december

December Goals 2021

2021, creativity, goals

Hello!

I feel like I’ve been waiting for December 1st for weeks now – the excuse to wear Christmas jumpers, play all the Christmas songs, put tinsel everywhere. But simultaneously, where has November gone and how is it the last month of the year?

But the end of the year means so many wonderful things – for one, Christmas (obviously), for two, I’ll get to see my finished 1 Second Everyday video for the year, but also the time to look back on the 2021 Goals I set myself and plan out my 2022 goals (which is always the most exciting way for me to spend the limbo week between Christmas and New Year).

Between snuggling into cosy, dark nights with blankets and Christmas lights and long work days and evening dance classes, I’ve just about managed to figure out my five mini goals for the last month of the year!

Portfolio work

It’s been a long year of trying to figure out how to present my portfolio – initially I wanted to make a website, to update my Instagram page and to edit an up to date showreel. I realised presenting wasn’t for me, so I decided not to make the showreel and I’m just posting the last of the update posts on my Instagram, but the website has been a long work in progress and I’d really like to try and get it sorted out this month. Website design is confusing and I’m not going to pretend it’s my specialty in any realm, but I’ll try!

Craft Christmas gifts

With our wedding coming up in less than a year, the budget for Christmas isn’t huge, but I love giving really personal, sentimental gifts so I want to craft and create as much as I can! I’ve not completely figured out what yet, but I will!

Plan 2022 wedding tasks

I’ve been very overwhelmed by the whole concept of planning a wedding, but I need to figure out what the next 11 months will look like and what I need to get done by what deadlines. Any tips, tricks or help you can offer would be much appreciated!

Plan 2022 goals

I’ve been making notes about things I want to achieve next year for a couple of months now, but I want to really figure out what my intentions for the next 12 months are and to make goals that I hope to have a chance of achieving. I’m working on being more okay with goals being flexible and adapting, but I’d also like to be in a place where I have an understanding of myself and what is realistic for me and setting my goals accordingly.

Seasonal wardrobe update

I started trying out Project 333 – a ‘challenge’ (for want of a better word) where you have 33 items in your wardrobe for rotations of 3 months) – and having 33 items of clothing just wasn’t realistic for me. But the principle of swapping out clothes seasonally has not only freed up a lot of space in my wardrobe and drawers, but helped me rediscover my own clothes and get excited about what I already own (without the little dopamine hit of shopping).

My Autumn and Winter wardrobes are very, very similar but there’s a few items I’m really considering whether I actually like and a few pieces I consider ‘staple’ that I’d like to add to my collection.

Monthly Goals

My rolling monthly goal of reading 2 books, putting money in savings and having a date night with my partner are still on track!

I’m well over my reading goal for the year (I’ve currently finished 41 books when my goal was 25!), saving has been a mixed bag and date night’s only really started in July but if there’s any month that I really need to try to hit all three, it’s the last month of the year!

From lockdown to heat wave to random weekend of snow in November to new jobs and new houses and new friends and everything in between, this year has been absolutely mental so anything that any of us have achieved, is something to celebrate! Happy December!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

December Goals 2019

2019, goals

Hello!

How mad is it that this is my last monthly goals post of the year? 12 of 12, 100%, The Closing Chapter of 2019.

The goals have been a mixed bag this year, but that’s a self analysis saved for my personal notes and/or a different post, let’s get onto the goals I’m setting myself for the home stretch of the year (and the decade but that’s a lot of pressure so not going to focus too much on it).

  1. Maintain sensible spending – for a solid 70% of November, I was doing really well with my spending – I wasn’t buying lunch at uni, I didn’t buy anything I didn’t need, no treats, nothing but paying for the park and ride to get to uni, food and bills essentially and the end of November hasn’t gone as well but I can definitely be a bit more careful next month, making allowances for Christmas.
  2. Masters semester 1 home stretch! I’m so close to finishing my first semester of my masters – I don’t have any results yet so I have no idea of my progress so far but I’m nearly there and I think it’s going moderately well so just have to maintain momentum.
  3. Start ideas for new writing project – I’ve been throwing an idea around in my head for a while and I want to get it down on virtual paper. I’ve been working on the same writing project for about two years and I’m starting to feel like I’m rehashing the same ideas without writing any of the other bits over and over again and I need something new to get excited about.
  4. Finish reading challenge – my November goal was to catch up but I was so flat out exhausted that reading was just too much. But hopefully I’ll have a bit of downtime in December and I really want to accomplish this goal this year, I’m really focused so fingers crossed for this one.
  5. Chill out – have evenings off! If I can make this work then my fourth goal will be much easier! I need to stop working before like 9pm – when I was at home and even in my third year at uni I had a really good routine where I would do all my work between about 9am and 5pm then in the evenings I could play video games guilt free and I’d like to get back to this kind of routine.

There’s nothing particularly adventurous or specific about these goals and they’re pretty similar to my goals for the last few months but I don’t see the point in ‘doing something a bit different’ when the things I need to focus on haven’t really changed. The point of these goals are to be functional, not interesting. I use them to push myself sometimes but at the moment? I’ve just found out I’ve got an infected wisdom tooth, I’ve got all my deadlines for my first semester of my masters due in about two weeks and I’m still trying to manage my retail job on top of that.

It’s getting there – 2019 has been… interesting, but let’s just say I’m excited for the fresh start that 2020 will bring.

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx

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December Goals!

2018, fitness, goals, lifestyle

Hello!

How on Earth have we made it to the last goals post of the year? I can’t quite believe it’s December now but I am so excited to let all of my Christmas energy out and into the world (and mostly into our house).

Whilst it feels almost nostalgic to be posting the last goals post of the year, I’m so incredibly excited about posting all of my Resolution related content at the beginning of next month because reflecting on goals and setting new ones is just such an exciting prospect for me. I’ve already started planning so if you have any content you’d like to see do let me know!!

Let’s crack on with the last goals of 2018!

[ D E C E M B E R ]

  • be more controlled with money – I’ve gotten to a point where I can say I’m officially freelance now and I’ve got some work under my belt and I’m earning money, but these last couple of months have been a real struggle and the only person who can do anything about that is me. If I want more money, I need to work for it. If I want to make the money I’ve got last longer I need to track what I’m spending and be in control of it. December is probably the worst time of year for this but it’s probably the most difficult spending month of the year so if I can nail it now, 2019 should be easy right?
  • maintain a good diet before Christmas – ever since I got the coil fitted I’ve gone a bit off the rails with food and not been as strict or controlled as before. Now that my body is getting used to the extra hormones, I feel like I’m settling down a bit but December is the hardest month of the year for chocolate and eating badly so my plan is to keep my healthy eating and exercise that I was doing before (adding for an advent calendar chocolate each morning, obviously) and then eat whatever I want from 24th-27th (ish) and then keep it strict and controlled (and consequently make my Christmas chocolate last months) after the holiday and into the new year. The wedding I’m losing weight for is at the end of January so I can really focus and be in the best shape I’ve been for years by then. I don’t want Christmas to ruin everything and destroy everything I’ve worked on with my relationship with food so this is a big focus for me this month.
  • sort out all the financial/legal stuff for going freelance – I’m so excited about having some work coming in and I’ve always loved the idea of being freelance, but there’s a lot of complicated stuff to figure out in terms of opening a new bank account, making sure I prep in advance for tax returns, keeping receipts for expenses and so on and so on. But I’m going to get it all sussed before Christmas!
  • plan 2019 goals and what content I want to make next year – I mean, let’s be honest I’ve already made a bit of a start on this but I want to solidify it – although making content and finishing uni has been difficult, since then I’ve really enjoyed maintaining making 4 pieces of content every week (mostly) and I’m hoping to maintain it next year, but refined.
  • keep 5 point to do lists, be strict and prioritise – then have evenings off please! This last month I’ve been working on making 5 point to do lists with 3 bonus tasks and then usually on a Sunday I have a 9 or 10 point to do list to try and catch up but I want to refine that this month – I want to prioritise what’s important and if that means some things don’t get done then it’s probably my fault for not getting them done earlier in the week! If I get all 5 things done then I can probably do other things but only making 5 point to do lists and being ruthless!

I’m so excited about this month but it’s going to be busy and I can already feel stress creeping in but hopefully these goals will help me stay in control. I can’t wait for Christmas and even if everything else is stressful, Christmas is going to be so good this year. And I’m very much looking forward to New Years content so I hope you are too!

Merry December everyone! 24 days till Christmas!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx

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