I started this series of posts at the end of October 2018. I had just cut back my hours from full time to 90%, and wanted to use my new free time wisely. Some of that time was to relax, but I also wanted to improve my fitness, make my home a more pleasant place to stay, and work on becoming a more well-rounded human being.
My last update was in June of this year, with a number of wins, and several misses versus abandonment of goals (that darned pandemic!).
Here is my 3 month update. I have been giving myself plenty of slack, as between COVID and worrying about the other big C, my brain has been very busy this summer.
The Goals: Past, Present, Future.
Looking at the collection, I see some simple ones: fitness-based and financial.
And several that are squishier, but really aimed at feeding the mind and soul, rather than dealing with physical issues like the body. These would be connecting with friends, family, and community, artsy endeavors, reading.
Decluttering the house seems to be a hybrid issue with tentacles that touch it all: fixing the physical space, allowing me to have people over (when that’s safe), connecting with people through a Buy Nothing group or straight up donations.
Exercise.
My goal continued at 150 minutes a week of exercise, with plans to ramp up my strength training from 30 to 60 minutes.
I continued to do well here: working from home means I can attend a weekly yoga class via Zoom and also work with a trainer remotely for a 30-minute session most weeks.
In 10 of the 13 weeks since my last update, I hit my goal of at least 150 minutes of exercise, most times surpassing that goal handily. Counting yoga towards my strength training efforts, I also achieved my goal of at least 60 minutes a week in 9 of the 13 weeks.
I see that working in the hospital, with long hours spent out of the house, does put a crimp in my exercise. As the year goes on, I expect I may be able to get more exercise during those rotations, but that certainly cannot happen over the summer.
Now that I see the clear association between time in the hospital and reduced exercise, I think I may adjust my goals a bit. When I work long hours in the hospital, aiming for 90 minutes a week of exercise is a stretch, but achievable. For the non-hospital weeks, I would like to push my goal to 210 minutes a week (which works out to 100 minutes of walking, plus yoga and strength training). I felt best walking 3 hours a week plus yoga and training, but I think that may not be realistic when I am working full time.
Connecting with friends and family.
Before COVID-19 and lockdown orders, I had hoped to average one social event per week, seeing friends and/or family. I thought that this goal would have to go on hiatus because of the need for social distancing. Instead, I helped set up a standing date with girlfriends for a weekend “tea,” which I attend pretty much every week (to be sure, some weeks I attend from my hospital office). I decided to add a stretch goal of socializing once a month with other friends.
I continued to attend my weekly online meeting.
We had my step son over twice, once for Father’s Day and once for a birthday. We had another “double date” with my college friends who live a 1/2 mile away. I didn’t think I had met my goal, but it appears I did. In addition, one of my tea friends came over in person.
The weekly internet tea seems to be helping me feel connected. I would like to keep my stretch goal of an additional monthly social visit of some kind. Once social distancing ends (whenever that is), my goals here will likely change significantly.
It’s also time to add back the goal of sending out holiday cards. In the past, I haven’t managed it every year, but I feel much better when I do. Life will be very busy this fall, with many hospital rotations, so this may be a challenge. I think I may be lenient, and say that getting this done by January 2 will get me a pass. If I can get them in the mail by December 14, that will be an A+ as far as I am concerned.
Adventures.
Prior updates included plans to get out of the house to do something (explore a neighborhood, see a museum, go to a street festival), shooting for one “adventure” every 2 weeks.
This goal is absolutely on hold until the pandemic is over. I do not think this will come back into rotation until SARS2-CoV is no longer a threat.
Reading.
I feel ever so much better if I read things unrelated to medicine. I decline to set a goal for overall reading (X books in Y months) to avoid spoiling my reading time. But I do want to work on reading “worthy” books. In the past I have tried to work on reading some of the classics.
My goal for this period was to finish two of the books given to me by friends or family. One was half-way done, so I really just had to read 1 and 1/2 books.
Strictly speaking, I didn’t make my goal. I did finally finish The Yid, by Paul Goldberg. I again started Americanah, by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie , but then put it down (again). I do plan to eventually read the whole thing through. Instead, I started Little Women, which I think counts as a classic; I am about 2/3 of the way through, so I’m not quite done. I also read lots of old favorites and a few new books that weren’t “worthy” books, but were good for the soul.
This sort of goal I find pretty helpful, prompting me to work on books that are not quite as easy for me. My goal for the rest of the year will be to finish either Little Women or Americanah, and work on another book (classic or gifted).
Clear the Clutter.
I had two different goals for this category, depending on viral activity in the area:
- If viral activity stayed lower in my region, I wanted to offload (donate, give away, sell) my culled items while I still feel it is safe to do so.
- If I didn’t feel comfortable getting items out of the house, then my goal was to go through my overstuffed closet, and generate another large pile of things to offload once it is safe. The goal being to make my closet more manageable.
In this, I failed miserably. I did put a few books in Little Free Libraries, but otherwise nothing has left the house. I have a large cardboard box of items to give away (or donate) mocking me from the corner of my living room.
And my closet is more stuffed than ever.
On the other hand (mentally sorting through the donation box of shame), I did clear out some items from the kitchen. And rearrange some of the shelves when Mr. PiN was laid up. So maybe not a total loss.
As far as goals for the next 3 months… I think the old goals are still what I want to get done. It would be good to find new homes for all the things I don’t think I need anymore. Thinning out the closet would make my life a lot easier. However, if I again miss the boat on both those goals, but instead clear up a different area of the house, I would not consider that a total fail.
Creative Activities.
One of the things I feel is very important is to use some of my free time to do something more creative. In my case, to explore different activities, maybe revisit some passions from childhood. I was totally overwhelmed this spring, and thought limiting my expectations for the summer would help. I had just three goals for this period:
- Finish a photo book for either 2018 or 2019.
- Restart knitting, or possibly restart quilting (it turns out one of my friends here is an excellent quilter).
- Keep blogging.
As it turns out, I managed only #3.
My question to myself has to be: should I reduce my goals further, or should I expand them, with the hopes that I will do something else? I really don’t know which is more reasonable: having a longer list for inspiration, or a shorter one in case I feel overwhelmed with work.
I think, in keeping with my decluttering project, I will keep the same 3 goals, but will totally accept other accomplishments if they happen. After all, for a procrastinator, there can be (almost) no end to one’s creativity in avoiding a task. Who knows what I may end up doing over the next several months?
Connecting with the community.
My goal for the summer was to attend one weekday religious service (via Zoom). That’s it.
And… I did it! At the very end of the summer, I sneaked in under my self-imposed deadline to finally manage this small task I have been working on for a few years (well, the Zoom part is new).
I actually enjoyed it–I suspected I would–and now that I have gotten over the inertia, my goal is to do it again this quarter. My secret goal is to actually do it twice, we will see how that goes.
Once the need for social distancing is past, I will add back a goal of volunteering in my community.
Financial goals.
I had very few goals for the summer. Boiling things down, I had a few wishlist items, most of which depended on something else.
- Fund a spousal IRA for 2019 for Mr. PiN. This was put on hold again, as it wasn’t clear what our financial obligations would be for his medical bills.
- Fund my Backdoor Roth for 2020. On hold for the same reasons, with the same timeline for completion.
- Work on optimizing travel rewards to make our next trip(s) more affordable. Our travel plans are on hold for the foreseeable future, so there is no real rush. But I have been thinking about this. I even wrote a post about it.
- Spiff up the house. There are a number of projects we have put off for a long time since they aren’t urgent: putting in overhead lights, replacing rotten window trim, replacing carpeting. Nothing done, as COVID activity is high enough in the area that we weren’t comfortable having workers in the house for non-essential projects, and Mr. PiN was healing from surgery and not up for projects that required lifting or strength.
Since I usually fund a backdoor Roth each year, I think I will make it my expectation to fund mine before the end of the year. The stretch goal will be to start one for Mr. PiN.
How about your summer? Did you have any goals beyond survival? Were you surprised in a good way or a not-so-good way at what you were able to achieve?