Thursday, January 5, 2017

2017 First Quarter Goals

I love the idea of quarterly goals---just the right amount of time and pressure to accomplish meaningful things. This is what I've laid out for winter '17

Family/Home
  • Declutter/purge house top-to-bottom
  • 1 on 1 time with each kid at least every other week. I signed B and I up for a 5-week ice skating class on Sunday mornings so we'll do that. I'll have to think of what to with L 
  • Plan our summer: camps, vacations, grandparent time & sign up for camps/time away as needed
Community/Relationships 
  • PTA involvement (I'm running for secretary but even if I don't win, I'll join and help out...apparently the whole thing fell apart recently and we want to build it back up)
  • Weekly "political activism" hour for phone calls. I HATE this so I need to "eat the frog" and do it every Monday because I've definitely fallen off the wagon on this and I don't want to become complacent. Nicoleandmaggie post great "action items" on their blog
  • Call parents and MIL at least weekly
  • Call 4 best far-away friends one time each before end of quarter. Set up phone calls by text/email if needed
Work
  • Submit 2 papers (it never happened in December)
  • Submit pilot grant in January
  • Start re-submission for April grant in February
  • Weekly planning time every Friday morning (the afternoons are too crazy and it gets dropped)
Self/Health
  • "Dry" January (G and I are doing this together which will make it easier!) and then stick to recommended weekly limit
  • Challenge myself with reading. Aside from my usual contemporary fiction, read 1 non-fiction and 1 classic (Anna Karenina? There are lists for this sort of thing)
  • Try various guided meditation apps and find one I can stick to for 5-10 minutes/day. Try various locations & times of day to find the one that sticks. My therapist, internist, and psychiatrist all keep telling me that meditation is a great adjunct to therapy/medication for anxiety and yet...
It looks like SO MUCH all laid out like that, yet a lot of it is stuff I already need to do (i.e. work, plan summer) and the rest of it is supposedly good stuff.. I will certainly have to look back in April and see how I did.
Posted by at

15 comments:

  1. nicoleandmaggieJanuary 5, 2017 at 2:10 PM

    I hate making the phone calls too-- but it's so important. Thank you for eating that frog.

    For people who are interested in knowing what they can do, my number one suggestion is to go to our activism site: https://nicoleandmaggie.wordpress.com/activism/ and pick one of the four newsletters we have posted and sign up for it to get weekly action items. My favorites are Wall of Us and Actions for Americans, but you may prefer one of the other two. Indivisible groups are popping up all over the country as well and you may want to check for one in your city or state.

    Great goals!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnaJanuary 5, 2017 at 2:33 PM

      Thanks for the info. I signed up for the newsletters & Indivisible.

      Delete
    2. nicoleandmaggieJanuary 5, 2017 at 3:12 PM

      Yay! The more of us that keep pushing on this, the more lives we will literally be saving. Each voice isn't much, but all our voices together will make a difference.

      Delete
  2. xykademiqzJanuary 5, 2017 at 2:25 PM

    Re classics: I hate Anna Karenina with a passion, it's one of my least favorite literary characters; Tolstoy was awful at writing women, presumably because he despised them. If you must read Tolstoy, read War and Peace. I recommend Flaubert's Madame Bovary for a classic with a female protagonist that reads like a real woman. More from the French: anything from Victor Hugo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame book is wonderful); Balzac's Old Gorio (Pere Goriot); Stendhal's The Red and the Black. If you want more Russians, I love Dostoevsky for heavier fare (Crime and Punishment, Notes from the Underground, The Brothers Karamazov). Pushkin has written wonderful short stories, poems, dramas, and novels in verse.
    Look at this compilation:
    http://www.limpidsoft.com/a5/bestrussian.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnaJanuary 5, 2017 at 2:32 PM

    Thanks for the heads up re: Tolstoy. I've read (and loved) Madame Bovary. Read (and had a hard time getting through) Crime & Punishment. Victor Hugo is a good idea.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AmandaJanuary 5, 2017 at 3:11 PM

    Great list! I'd love to hear what meditation apps you try and what you think of them; I only know about Headspace.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnaJanuary 6, 2017 at 2:09 PM

      So far I've been using "Calm" which is free, and has a really soothing, female voice. I'm torn because I don't want to spend any $ for something that may not work, but a lot of the more popular options are not free.

      Delete
  5. DeborahJanuary 5, 2017 at 4:54 PM

    This list seems like a good balance. Attainable but still a reach. My most recent challenge was to stay on top of things in the holiday season, and it felt so good to not be overwhelmed and know it all for some! And now it feels good that it's over. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. gwinneJanuary 5, 2017 at 8:04 PM

    This looks great! Looking forward to your progress report!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jenny F. ScientistJanuary 5, 2017 at 8:14 PM

    I recommend* developing weird allergies/mast cell disorders that make you feel like you're being eaten alive when you drink alcohol. It makes it way easier to give it up.

    *do not in any way recommend

    Strength and courage for all your work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnaJanuary 6, 2017 at 2:08 PM

      Dude, I'm so sorry about your shitty allergy situation. It just sucks.

      Delete
  8. sarah (SHU)January 5, 2017 at 9:12 PM

    love the new blue color :) and the goals are excellent. I think a good # and level of stretch.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymessJanuary 5, 2017 at 9:32 PM

    The one-on-one with your children is such a lovely idea.

    I'm an old woman now and had a difficult relationship with my mother, but there was a brief, calm period in her life when she tried to do this with her children, one of us each week. I barely remember now what we did together -- went to lunch, book shopping perhaps? -- but still recall how valued it made me feel that she set time specifically aside to be with me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnaJanuary 6, 2017 at 2:08 PM

      thanks for this encouragement! I'll remember your comment and hopefully be more motivated to make this happen long term! I also really fondly remember the (rare) one-on-one times with either parent growing up.

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)