Happy May! This is a BIG month for the Smythe fam because my husband graduates with his Master’s degree! I’m so proud of all the hard work he’s put in and happy that he can finally move on to the next chapter. And he’s definitely excited for the big transition out of student life. We probably won’t be attending the graduation ceremony so I’m trying to brainstorm ways to make it feel special and momentous. I would love any ideas you have!
April 2021 Goals Recap
Start volunteering at church (Whoops! Didn’t get to this.) Purchase bedding for our new (to us) office day bed Reallocate retirement accounts (Maybe 4th attempt is the charm!) Create bedroom moodboard Write 5 blog posts (I did 3!) Do something Charles finds fun every week (I forgot to keep track) Sort 5 month’s photos Drink coffee only after eating breakfast (loved doing this! It really helped with caffeine crashes!) Journal every day Write 100 words every day
I’m learning that a lot of the small, frequent tasks tend to be my downfall. I will definitely have to experiment with how to solve this. Maybe doing away with those kinds of goals? Or perhaps just selecting a small number of daily/weekly tasks and really focusing on them? Definitely food for thought!
The cats are loving the daybed we got them last month 😉
May 2021 Goals
Read this book Star volunteering through church Buy digital piano for Charles’ graduation present Paint bedroom Email church about joining a small group together now that Charles is done with evening classes Reallocate retirement accounts Publish 10 blog posts Sort 5 months of photos (this will wrap up 2020!) Pray over our marriage at least once a week Write 100 words every day Journal every day Take notes on daily Bible reading Exercise each weekday Take a photo every day of May
I pull all of my monthly goals from my yearly 2021 goals. Makes it quick and easy to goal set each month!
What’s your May looking like?
This should be a fun month as Charles wraps up school. Next month is the big transition into working full time!
Last month did not involve me meeting most of my goals. We traveled to visit family, I picked up a new role at work, and the things I hoped to do I just didn’t. It’s easy for me to beat myself up after months like that (“Does my life even have meaning?! What have I even spent my time on?”). I was reminded in church last night that my life’s worth is not measured by my accomplishments. With that in mind, I’m thankful for a clean slate for April 2021 goals and I’m not even going to review how my March goals went.
The cats have been loving open-window weather, and so have I!
Some Things I’m Looking Forward to in April
Getting outside more! The beautiful weather has me wanting to soak up all the sunshine.
A BUSY month for work. I love it when things are moving and the days go by so much faster.
The final full month my husband is in grad school! His last class is the first week of May.
April 2021 Goals
Start volunteering at church Purchase bedding for our new (to us) office day bed Reallocate retirement accounts Create bedroom moodboard Write 5 blog posts Post on IG 5x a week Do something Charles finds fun every week Sort 5 month’s photos Drink coffee only after eating breakfast Journal every day (even if it’s just a sentence!) Write 100 words every day
I LOVE a good book on productivity. Not because I am a super organized, productive person. Quite the opposite actually. Discipline, organization, and productivity do not come naturally to me. I have to work really hard at it, and I’m always trying to figure out how people do the things that they do. I was really intrigued hearing about Do More Better by Tim Challies.
This is the first book I’ve read about productivity from a Christian perspective. He starts off by talking about the theology of productivity, which I love. We so often forget how much the things we believe about God affect the way that we live our lives. In this book, Challies walks you through the steps to determine your areas of responsibility and let go of any of the things you don’t need to be doing. So helpful! The rest of the book is about finding the right tools. Challies recommends getting one tool for each of these arenas:
Task management
Scheduling
Information collection
Task Management Tools
He highly recommends Todoist, which I had heard about before but hadn’t really used. I decided to give it a whirl since the free version is so robust. I set it up the way Challies recommends using the “areas of responsibility” I had worked through earlier in the book and wow wow wow, I love it. My productivity skyrocketed after I implemented this tool. Having ALL my tasks in one place where I could easily prioritize the important and the urgent gave me peace of mind and the focus that I was lacking. It also helped me realize that I was biting off way more than I could chew. My frustrations in not getting “enough” done were often because I tried to do too much.
Because I’m the research-obsessed person that I am, I did a fair amount of googling other task management tools as well. Asana, Trello, Google Gasks, and remember the milk all came up a lot. I also considered utilizing the reminders/tasks app in my iPhone as well. The main consideration is that it should be something that’s fairly simple to set up and something that you’ll actually use.
Scheduling Tools
This was a tool I did not need to spend any time implementing. I already have my Google Calendar and my Apple Calendar synced. I love how Google Calendar can pull appointment suggestions from emails. For example, when the veterinarian sends an email with the next appointment, Google automatically adds it as a calendar event. Syncing it with my apple calendar makes it so that I can view those appointments (plus the address and any other info I saved) on any of my devices.
At some point I’d like to start sharing Google Calendars with Charles, but since both of us are home almost 24/7 still, there’s really no need.
Information Collection Tools
The last toolset he recommends is an information collection tool. Reading this chapter inspired me to start using Evernote again. I used it a lot in wedding planning, but haven’t used it since. I created a new free account to start fresh and plan to start saving things like tax documents, car documents, etc., there. These are things that I’ve previously saved on my computer, which I backup about twice a year. The benefit of saving them in Evernote instead is that it’ll give me more labeling and search options, but also be a more secure backup and allow me to access them from any device. Win win win.
The thing I didn’t love about this book
One thing that was incredibly distracting for me in what was overall a great book was the author’s examples in regards to women’s productivity. It was evident that he comes from a strong traditional, complementarian background. All of his examples of women involved them doing tasks at home, for their husbands, or for their children, whereas the examples he had of men’s productivity varied greatly. Even if I strongly believed in traditional gender roles, these examples would still come across as tone-deaf. What about women who aren’t married and don’t have kids? What about women who ARE married and do have kids but also lead small groups, start a book club, run a ministry, work outside the home in order to pay the bills, and so on.
I debated sharing this as an issue, as the book isn’t actually about gender roles. In the end, I decided to share because I found this distracting and it left a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth. That being said, I think it’s a fantastic book to read, particularly if you feel like your life is missing the organizational frameworks necessary to keep track of tasks, appointments, and important information.
Happy February! January was incredibly good to us. Charles and I spent a lot of time at home, launched our 2021 health goals and routines, did a lot of updates around the home, and hosted quite a few friends. It’s tempting to see all the hard things going on in our nation right now and feel bad that life is so good for us. But I think that seeing hard things should make us more grateful for the good. My heart is filled with immense gratitude as I look back on the last month, and I’m filled with joyful expectation when looking forward. Can’t wait to share my February 2021 goals with you! But first, a quick look back.
Revisiting My January Goals
Buy birthday cards for the year Update kitchen – I did everything but the tip-out tray as we reached the end of our budget. It feels SO good. Update bathroomGet quotes for closet door installation – Hoping to get more use out of our closet by switching from a single door to french doors! Set up my prayer journal Design + order wedding album – I stayed up until midnight one night to finish and I’m so glad! I went with Artifact Uprising. Here’s a referral link in case you need to make an album too! Publish a blog post weekly – Almost, but not quite! 4 Instagram posts a week Fill out marriage journal with Charles weekly Have a budget meeting with Charles weekly Eat breakfast daily – definitely helped my energy! Listen to Bible plan daily – We’re listening to The Bible Recap together and love it! Get dressed and ready for the day in the AM– I feel so much better and get so much more done!
February Goals
Read a book about community or hospitality – I’m thinking this one or this one, but am open to suggestions! Get office to 100% – Including organize drawers and closet, list chairs on Facebook Marketplace, hang art, and make a plan for a day bed Schedule closet door installation Create a moodboard or roadmap for the bedroom Read The Simple Path to Wealth – a helpful book on investing! Publish 4+ blog posts Publish 16 Instagram posts Sort 4+ months of photos in Flic Do something Charles finds fun – Charles is great at doing things I love! I want to get better at doing things he loves that I’m not naturally drawn to. Have a marriage journal + budget meeting each week Fill out gratitude + confession journal daily – I’ve done this practice off and on. The practice of gratitude has been so helpful for finding more joy in life. The practice of confession keeps me humble (in a good way!), grounded, and reminds me to seek strength and help from God. Get dressed and ready for the day in the AM Write for 10 minutes Complete the Kitchn Cooking School – I was looking for an online cooking course I assumed I would pay for and stumbled upon this one, which is absolutely free! I always love the Kitchn recipes I try so this felt like a great idea! Drink at least 5 20-oz glasses of water a day
What are your goals for the next month?
Almost all of my goals are drawn from my overarching 2021 goals. This is the 3rd time I’ve used Powersheets and I feel like I get better at goal setting and get more out of the Powersheets each month!
2021 is the third year (and second in a row) that I’m using PowerSheets to help me define and track my goals for the year. I love love love how they help you break down what’s most important to you and lay out realistic, achievable goals that are close to your heart. I definitely did not achieve all of my 2020 goals, but I know that my year was better for having them. I’m a few weeks late in sharing my goals for the year. I know that most people have already stopped thinking about New Year’s Resolutions, and that we’re already creeping up on the date when most resolutions fail entirely. But I’m still feeling so pumped and energized about my 2021 goals, so I thought I’d share them here.
My 2021 Goals
This year, instead of having specific, actionable goals for the entire year, I’m making them a little more broad and giving myself the opportunity to figure them out as I go. I think this will work better for me as I tend to rebel against too much structure–even if it’s self-imposed. This way I can be a little bit ‘fly by the seat of my pants’ but also have purpose and meaning in my year.
1. Make nourishing my body well a natural + enjoyable part of life.
Over the years, and last year in particular, I’ve come to realize that the way I nourish myself directly affects my mood, energy, and ability to pursue the things that matter to me. If I skip breakfast, I inevitably get hangry and irritable by mid-afternoon and have trouble working up the energy to cook dinner. I’ve never been a huge fan of spending a lot of time in the kitchen, but I’m realizing that my health and the health of my family will depend on just that. So rather than continue to avoid it as much as possible, I want to make cooking nourishing foods often enjoyable and natural. I don’t know how this will look all year, but I’m excited to find out! I’m also delighted to discover that this mindset shift has already helped make me less miserable in the kitchen!
2. Cultivate our local community
We’ve now officially lived in the DC area for two full years! 2020 was unexpected and tough to make new connections. We were so thankful for the friends we had already made here, as the year would have been so much harder and less joyful without them. This year my goal is to continue to pour into those relationships and cultivate even more new friendships in a safe + healthy way. I’m still not sure what that will look like in the midst of the pandemic, but that will make each month new and exciting, amiright?
3. Make our home functional, comfortable, and beautiful
Buying a condo in 2020 was incredibly unexpected, but we are sooo thankful for the gift it is! I love all things home and want to be a good steward by making it a place we (and others) love to be. Part of that will include focusing time and money on making it beautiful and comfortable. But I also want to make it functional. This will include things like getting closets organized, cleaning supplies in easy-to-reach places, and (hopefully) our closet door expanded to french doors. We’ve already started the year off strong by painting the bathroom and kitchen backsplash and adding some kitchen shelves to the bathroom + kitchen. It feels good! Excited to see what else my brain can come up with between now and December 2021!
4. Write
I’ve always loved words and writing, but have not been disciplined at making this happen. I’m pretty sure I make this a goal every single year, so why give up in 2021? Again, not sure exactly how this goal will play out throughout the whole year, but I definitely want to focus time in this arena.
5. Nourish our marriage
Apparently, sometimes I have really specific goals and sometimes I have broad goals that could mean a lot of different things. I don’t have anything specific mapped out for this goal yet. I just know I want it to be a priority. For the first month, that involves making sure we go through our marriage journal every week.
6. Prioritize memory keeping
This is a goal that I set last year and didn’t finish. It still is really close to my heart, so I’m rolling it over to 2021. Last year I bought and went through half of this course, which is fantastic. I want to finish culling and sorting all of my digital photos and then start printing photo albums.
7. Prioritize spiritual nourishment
Here’s another broad goal that I haven’t mapped out for the entire year yet. I have a few ideas, but overall I plan to play this by ear and set goals based on what I feel like is missing at the beginning of each month or quarter.
8. Foster our financial health
Last year I was terrible about making us go over our budget month after month. Apparently buying a new home can do that to you. This year I want to be more disciplined and intentional about our finances.
Annnd there you have it! My 2021 goals.
What are some goals you’re excited about for 2021?
Hi, friends! April 2020 was quite a ride, wasn’t it? We had a little more preparation going into April than we did going into March, but the whole country sheltering in place was hard and wonderful and scary and somethin’ else. I went into the month with tons of energy thinkin’ I could tackle all kinds of stay-at-home goals but really fizzled out partway through. I didn’t even want to set May 2020 goals because I was afraid it would be kind of the same.
But the awesome thing about goal setting is that we can always learn from our experiences and adjust accordingly. This month I’m setting goals with lower thresholds — and if I go above and beyond and have to set newer, higher goals mid-month? Awesome! If that’s not the case and I end up only finishing half of my May 2020 goals? Still awesome! I will still have added more direction + purpose to my days than if I hadn’t set any goals at all. Let’s jump in, friends!
April Goals – 2 out of 14 complete!
Read The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taub. Reading books like this always motivate me to make changes in my health. (Did not even crack this open, I think because I don’t want to give up sugar. Joke’s on me though because Charles talked me into Whole30 again. Ha!)
Write a blog mission statement. (Thought lots about this but didn’t put pen to paper).
Write 2 blog posts a week. (If we change ‘a week’ to ‘this month’ then I did awesome!).
Go on a Friday Adventure. (We found a wooded walking trail but it was SO crowded so we had to leave after just a short time. It was nice to go even that far away from our apartment though!)
Purge 2016 Phone pics.
Schedule 5 Instagram posts a week. (I’m definitely posting more regularly than ever before in my life, but still have a long way to go!)
Try a new recipe every week.
Make a healthy breakfast every morning. (This blender for healthy smoothies was a lifesaver)
Do 3 HIIT workouts a week (I did this the first 2 weeks and then fizzled out).
Go for 3 runs each week (See above).
Journal every day. (Haha nope.)
Text a friend or family member every day (I got so sick of digital correspondence. Anyone else feel that too?)
Call a friend or family member every day (See above).
May 2020 Goals
I tried to take into consideration my fluctuating energy like what happened in May and set goals that I could do even for those days when I’m just not feeling it. If I get extra done? Awesome! If not? Still awesome!
Complete Whole30.
Go on a Friday Adventure. In these crazy times, this might be as simple as driving to a different neighborhood to walk in. I’m ready for a new view!
Hi, I’m Kelsey! I live in the DC area with my husband and two cats. I currently spend my days working from home, reading all the books, and enjoying home life in our new-to-us 1940s condo. Read more about me here.
