'd rather chase that idea!" Currently pursuing murder/suspense novel squirrel.

 

The BIG THREE goals for the year are officially:

1. Finish novel - No Progress
2. Create library/writer's sanctuary - Small Progress
3. Pay off three student loans - Good Progress