Last month I started a new thing and created 10 goals for myself for September. In this post I am going to review how it went and introduce new goals for October.
September Goals Review
- Read a book at least 30 minutes every day. There were 20 days when I read at least 30 minutes this month. Some days I read more but it ended up to be 25 minutes/day in average. Status – Failed.
- Write at least 4 blog posts. This being my fourth post in September, I Passed this goal.
- Do some exercises at least 4 days a week before lunch at work. I did exercises 4 times a week for a couple of weeks but then reduced it to 3 times/week. Me and my colleague are doing various exercise routines, including pull-ups, and it usually takes around half an hour. I also did a test of how many pull-ups I can do and managed to do 9. I am not close to my target of 20 pull-ups but I still have some time. Status – Failed.
- Go for a run at least 3 times a week. I totally Failed this goal. I did 3 runs/week in the first two weeks but then only went for a run once during the remaining two weeks.
- Cook at least 15 meals for breakfast/lunch/dinner. This one turned out to be a little bit complicated to track. There were quite a few meals that we did together with my wife but I think I did at least 15 meals myself this month. Status – Passed.
- Don’t spend more than €30 on sweets/chocolates etc. I almost passed this one but in the end we overspent by a very small margin (€30.17). Status – Failed.
- Spend less than 30min/day on social media. I set a time limit on my phone for social media apps and there were no problems to Pass this one. The good thing is that I don’t feel like I missed anything.
- Spend at least 20 hours learning C# programming. Again, this one turned out to be quite hard to track but I know that I Failed this one, as it was not close to 20 hours. In my little tracker I logged ~13 hours learning/practicing C# programming language.
- Don’t go to bed later than 11pm. I went to bed before 11pm every night, so I Passed this one.
- Floss my teeth every evening. Passed.
Only 5 goals passed out of 10. I definitely could have done better. On the bright side, some of the goals that I failed were pretty close to success. I guess the goals would be too easy if I passed them all.
Goals for October
I am going to repeat the exericse with goals for October. With some adjustments to my September goals, these are my goals for October:
- Read a book at least 30 minutes every day. In September I had limited time for reading books in the evenings. I will try to do some reading before work as well this month. This goal should get me closer to my goal to read 15 books this year;
- Write at least 4 blog posts. I am aiming to write at least one blog post a week;
- Update “About Me” page in this blog. I feel like “About Me” page is outdated and I could improve it but I never found time to do it;
- Do some exercises at least 3 days a week before lunch at work. I have a goal to be able to do 20 pull-ups and can only do 9 at the moment. My colleague joined me, so there is more motivation for both of us now. I decided to reduce the target to 3 times/week;
- Go for a run at least 3 times a week. Good for health and releases endorphins. I failed this goal last month, will try to do better this time;
- Save at least €800 from income. Savings will go to investment account, emergency fund, baby fund and a vault for some bigger purchases;
- Don’t spend more than €30 on sweets/chocolates etc. We came pretty close in September. €30 seems like a good target, so I will leave it at this point;
- Create a “busy board” for our baby-daughter. I am not a great craftsman but I will set a goal to create a busy board for our daughter to play with. There are many ideas around the web, so hopefully I will be able to create one. I promise to post a picture of it when I finish it;
- Spend at least 20 hours learning C# programming. Good for advancing my career and I love learning new things. I came short last month, let’s see if I can do better during October;
- Don’t go to bed later than 11pm. Sleep is an important aspect of health and I should pay more attention to it. I achieved this goal in September but will leave it for this month as well, as it’s something that I still need to remind myself about.
October goals are looking pretty similar to what I had last month with a few exceptions. I am no longer including cooking, as it’s a little bit hard to track. Also, limited social media and flossing every night is already a habit I don’t need to pay attention to, so I excluded those as well.
On the new goals side, I am including a savings goal and it makes sense since financial independence is the main theme of my blog. Also, I added a goal to improve one of the main pages in the blog. Finally, I am adding a goal to do something I am not used to (crafting something).
Summary
With only half of my goals completed in September, I am a little bit disappointed. However, I think it’s still a good practice because at least I tried and I am still better off now.
Let’s see how my October plays out and how many of the goals I will be able to cross out when the month ends 🙂