Each month I highlight my monthly goals, partly to make myself accountable for the plans, tasks and goals that I include. But also in the hope that it inspires you to make a little list of monthly goals that you’d like to achieve for the month ahead. Helping you realise that you achieve more than you possibly give yourself credit for.
December is always a funny month to be setting monthly goals. There is a part of me that lives for consistency so I plan for monthly goals even if for whatever reason I failed at them I had at least put pen to paper and hoped to achieve them. This month has been filled with unexpected additions to the growing to-do list but whilst our plans were thrown a curveball I do feel that we are now out the other side and ready for the New Year ahead.
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How did I get on with last months goals?
My December monthly goals were mainly focused on Christmas, which given the time of year was always going to be a natural choice. Things haven’t quite gone to plan but I hope that the preparations and festive activities we have completed with the children will make up for our other failings.
Dear Santa
This is a case of best-laid plans gone awry, as we never did manage to take the children to see Santa. I’m feeling all the mum guilt about it, especially for Piglet who hasn’t asked about visiting Santa’s Grotto but I feel she is missing out on some of her childhood memories by not visiting. Between school activities and work schedules, we’d planned breakfast with Santa whilst we would be visiting my family – however, this was brought forward at the last minute so had to cancel the breakfast.
Driving home for Christmas
Two years ago our family was hit with a big health blow. After celebrating a milestone birthday my mam was taken ill and kickstarted a long road to recovery. One she is still very much navigating. Due to the pandemic hitting in the following March it was the last time that the children managed to see Granny in person. So the prospect of being able to make a whistlestop visit ‘up north’ felt very important to us all this tear.
Our plans needed a last-minute re-jig we finally made it! Having not seen my mam in person since Valentine’s Day 2020 it was so wonderful to be able to give her a hug and spend some time with her. Fingers crossed that next year allows us to spend more time together as a family.
Planning for the year ahead
It’s been a year since I started juggling family life, self-employment and a day job. Truth be told, I’m nowhere near as organised or running to a schedule that I’d hoped I’d be. Still very much winging each day as it comes and rolling with the punches. As I have switched off from my day job over Christmas and delaying answering any blog enquires whilst the festivities unfold around me. It has given me time to think about how I’d like things to work in 2022.
Hoping to balance and segregate my days with only focusing on my day job Monday to Wednesday. Picking up my blog work on Thursdays and Fridays. Instead of answering emails after my day at work in the office, into the evening etc. and disrupting family time. Eventually, I’d be happy to increase my work hours if this were a possibility within my service but not something I’m worried about it if doesn’t happen. In terms of my blog, I have been thinking about the type of content I have posted previously and have put a plan in place for things I’d like to cover in the New Year.
My plans and monthly goals for January
I have been thinking about the monthly goals that I set each month. Looking back over the past year or so each month feels somewhat erratic depending on where my focus is falling at the beginning of that given month. Whether I have 101 tasks around the house that I want to tick off my to-do list or blast through some of my long overdue blog admin tasks. Thinking about the year ahead I’m looking to change things up slightly by setting a monthly goal for different areas of my life.
Home: Piglet’s Bedroom
Having the smallest bedroom in the house, Piglet in some ways pulled the shirt straw being the youngest child. Since we moved in her bedroom has changed from nursery to toddler room, from toddler room to the transition to a full-size bed. Whilst the furniture has changed and been reshuffled we have never gotten around to decorating. Being the visual, imaginative girl she is we have opted for a wall mural that will hopefully be added to her room this coming month.
Family: Travel Bucket List
For the first time in many years, we don’t have Merlin Annual Passes to utilise for family days out. Whilst they do offer fantast value for money if you visit a number of the attractions across the year. We simply aren’t able to justify the upfront cost of them for our family of five. I’m hoping to sit down with the children and take a look at all the different attractions and activities available in the UK to put together a family travel bucket list for 2022.
Work: Blog SEO
There is a big part of me that misses the simpler days of blogging when you could write a post, maybe add a photo and publish. It is so much more involved now but it does mean that I mean that I have a lot of catch up work required for my older posts. From ensuring they have images, checked for SEO and categorised correctly. With my goal to update at least 100 blog posts from my list each month for the whole of the year – a boring task that will have me going cross-eyed but I hope will pay off once completed.
