How I Did With My Third Quarter Goals

I’ve decided to start setting and tracking quarterly goals for myself.  I saw the idea on another blog, and really liked it, so I decided to try it out for myself.  July - September was the first quarter I tracked.  Here’s how I did.  Or in some cases, didn’t.

Home:

We’re still working on getting rid of the clutter, and generally organizing our house better.  My goals for the last quarter were to go through my clothes and get rid of the things I don’t wear.  I also wanted to organize some things and implement some better storage systems.  This quarter wasn’t a complete failure, but it definitely wasn’t a stellar success.

 I did go through my clothes and box up the things I don’t wear to get them ready to ship to Thread Up.  And the box is still sitting in the living room.  I need to print the label, tape it to the box, and take it to the post office.  It doesn’t sound like a complicated thing, does it?  Somehow , though, it’s something I’ve been neglecting to do.  Charlie is thrilled to have a big box sitting around, and is the self-appointed Guardian of THE Box. 

 I did a little bit of food storage reorganization.  I think the changes I made are going to help keep things more organized going forward.  That’s always the real test; to see if whatever system works and keeps working. 

And that’s it on the organizing front. 

Health:

I still need to lose more weight.  I haven’t been as careful with my food choices over the summer.  To be honest, I’ve succumbed to the temptation of summer favorites like ice cream, toasted marshmallows, and grilled hamburgers.  The good news is that I’ve done it with enough moderation that I haven’t gained any weight.  The bad news is that I haven’t lost any weight.  It feels like I’ve just stalled.

On the exercise front, I did meet, and exceed, my goal of getting up to 30 laps in the pool.  35.2 laps in the pool at our gym is a mile, and my personal best is now 36 laps. 

I also wanted to incorporate some upper body weight lifting exercises into my routine.  Nick showed me how to use the machines at the gym, and I’ve been using them almost every time we go and I walk on the treadmill.  I don’t use them on the days I swim because I really feel like swimming gives my arms enough of a workout.  I’m still at 10 pounds, which is the lowest weight, on one of the machines.  I’m up to 25 pounds on a few of them.  And I’m sort of up to 40 pounds on two of them.  I can only do 10 repetitions at the 40 pound weight, and only after I’ve done a round at a lower weight. 

My arms are nowhere near toned, but I do think they’re a little less flabby.  I also feel like my upper body strength, which has always been pretty much nonexistent, is a little better.  I’m still not the person anyone would choose to move furniture with, but I do see a slight improvement. 

I think I did mostly okay on the health front, though I’m very disappointed with myself for not losing more weight. 

Environment:

My main environmental goal for the quarter was to switch from paper napkins to cloth napkins, and to switch from paper towels to reusable cleaning rags. 

I’m very happy to report that we’ve been hugely successful on that front.  The cloth napkins I had been eyeing on Amazon were marked down on Prime Day, so I ordered two sets. 

I was a little worried that it would take some time and be difficult to get into the habit of using cloth napkins instead of paper ones, but it has been an incredibly easy switch.  The cloth napkins are much more pleasant to use, and it helps that I like the colors.  We just wash them with our towels, so it really doesn’t feel like there’s any extra effort required.  

We still use paper napkins for picnics, and I suspect we’ll still use them when we have large groups of people over for a meal.  Overall, though, we’re sticking with using the cloth napkins.

 We’ve also mostly switched from paper towels and Clorox wipes to reusable cleaning rags.  We still use paper towels for some of the dirtier jobs, and I still like to use Clorox wipes in the kitchen to clean up after raw meat, but we’re mostly using reusable cleaning rags. 

I also wanted to be much more consistent about composting.  I’m happy to say we’ve done well there.  Our trash output definitely appears to be lower, thanks to being more diligent about composting and recycling.  And we were able to use some of our own compost when we planted a bush.  That made me pretty happy; not only did that not end up in a landfill, but hopefully it will help our gardenia bush to thrive. 

Personal/Miscellaneous: 

I had the goal of getting caught up on my goodreads goal.  My goal for 2019 is 52 books.  I’m sorry to say that I’m still six books behind.   I also had the goal of reading more non-fiction.  I read exactly one non-fiction book, Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  I’m planning to write a post about it soon.  So definitely a huge fail on the reading front. 

My other goal was to learn two new crochet stitches.  I did make some progress in learning how to crochet, but I’m not really sure how to classify it.  My aunt helped me with some things when she came to visit. 

I feel much more confident now about counting the stitches, and how to turn the work.  Turning it sounds like such a small (and obvious) thing, but it was something I had missed in the videos.  Knowing that seems to be helping a lot.   She also explained how I kept getting weird humps (from accidentally going into the same stitch over and over). 

Aunt Diana did show me two different stitches.  I haven’t mastered them, but I think I have made some progress.  Mostly she helped me with things that are a little harder to quantify like how to hold the yarn, how loose/tight to make the stitches, and what to try next.  She said the stitches that I learned from videos were fairly good, and that I just need practice, so it was nice to hear that I’m mostly on the right track. 

It doesn’t sound like much, but overall I’m fairly happy with the crochet progress I made.  It’s the little things, right? 

Blogging:

Fail, fail, fail.  Huge, gigantic, epic fail.  My goal was to post three times a week, and I only posted a total of seven times during the whole quarter.  So not even close.

I will say that it’s helpful to look over this list, and to be able to track things for a quarter.  It has definitely given me some ideas as to what I need to work on for the next quarter, which will be my next post.  

So what about you?  Did you have any specific goals you wanted to achieve during the last quarter?  How did you do with meeting them?  

Quarterly Goals

It’s definitely safe to say that I missed the chance to write any new year or goal for the year posts this year.  I didn’t post anything until April.  It has been a weird year; not bad, just kind of different.  I like the idea of tracking things, though, and the blog is a great place to do it.  I already keep up with quite a few of my recipes here.  Why not keep up with everything else here?

I recently saw an idea for tracking goals on a quarterly basis.  I love the idea, so I’m going to give it a try.  I mostly like the categories she uses at She Picks Up Pennies, but not all of them apply to my blog, so I’m changing them up a little. 

Here are my third quarter, or July - September, 2019 goals:

 Home:

Clutter has been an ongoing battle for us.  We actually started the year off great, and made a lot of progress in getting rid of things we don’t use.  Unfortunately, though, we’ve slowed down lately in our efforts to conquer our clutter. 

I definitely need to go through my clothes again, so I plan to do that this quarter.  Beyond that, conquering the clutter is a little harder to quantify.  We’ve gotten rid of a lot of clutter and excess things, so have small, random things left.  We’ve also started to reach the point where taming the clutter doesn’t necessarily mean getting rid of things, but it does mean we need to implement some better storage systems, and generally organize some things. 

Health:

I still need to lose more weight, so that’s an ongoing goal.  I’m getting somewhat close to a weight that isn’t where I need to be, but that would be a real milestone for me.  I thought about setting reaching that weight as my goal for this quarter, but I’m trying to break old/bad habits when it comes to weight loss (and gain in my case!), so I’m choosing less focus on a number (though, if I hit that number, I will be thrilled!), and more focus on some of my habits. 

My exercise of choice is the treadmill and swimming laps.  I haven’t done any strength building or weight lifting exercises, so this quarter I plan to incorporate some upper body weight lifting exercises into my weekly exercise.  I’d also like to increase my lap distance.  35.2 laps in the pool at our gym is a mile.  My personal best at one time is currently 20 laps.  I’d like to get that up to at least 30. 

Food is of course a huge part of health, and of losing weight.  My approach so far has been trying to make healthier substitutions for most things.  That seems to be mostly working, so I plan to continue that.  I also need to work on incorporating more vegetables. 

Environment:  

This will most likely be a much longer post or two at some point, but I have a lot of room for improvement here.  I’m finally beginning to realize that sudden, major changes don’t work for me with anything.  I do much better with small, consistent modifications that become habits. 

So my goals for this quarter are to switch from paper napkins and paper towels to cloth napkins and reusable cleaning rags.  Realistically I don’t expect to ever completely stop buying and using paper towels, but I think I can drastically reduce the amount.  My other goal is to compost more.  I’ve never been very consistent when it comes to composting, so I plan to become much more diligent about making sure that compostable items actually get composted rather than trashed. 

Personal/Miscellaneous:

I definitely plan to read more.  Over the years the time I spend watching TV has crept up, which automatically leads to less reading.  My goodreads goal for the year is 52 books; a book a week.  I’m a few books behind, but it’s definitely a goal I can still make, so I plan to be on schedule with number of books read this quarter. 

I also need to focus on reading some nonfiction.  I love fiction, and it will always be my first choice, but I think some nonfiction would also be beneficial.  I read a lot of historical fiction, so I think I may start to supplement that with some nonfiction related to the historical fiction.

I’m also still trying to learn to crochet.  My progress is very slow, but I’m enjoying it.  I think I finally have the single crochet figured out.  I’m currently trying to learn the half double crochet.  At the moment it feels like I will never get it, but as Nick pointed out, I said that about chaining and the single crochet, and I seem to be able to do those now.  My crochet goal for the quarter is to learn two more stitches. 

Blogging:

I’ve barely blogged at all this year, and I miss it.  It seems to always be one of the first things I let go, but I think I’m happier when I write and post on a more regular basis.  My blogging goal for this quarter is to post at least three times a week. 

In looking over my list I kind of feel like the human version of a fixer upper house!  I definitely have a lot to work on. 

As I’m sure you noticed, the pictures aren’t really related to this post.  I took them earlier this year when those flowers were blooming, but never got around to posting them before now.   They’re late, but still pretty.

So what about you?  How do you track your goals and the progress you’re making on them?  Are you working on anything in particular right now?