August Goals

I woke up this morning to my beginning-of-the-month reminders on my phone and thought to myself… there’s no way it’s a new month already. I JUST gave Stanley his flea meds… right?

What is time any more?

Full transparency: I did not do well with my goals last month. July was hard. But that’s alright! I’ve got a week off of work coming up, and I’m excited about my goals for this month.

July Goals

Home Goals [2/3]

Make a plan for reupholstering my grandma’s chair. ✘ I honestly didn’t even think about it. But I’m really excited to get this chair reupholstered so I’m carrying this goal with me into August.
Sell 5 things on Facebook Marketplace. ✔ I’m totally cheating by calling this one done, but I don’t care. I sold two Black Lives Matter yard signs and two We Believe yard signs (all four of which I sold at-cost! I got a big pack and only needed a few. I didn’t make any money on them.). I was also going to sell our old miter saw, but my parents mentioned that my brother needs one, so I ended up giving it to them instead. So, in the end I got rid of five items… and didn’t make any money. 😂 But whatever, at least that stuff is gone!
Take the front landscaping to the next level. ✔ I’m really glad we ended up doing this. Earlier in the month, we went to my grandma’s house and got some hostas and irises that we planted. Then we got a bunch of black mulch and spread it around, and it looks so much better.

Personal Goals [2/5]

Continue Couch to 10k. ✘ I’m pretty sure I only ran a handful of times. This is when I dropped off last year, too, but it’s hard when the runs get really long and the weather is super hot and humid!
Get a 4-star rating on my Animal Crossing island. ✔ Yes! I ended up getting a 4-star island on July 1 or 2 (turns out I just needed to have my final neighbors move in!), and this past week I actually got to a 5-star rating! I’m super proud because I worked my ass off for it.
Get to episode 250 in Happier with Gretchen Rubin. ✘ Mmmnope. Listened to like… 4 episodes total.
Read 5 books. ✔ I actually crushed this one! I read 6 books (finishing the sixth one at like 11 pm last night)!
Go on a nature walk every week. ✘ I think we went on one?

And Possibly Dinosaurs Goals [0/2]

Write 2 blog posts per week, plus Sunday Scratches. ✘ Mmmmnope.
Write a review post with affiliate links. ✘ No, but I now have an idea of what I can write a review post on in August!

Okay, not great! But that’s okay. I’m feeling confident about August. (Hello, week of vacation. I’m coming for you.) I probably have way too many but whatever, I’m excited about all of them. Plus, they’re a good balance of fun and serious.

August Goals

Home Goals

Make a plan for reupholstering my grandma’s chair. I really want to make this happen!
Sell 5 things on Facebook Marketplace. I’d like to actually make money this time around. I have 5 more items in mind, and I’m feeling motivated to get them out.
Tidy the laundry room. We really want to get the basement organized, and step one is tidying and cleaning. The biggest priority for me is the laundry room, so I want to clear out unneeded junk and vacuum up the cobwebs and piles of dog hair!

Personal Goals

Reorganize and consolidate my photo files. This has been giving me low-key anxiety for years. A while back I was looking for photos from my trip to Ghana and realized they were… gone. But after a few minutes (which felt like hours) of panic, I realized I had an old iMac backup on an external hard drive. They’re buried in my iPhotos files, and I want to go through everything and recover them all.
Get 13 items down to $1 CPW in Stylebook. I plan to do a whole blog post about how I use Stylebook now, but one of the biggest things is tracking my Cost Per Wear (CPW). The goal for every single item is $1 CPW, and I’d like to get a whopping thirteen items down to it in August. I looked at my lowest CPW items and I think it’s possible!
Use my Passion Planner Daily every day. I realized earlier this summer that not using my planners makes me feel anxious and out of control. I’d like to use my PPD every day, but I’ll allow myself to use it 25/31 days in August to cross this one off!
Go on 3 nature walks or hikes. Trying to jump right into weekly nature walks in July was… too much. In August, I’d like to go on 3 total. It’s fine if they’re in the same week, and it’s fine if they’re to the same place. We’d like to do a couple local hikes during our vacation, so this should be doable!
Read 6 books. Despite reading 6 books in July, I’m still a book behind on my 52 book reading goal! If I read 6 in August, I should break even and then give myself a little cushion going into September.
Continue Couch to 10K. I don’t want to give up on this goal! I’d like to get back into running this month. I just need to come up with a plan for running earlier in the day.
Use up 3 notepads. When cleaning out the guest room closet last weekend, I discovered a bunch of old notepads that I wanted to sell on Etsy. It feels super wasteful to just toss them, so I’ve been making a conscious effort to use them as scrap paper. I’d like to use up 3 of them in August!
Catch up to episode 250 of Happier. This should be easier once I start running again, but I need to find more ways to get podcast time into my daily routine as well.
Make a mask. If I get through all of quarantine and don’t sew a mask, I’m going to be so disappointed. I really want to make one! I’m thinking my vacation will be a great time to crank one out.
Watch Clueless. Ending this massive list of personal goals with a fun one! I’ve never seen Clueless, but with my Stylebook habit I feel like I need to. And now that it’s on Netflix, my only excuse is time. So I need to make the time in August!

And Possibly Dinosaurs Goals

Write 2 blog posts per week, plus Sunday Scratches. I really want to get back into blogging, so I want to push myself this month!
Get ahead on blog posts. I’ve realized that writing blog posts in the evenings is just… not feasible for me right now. So by the end of the month, I want to be consistently writing my blog posts for the week during the weekends. I think that will help make blogging more sustainable for me.

Career Goals

Create a campaign template spreadsheet. I’m bringing back career goals! With my new role at work, I set up some 30/60/90 goals with my boss and her boss. One of my 30-day goals is to create a template of a campaign plan that I’ll be able to use year-round for various campaigns. I think it will help a bunch with project management, so I’m making it one of my biggest priorities!
Make a plan for reorganizing the Forms and Documents page on our website. This is such a pain point for me, my coworkers, and our volunteers. It’s… awful right now. I wish the goal could be “reorganize the Forms and Documents page,” but since it requires some collaboration with other people, I don’t have complete control over when it can be completed. But I’d like to have a plan in place (with a timeline!) to get it reorganized.

Hello, beginning-of-the-month ambition. Please stick around for the whole month so I can get all of these crazy goals accomplished.