Greetings, loved ones. Let’s take a journey through October and check in with how I’ve been doing on my October goals.
Let’s take them each, one by one, and see how I did.
- Map out my week and time-block my days. // I will call this one HALF done, as of 10/28. I mapped out what a “normal” (is there really any such thing for a musician) week is for me, including all the stationary obligations, like my teaching schedule and my church gig. It was pretty cool to have a visual representation of what my week looked like—it really helped me see big chunks of time in my day. The next step is to divide those big chunks up into time blocks for all the things I want to get done.
- Create a budget. // I did NOT do this for October. I WILL do this for November.
- Track my spending. // I am also going to call this one 50% complete, as I did a very good job of tracking my spending with my flex money (the money unreserved/left over after I pay expenses). Going to give it even more of a go in November.
- Clean out my iPhone photos. // I haven’t entirely decided what “clean out” means? That seems vague to me now, in retrospect. I DID manage to delete a lot of memes and clutter hanging out on my phone, but I don’t think I did a purge like I probably meant when I wrote this goal down.
- Organize my Evernote. // YES. I did this. I am also making a concerted effort to go through and each time I use Evernote, make sure I’m organizing things properly.
- Clean out my Pocket. // HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA NO I JUST ADDED MORE STUFF TO IT. See y’all on Hoarders: Digital Clutter.
- Celebrate fall & Halloween in the studio. // Oh boy, yes! I did this! I created a little incentive box for my students to pick from when they accomplish their practice goals each week in October. Some kids don’t care about stuff like this, but other kids LOVE IT.
- Decorate my apartment for Halloween. // TBH this one was done at the time I wrote the October goals post soOoooOooOOooOo, there you go.
- Carve a pumpkin. // Surprisingly, I have not done this? I’m kind of horrified by the fact that I haven’t. There are TWO pumpkins chilling in my apartment and yet … neither are carved. I’m not sure I’ll get this done by Halloween. And … I’m okay with that.
- Make four new recipes. // Again, 50% done. I made two. There was definitely enough time to make four new recipes, but I didn’t plan out what I was going to make and when I was going to make it, so you can guess what happened next. The two recipes I did make were fantastic. What did I make, you might be asking! Well, LET ME TELL YOU. I made Peruvian-Style Roast Chicken and a One-Pot Taco Casserole I found on MyFitnessPal.
- Celebrate my friend Audrey’s wedding! // Y’all, I did this and it was so good. I went to Oklahoma City, had a four hour voice lesson (and I’m not exaggerating), ate a lot of delicious food, and saw my beautiful friend marry the love of her life. It doesn’t get much better than that.
- Drink tea. Burn candles. // The weather has been deliciously wonky here, going up into the 70s and then down again without abandon, so I haven’t really felt the hot tea spirit as much as I should have. But uh … I have burned a lot of candles. And will continue to do so.
- Track my meals. // Yup! Did this. I didn’t track when I was in OKC, because why would I even do that when I could just eat #allthethings without abandon? I GOTTA LIVE, Y’ALL. Anyway, other than that weekend, I absolutely did this.
- Print out a calendar and write in potential dates. // My calendar is printed and my dates are … not in it. Yet. I am going to do this before November starts. MARK MY WORDS. I have typed this, so now I have to do it.
- Get a haircut. // I am ashamed to say that NOPE, this didn’t happen. Your girl still has a hair cape with split ends.
- Read four books. // I was hoping to call this one 50% done, but it’s more like 35% done. I finished my fiction book within 48 hours, and then I got a notice from the library that one of my holds was ready for checkout … and of course it was Helter Skelter, which is a bit longer than I probably would have chosen for my non-fiction book. I’ve spent the majority of the month reading that and then I saw last night that it had unexpectedly been returned early? I DON’T KNOW BUT I AM MAD ABOUT IT. Hopefully, timeblocking will help with my reading for next month. I may try listening to an audiobook or two next month, as well.If you want to see what I’m reading, follow me over at Goodreads.
- Watch four operas. // Nope. Didn’t plan for it, didn’t schedule the time, forgot.
- Listen to two classical works and write about them. // Nope. Didn’t plan for it. Didn’t schedule. Forgot.
- Listen to two non-classical albums and write about them. // Nope. Are you sensing a pattern here?
- Go to a movie. // I still haven’t done this! I am the worst at self-care that involves leaving my house.
- Take on at least five transcription jobs a week. // At the end of the day, I did not get this done, but the weeks I did transcribe, I did a LOT of transcribing, so I’m calling it accomplished.
- Create at least four products for my Teachers Pay Teachers store. // 50% done. I made two. One product is posted and one product I did today. I know I could be more prolific; I have so many ideas I want to execute. I’ve just got to schedule the time in and make a plan!
As a side note, if you’re a music teacher-y type and want some cool stuff to use with your studios (for group or private teaching), you should definitely follow me at Southern Fried Soprano on TpT. - Create running list of blog post ideas in Evernote. // I haven’t moved my list to Evernote yet, but I did write a list!
- Create a blog editorial calendar. // Nope. Again, I didn’t schedule the time to do this and therefore, I did not do it.
- Post one blog weekly. // I did not manage one blog weekly, but I did manage three posts in October (four if you’re counting this one!), which is like, more than most of 2018. PROGRESS.
- Gratitude journal. // Nope, and I think this is the one I am most ashamed of not accomplishing? Why didn’t I do this? I literally have no excuse.
What have I learned this month about setting goals? It’s not enough just to set goals. You must also meticulously design a plan for accomplishing them.
As for me, I did a fantastic job of deciding what was important to me in October. I’m totally allowed to pat myself on the back for this—this is my blog, after all! GOOD JOB ME. However, with some of my smaller goals, I didn’t create a plan for follow through. The bulk of those goals fell by the wayside.
It would be easy to be super bummed about all the goals I didn’t make progress on in October, but frankly? I’m going to take the lessons learned, adjust accordingly, and attack them differently going forward.
I think it’s important for me to be honest about what I did get done and what I didn’t–it’s easy to only post about my successes. I don’t consider the things I didn’t get done failures, either. They just haven’t happened yet! I need to analyze why, determine if those things are still important to me, and adjust my plans (or, in some cases, MAKE a plan!).
I was the most successful with goals that I have prioritized over a longer period of time. For instance, I was super successful with tracking my meals, but I have also been doing that pretty much non-stop since the end of January. It’s safe to say that continuing to track my meals in October (I use MyFitnessPal, by the way) was not going to be such a stretch to do. It’s a habit I’ve developed.
Contrast that with my goals to watch two operas and two new pieces of music and write about them? I didn’t plan out how I was going to accomplish it, just that I was going to, at some point. Nebulous planning leads to nebulous accomplishment!
Habits are fascinating to me. I guess you could say I am a creature of habit. I’d like to say I’m super spontaneous, and there are definitely facets of my personality that are, but for the most part, I like to know what I’m doing, when I’m doing it, and how it’s getting done.