Over the past year – well maybe longer – I have been looking for the best way to plan that suits me.
why was this so difficult for me? Well, I was trying to plan for other people. I was too obsessed with how other people were doing it and trying to fit it into my life. The problem, most of the people I was watching on YouTube had entirely different lives to me, so something that suited them and their life, would never fit for me.
Since the global pandemic, It has made me look at my life, to figure out what I want to do with my time and what exactly I need to “plan” in a day when life is practically at a standstill due to circumstances out of my control.
I can focus on my goals, get routines in place all without “actual” life getting in the way. These habits will then be in a place that I can carry them on when everyday life is back to normal.
My Planning Systems
Now I am using two planners and a lined notebook.
My two planners are the from Go Girl Planner and I find these are the right amount of space and information I need. The second Go Girl Planner I have is a budget planner, which I am finding I am sticking to it so far – by this I mean I have looked at it more than once.
I also have a notebook for little notes I want to make about my goals and my list for things I want to happen or will need to think about in the future.
But, I will be adding a Bullet Journal rather than the notebook which I will always have with me to add little notes and tasks I need to remember. I am hoping my Bujo will become an extension to my brain, I find it very difficult to remember things without them being written down in an organised way.
Summer has arrived and that means a goal refresh in my Cultivate What Matters Powersheets. This year has been the first time using for goal setting and its been a learning experience to find out what I respond to the best. I have been using the Powersheets to plan out when I want things from my goals done, an idea I saw Laken over at Plan With Laken on youtube do on her monthly calendar section, and it has helped me to stick to it.
I have thought of 7 goals I am hoping to achieve by the next goal refresh.
Goal 1: Relationships – I always have this as a “goal” even though it isn’t a goal as such, I just want to make sure that we put time into the relationship. I wanted to make sure we make sure we have time to focus on ourselves whilst it is just the two of us.
Goal 2: Blog – I love writing my book blog and I am hoping to get my planning/lifestyle blog off to a start. This goal is to make sure that I have at least one post per blog up in a week. Now it is a goal I am going to try and stick to it and make it a habit
Goal 3: Health – This is always a big one for me, as I have Asthma and Coeliac Disease which are both invisible illnesses and when they don’t trouble me they tend to end up in the back of my mind when life gets hectic. So this goal is to make sure I am taking any medication and I am eating and sticking to my Gluten Free diet correctly.
Goal 4: Reading – This is a goal I track via Goodreads and I have tracked every year for 5 years. I like having this in my goal refreshes so I can keep checking the progress I am on and whether I am behind my schedule.
Goal 5: House Routines – I suck at routines, this means any routines. Cleaning routines, morning routines, this has been a goal every refresh because I get there with it, something happens and it all goes downhill. I want a nice, constantly clean house and I want a routine, that doesn’t involve me rushing to get to work each morning. Hopefully, writing about my goals on my blog will hold me accountable for these.
Goal 6: Plants – I recently went through a stage of buying all the plants, I have had cactus and Venus flytraps and I love them, I have been keeping them alive and I am so happy so I have decided to try Herbs and Bonsai tree’s fingers crossed I can stick to this goal!
Goal 7 – and finally goal 7, me time. I spend so much time on the house cleaning and other people I forget to do what I want, this past month I haven’t finished a single book or spent much time playing the games I love, I want to “schedule” this into daily time so that I feel more relaxed and happy.
Monthly Calendar
My monthly calendar , as mentioned at the beginning of the post, I saw Laken at Plan with Laken do this in her monthly overview. I have Colour co-ordinated the tasks with the goal they correspond to.
Blue = House Routines – These are the rooms in the house I want to get done, I use separate list book to write down the different things I want to do in that room each day
Red/pink – Me time, these are where I focus on things I want to do. the P/S on each day is to check into my Powersheets which is a daily habit I want to get back into. Especially to help me plan the next day as I will know what I have pre-scheduled into the day,
Orange/yellow – These relate to the different blog posts I know I definitely want to do throughout the month. I am going to be using an app called Notion to help so I can jot down thoughts and feelings as the week goes on for different posts.
Purple – This is related to the relationship goal, at the moment due to the pandemic, we can’t really have a date night, so date day means we at least spend some time watching a movie, eating dinner together or doing a puzzle so that we have dedicated some time in the week to one another.
Tending List
Monthly Action Items – These are the little things I think will help towards my over all goals that I want to make sure are done this month. As I make progress I will mark it off on the progress bar so that I can keep track on what I have started.
Weekly Action Items – These are the things I want to make sure I am getting done in a week. The main ones on there are the planning and reading blog posts.
Daily Action Items – Are the things I want to make sure I am doing everyday. As I am a visual person I can see what I am failing with and this will make me feel guilty that the daily action item isn’t getting done.
So that is it for my July goals and Summer goal refresh, I will check back in half way through the month to see how all of these are going on and whether I am actually making progress with the goals I have set.
What are some of your goals for July? Let me know in the comments below
I am trying to get back on top of my monthly goals and my powersheets, I have fallen behind in the months of March and April
This is May’s monthly tending list. It isn’t a really ambitious tending list and it mainly just focusing on stuff I want to get into the habit/routine of doing, that hopefully will make me a better person.
I spend way to much of my mine, lazying around or just not doing stuff I know I am supposed to so I am hoping having the powersheets to hold myself accountable is really going to help.
My monthly action items are Routines (AM/PM). I want to get to grips with a proper routine, working from home during the quarantine has made me realise I need to get up earlier and not 5 minutes before I am supposed to start work, I need a morning routine, which will include coffee/tea, going over plans for the day and some self care.
To hopefully make this happen I need a nighttime routine to get myself into bed earlier, I am finding myself staying up till well past 1 in the morning some nights as I just can’t sleep, which makes for an unproductive day the next morning, I am want to stop this.
The next monthly action item is a cleaning routine, I hate cleaning but I love cleaning at the same time, I want to establish a routine of what I should be doing when so that I stay on top of the housework and keep a clean, organise home that I will be happy to invite people too.
The next two things are a movie/tv night and a game night with my husband in replace of a date night make sure we are spending fun, quality time together.
The next month action item is drinking more water, I don’t drink water, at all. I drink coffee and fizzy drinks. I want to make a point of actively and unconsciously drinking water throughout the month.
The last monthly action item is to shred the old paperwork, we have moved a few times and just dragged all the paperwork around with us, I have found paperwork from over 10 years ago which is no longer needed but has personal information on it.
The weekly action items are just there so I can make sure I am doing the basic things I want to achieve within the month, these are: 1. Weekly facemask 2. Weekly Deepclean of a room 3. Weekly blog post 4. Weekly Hoover 5. Weekly dust
my daily habits include: 1. AM routine 2. PM routine 3. Inhalers 4. Blog checkup 5. At least one bit of housework a day
What are you action items for the month, let me know in the comments below.
The harder you work for something, the greater you’ll feel when you achieve it.
Hello… My name is Naomi, I am from the UK & I am starting a lifestyle blog, Oh god this is scary.
Planning and organisation have always been something I have loved doing, although to be honest not very well & I already blog about the books I read so why not dedicate one to my planning/lifestyle
I thought it would be a good idea to document the journey I go on this year with my planning and organisation & be held publicly accountable.
I want to connect with people who like me love planning, I want to step out of my comfort zones and I want to be me somewhere on the internet.
This year I am incorporating the cultivate what matters power sheets to my planning and I am hoping this will help change my attitude to myself and to my life. I am really excited and hopefully this blog helps me document all of my plans along the way
All Things Productive 