How Did I Do on My Goal List for 2015?

Last year, I made a list of goals for 2015. These were mostly big ideas. I didn't necessarily make an action plan for all of them. I wrote them in the back of my Erin Condren planner. I wrote about them here. I did well on some and not so well on others.

Warning: no cute photos, just some good thoughts.

I love to reflect at the end of a year. This year, as I was looking at them and planning my new list, I think I noticed a little something that might help me be a little more successful.

The successes for 2015's goals. 

I  found that those goals that I took a little more time to write up an action plan, or I had somehow scheduled them into my calendar, life etc., I did better.

For instance, my house was in disarray after retiring and the craziness of the previous year. I made a cleaning schedule for each day...I know that might seem odd to others, but I think I really needed a lesson plan to guide me. I went back to what I knew. Living by the schedule of a lesson plan had guided me in the classroom for 31 years. That is what I came up with ....part schedule, part lesson plan.

I made a room by room plan for decluttering, organizing, and deep cleaning an area week by week. I let a website guide me. I loved the site A Bowl Full of Lemons. This girl was amazing. She has now written a book due out January 5th. I am sure it will be a best seller. There wasn't a ton of new things in there, after all, I majored in home economics. I know tons of this, but her pictures and her step by step guides really put the motivation in there for me.

Both the cleaning and the deep cleaning, organizing, and decluttering goals were wins for me. Of course, you are never through with those, but for the first time I was doing better in spite of life's interruptions.

Another goal that I felt successful in was reading my Bible and really digging deeper. Again this goal had more a schedule to it. I had a reading plan, a journaling plan, and a regular time to do this.

Printing pictures and placing them in an album once a month was a win, because I had picked a date each month and written it on the calendar.

Now, for the not so good.

I wanted to sew more. I had several things I wanted to accomplish. I started out pretty well, but it slid away as time passed. This one really bugged me, because I have been putting off sewing for years. Wait until I retire! Wait, wait, wait. I am going to put some actual monthly goals together for this and try and choose a day to actually go into my sewing room during the day. Schedule it in my daily plans.

I know that my project list will change, because that is the nature of this passion, but I am going to write monthly goals, I can keep up with the changing nature of this passion. I will keep an ongoing project list of thing I would like to try, but I am going to choose something to actually complete each month and put it on my calendar with a time and day assigned to it.

I will say that I picked up cross stitching after years of laying that hobby aside and have loved it, but it to has a designated time for it. It is extremely relaxing in the evening and gives me something to do while Hubby watches TV and I can be in the same room with him. 

I didn't read nearly as much as I usually do this past year. I am not sure why, but I am hoping to pick back up that reading this year. 30 minutes before bed each night.

Exercise has to get back on the schedule too. I have not decided what is the best time of day for me, but I am pondering that one.

I did fair on cooking more, but not on my plans for what I would cook. That one is a halfway successful. I will have to try and continue a plan for that one as well. I have not been too good at making a meal plan for a week at a time, because Hubby is still in the education business and that means lots of outside duties. I have to be real flexible here. I do want to try some old recipes and make them healthier, so I will have to add a certain number to my monthly goals.

To sum up, I think having an action plan or set of steps is super helpful in achieving any sort of success. I will keep those that worked last year, but in addition, I am going to make a monthly set of goals and plans to try and work on those goals that didn't work last year.

I will share more on my plans as we head into the next year.

Pondering and planning,

Sandy