Setting Goals

Yes, again, it's been ages since I've posted.  I'm terrible at keeping up with this blogging thing, I know!  One tough thing is that I don't feel that I have much to write about.  Let's face it, the life of a stay-at-home mum, and a pregnant one at that, is generally neither exciting nor glamorous.  I enjoy sleeping, eating, and sleeping some more, and I spend most of my time driving to and from appointments or spending time at said appointments.  In fact, just this week I have four appointments over three days.  Yahoo.

Anyway, today I wanted to talk about setting goals.  With the changing of the years, the popular thing to do is to make resolutions; I prefer to set goals.  Resolutions just seem so vague to me, without real substance.  It's hard to maintain a resolution like "lose weight" (how much? by when? for that matter, how?) or "clean up" (where? how much? does it involve getting rid of things, or just rearranging?).  To me, it's easier to set a concrete goal using the corny but helpful SMART mnemonic.  Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Related is the variation I use, although there are plenty of others that may suit you better.

After rotting my brain on Pinterest a bit (one thing I do when I'm not sleeping, although I do occasionally eat at the same time) I came across this relatively old but still relevant post from moneysavingmom.com.  It inspired me to set goals for each week and each day, as well as setting big goals for the coming year.  For the last three weeks, I've had a "Things to Do" notepad on my desk with a list of goals for each week.  One recurring goal is to get rid of five things.  I'm trying to cut back on the clutter, and what better way to do that than by finding things to get rid of, one way or another?  Well, I suppose that getting rid of things is the only way to get rid of clutter, but I digress.  Slightly.

Also important to me is knowing exactly what I've accomplished, so I keep another note pad on my desk (this one reads, "Why not go out on a limb?  That's where the fruit is.") for a list of everything I accomplish each week, big or small.  It's encouraging to me on my bad days to see that I haven't been totally unproductive.  Maybe I've written letters to my friends, or done some important banking, or sorted through a pile of paperwork.  Maybe it's been a good week and I've done all three.  Either way, I know that I've done something that's important to me.

The point of this all is that setting goals is necessary to my accomplishing anything.  With that, I share this weeks goals with you, in the hope that it may inspire you to set your own goals.

Goals for the week of 27 January

1. Find five things to get rid of.
2. Sort one box from storage.
3. Finish reconciling 2012 bank statements (done!)
4. Finish colouring Monkey's valentines.
5. Clean off the top of the dog's crate.  Again.

Things that I've done in the week of 27 January

1. Finished reconciling 2012 bank statements.
2. Made appointments with the vet, hairdresser, and physiotherapist
3. Banking, banking, banking.

I figure if I can finish one goal a day, I'm set, although some goals (like paperwork) may take a few days of plugging away before they get completed.  Do you set goals?  What's one goal you'd like to accomplish this week?