Weekly Goals Recap (11/4)

I think the whole goal thing worked out this past week! I didn’t actually meet all my goals, but they did give me something to work towards and helped me stay focused when I was feeling overwhelmed. Here’s the recap:

Stay away from pop! - I didn’t completely cut pop out, but I did cut way back. In a week, I only purchased one can of soda from the work vending machine as opposed to the 3-5 I was drinking. I drank a little more over the weekend, but I also drank a lot of water and tea too, so I tried to make it even out. I consider this goal reached!

Use the food we have in the house for meals – With the exception of one night, we actually did this. Talk about getting creative. It helped though that we had friends who hooked us up with pizza or food at various parties and get togethers. Tuesday night we weren’t feeling really creative, so we took some of the leftover laundry money and bought hot dogs. Even with that one night, I’m considering this goal reached.

Take all my lunches and to get away from my desk for at least half of my lunch hour – I did this everyday and found that it really did help. I wasn’t as tired or stressed in the afternoon.

Finish unpacking and find a nook or cranny for everything I brought back from vacation - I sort of finished this. I think I have one bag of washrags and towels that haven't been put away, but I think they'll be collateral stuff during the bedroom cleaning.

Finish "Resident Evil 5" – I didn’t reach this goal, but I don’t feel too bad about it. The last fight was extremely annoying, and it bothered me that the rest of the game had been minimally challenging, and all of a sudden I can’t beat this final thing. I understand it was supposed to be harder, but after about forty times, I just gave up. I like finishing a game, but I like not being angry more.

Complete 2 scarves – Done! I finished the last drop stitch scarf in Homespun that I think I’m going to do for awhile and I finished a pink scarf for a friend’s little girl. It came out great, so I’m working on another for another friend’s little girl. Pink seems to be what the kids are into these days.

Finish "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon – I finally finished this. I found to be pretty boring though, so it seemed to take forever.

Not a bad week overall, so I’m going to do another set of goals for this coming week, but in a different post.


ALF

Goal Setting

On vacation, I had some time to kick back and recharge, and I'm thinking I need to start making small changes in several areas of life rather than continuing to try big changes in just a few. This feels kind of overwhelming, but I think it might make things a little more balanced for me. The trick will be to focus on the most important areas and set a weekly goal. For me, the most important areas are health, money, stress, environment, and other (being the things I want to accomplish that fall into the general hobby realm).

For this coming week (Th to Th), I've decided on the following goals:

Health - Stay away from pop! I found out that aspartame makes me sick and regular pop has too much sugar and calories in it, so I'm going to try to say 'no' to soda as much as possible. Today has been good so far. I've drank a ton of water, two cups of coffee, and have a packet of hot cocoa for my afternoon beverage. A financial benefit is that I'm not spending money on pop from the work vending machines.

Money - After completing a budget yesterday, if we stay frugal and not do anything crazy, we can be slightly ahead by the beginning of the year. My goal this coming week is use the food we have in the house for meals and holding off on groceries until next week when I'll have a better idea of "wiggle room" after both J and I get our paychecks. This is going to mean alot of creativity and alot of Ramen, but it's doable.

Stress - The main source of my stress is work, so this week, I'm going to make it a point to take all my lunches and to get away from my desk for at least half of my lunch hour. This includes Mondays, which are our busiest days of the week.

Environment - My apartment is in a constant state of chaos and I'm constantly saying "I need to clean my house." Besides keeping up on the basics (trash, laundry, dishes), I want to start getting the bigger stuff in order. This week, my goal is going to finish unpacking and find a nook or cranny for everything I brought back from vacation (didn't have to buy anything...my family is awesome and gave me all kinds of nifty things).

Other - This is the fun stuff and could probably just be renamed Hobbies (or "Fun Stuff"). This week, I need...and this has become an obsession...to finish "Resident Evil 5."  It's a fairly annoying game, but I'm to the last or the second to the last fight and so it would be silly of me to give up now (even if I am playing at the lowest difficulty level). I also have two scarf projects I want to complete, and I want to finish the book I started reading, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon.

Next Thursday I will hopefully have an update on how these goals go and have new ones for the following week.

ALF