De-stressing

Alright, tad bit late on my goal post. I worked longer than normal this weekend and ended up completely disorganized, but I'm back, my assignments and plans for the week are written down (and color-coordinated!), and I'm ready to get back on schedule.

Going with the idea of long work hours, looming midterms, and plenty of class projects, I'm taking this week to start scheduling in "de-stressing" times. So, goal 29 is to take a little bit of time out each day to just turn away from all forms of distractions or technology, and take just a few minutes to breathe on my own, stop focusing so hard on whatever I happen to be doing, and just take the time to relax.

Stress is tiring and unhealthy, not to mention frustrating, and it'll be nice to try and get away from that a little bit each day.

Focusing on Money

Here it is, another Monday, and another day of reading textbooks I don't want to read for classes that I have tomorrow. Thankfully the classes themselves are at least somewhat interesting. This week is a crazy one for me--I had work yesterday, tomorrow I have class, Wednesday I work, Thursday I have class again (until 9:00 at night, have I mentioned that?), Friday I work, Saturday I work, and next Sunday I work, too. Basically, this is my only day off. I'm pretty happy that I actually planned ahead last week and didn't procrastinate for once--I have a project and a paper due on Tuesday; I finished both of them by the end of Saturday.

Anyway, none of that has to do with my goal of the week. While I am working more (and earning more money, woo!) I need to evaluate my spending as well. Along with my cleaning efforts, I've somehow stopped enjoying shopping as much as I once did. Last week I had a 40 dollar coupon to spend (no fine print except the expiration date; the benefits of buying things at Kohl's), and I literally had trouble finding things to buy. I got the two things I needed, and still had 20 dollars left to spend. I found myself wishing that 20 dollars was cash, because I'd rather have saved it than needed to spend it. Despite this, I'm still noticing that I'm spending close to what I make each week.

So goal 28 is to pay more attention to where my money goes, and to try to decrease my spending; i.e. refusing to let the caffeine-loving half of myself convince me to buy an iced latte just because I'm at school again and "deserve a treat". I can go home and enjoy a mug of tea or something for literally a fraction of the cost. Buying gas is essential, but I can pay attention to which gas stations have cheaper prices when I know I'm running low.

Overall I need to kick my saving efforts up a notch, and cut down on extraneous spending. That doesn't mean I can't enjoy a latte every once in a while, but I'm definitely not buying one two times a week just because it's available.

-M.

This Goal Post Brought to You By:

(well, still me, but) a 20 year old! Which has thrown me into a whirl of panic, because 20 sounds like the age when you are supposed to be much more responsible than I currently am.

Either way, I present to you goal 27: Try new things. Be daring. Do things that slightly terrify me (no, this does not include sky diving).

As example, I present to you the fact that yesterday I went to work with only eyeliner and mascara on my face (/awkward phrasing). Please note that I'm the girl who refuses to go down the driveway to the mailbox without wearing foundation, blush, eyeliner, mascara, the whole works.

Yesterday I pushed the envelope and did something (non-dangerous) that scared me a bit none-the-less. I looked in the mirror, told myself I was pretty, and decided I didn't have to smear stuff all over my face to prove it. I still wore my signature eyeliner, but that was it. And no one said anything. A risk worth trying.

-M.

So,

last week's goal was borne more out of necessity than anything. The first half of the week was rough, but by the end I was back on track, focusing on my goals, cleaning my room, and keeping the non-happy bits of me safely locked away.

In the mean time, I'm more focused now, and I'm ready to begin the week after syllabus week as I always intend to stay: organized. This means putting all my major due dates up on my google calendar (I got a head start on that last night), checking my syllabi regularly to keep up with my readings, and making a list each week of homework that needs to be accomplished. I got into the swing of doing that by the end of last semester, and I'm hoping I'll be able to start--and keep up with it!--earlier this semester. Overall, goal 26 is to get my school things organized, and keep them that way.

Today was the first day of classes,

which signifies that summer is officially over. It's also monday, so new goal day! Originally I had something else planned for this week's goal, but my emotions have been 100% everywhere over the past few days, so goal 25: Focus on Happy. Also, don't lose sight of the progress I've been making these past weeks, as far as cleaning my room and staying organized. Remember my goals. Just because classes started again, it doesn't mean I should lose sight of what I've been working toward.

Hello!

Monday's here again, so time to evaluate and make another goal! Between avoiding too much focus on the past, and watching a few episodes of the show "Hoarders" my room has suddenly started becoming noticeably cleaner. Funny how things like that work. >.>

This week's goal goes along with the room cleaning. I have many books. MANY books. I suck at math and estimation and the sorts, but I'd say I definitely have over 100 books, possibly close to 200. Naturally they don't all fit on the bookshelves I have, so there are little stacks on the floor. (And the desk. And the nightstand. Not to mention that there are books in front of books and on top of other books on every shelf of the bookcase.) So goal 24: Go through all my books. The ones I definitely want to keep need to find their way on to the shelves somehow. Ones that I no longer care for can be gotten rid of, and the ones I want to read before I get rid of need to be put in one neat stack, together.

-M.

Goal 23

Alright, so I kinda dropped the ball with my whole weekly goal thing. (Please note that I originally wrote “dropped the bomb” and stared at it for like 10 minutes trying to figure out what was wrong.) I’m going to keep trying, though, and pretend I didn’t screw up, so here it goes:

I am one of those people that constantly lives in the past, occasionally in the present, and thinks of the future only in a sort of dreamy, far-off, distant kind of way. This week I want to modify that a bit. So, goal 23 is to focus a bit on the close-future. Nothing too far in the distance, but I’m going to get a bit more organized for fall semester, and hopefully plan out some breaks when I’ll go to visit people, along with planning for other events that I want to incorporate, and writing notes of when to make birthday cards and things so I can mail them on time. I also want to write an updated journal post of where I see myself in the future. (I wrote one a while ago that I can’t see happening as much as I used to.)

Overall, more focus on the future, less focus on the past. I also want to get back to reading some more.

-M.

Try New Things

I never got around to typing up this goal before I left for California last week, but I fulfilled it, so here it is: Goal 22 was to try new things, and experiment a bit. Things blur together, and become nothing more than commonplace if you always do the same things—plus new experiences give you new perspectives and ideas.

My new experiences from last week included:

1. Flying on a plane by myself for the first time.

2. Flying in first class for the first time.

3. Riding in a convertible Mustang for the first time.

4. Driving on the beach for the first time.

5. Seeing real-life sea elephants for the first time.

6. I currently have feathers in my hair (predominantly blue in color)

7. I rode in an airplane with propellers for the first time.

-M.

Goal 21

My mom left at about 3 this morning, and will be gone for 2 weeks in California. I'm catching a flight to CA, myself, on Sunday, to join her. So far, though, it's only been a few hours, but I've already started getting some serious housework done. Something about having the house to myself makes me feel compelled to clean everything?

Anyway, seeing as I'm going to need to be packing and things, this week's goal is to go through all my clothes. Anything I haven't worn in a while or things I'm not sure fit I'm going to put in a pile. Then I'm going to try all of those things on, to see what I actually want to keep, and what I don't think I'll wear again. I've got a closet and a couple dressers stuffed full of clothes, so thinning that out would be nice.

In the mean time, I'm also going to continue cleaning up the house. It's always nice to come back from a trip to a lovely clean house (:

This is about half of the receipts that I ended up throwing out as part of my goal this week...

Goal 20

Tuesday post this week, what with yesterday being a holiday here in the States, and not being home for most of Sunday and Monday.

As you may have noticed from my summer goals thus far, they’ve all been focused on one thing: cleaning up. Cleaning up physically (my room, my house, taking care of my health/body), cleaning up mentally (reminding myself to take advantage of the weather, remember to live life, etc.), and cleaning up virtually (organizing my computer and internet tabs). This week is going along the lines of the physical cleaning up. I’ve been slowing getting through the piles of mess in my room that have been building since I was about 10. As you might imagine, that amounts to quite a lot of papers and random things I felt compelled to keep, sometimes for no apparent reason. Last week I decided to hit a pile on my desk, and found about 30 or so pieces of mail. I quickly stripped these of their envelopes to reduce space, and then split them up based on what they were—notices on my student loans, bank statements, and a bunch for a bill that I finished paying off last August (if that tells you how long I left this stuff sit). So, my goal for this week goes along the lines of finances and such.

Goal 20: Get my bank accounts back in order (putting my bank statements in order, updating my checkbook, etc.); go through my folder of receipts (I’ve been collecting receipts to almost every item I’ve purchased since I was about 12. I can probably chuck out 98% of these, excluding the ones that are useful for warranties and things); and, finally, also go through my folder of warranties (there’s probably warranties for things I no longer own in there…).

I’m slowly getting my room and my life back in order. Since the time that I left stuff collect I’ve becoming something of a clean-freak at times, and I am constantly going down to the kitchen and cleaning counters, putting away dishes, or cleaning up things that were left out for no apparent reason. The semesters I was away at college, my dorm room was always exceptionally neat, as well, and being in my bedroom at home now makes me somewhat claustrophobic.

No matter, I’ll get through it in time, due at least in part to the many goals I set for myself.

Cheers!

-M.

Goal 19

With as much time as I spend on the computer, and more recently, the amount of time I’m spending at work, standing at a register, I’m hardly ever outside. Seeing as it’s summer, it’d be nice to go out and enjoy the weather every now and then. Apparently I need more motivation than just the weather to leave my precious computer, though.

So, this week’s goal: Try and get at least 2 hours of outside time a week. I don’t mean little snippets of “oh, hey, I’m watering the garden for 5 minutes”. I mean going outside for the sole purpose of enjoying summer; laying in my backyard and reading a book or getting in the pool.

Besides my goals of cleaning up my life and getting on a schedule, I want to make sure I actually set aside some time just for enjoying the summer and life in general.

I did a good amount of work on cleaning up my computer this past week, and I’ve been doing really well with scholarships. I’m applying to at least a couple each week, even if most of them don’t require full-out essays. I’ve also started picking up speed on reading books for enjoyment, so I’m hoping my increasing work schedule won’t interrupt that too much.

-M.

Goal 18

Now that I’ve started getting a handle on my summer, I’m going to slow down on how many new goals I’m trying in a week, so I don’t get overwhelmed to the point of throwing everything away.

My computer is a virtual mess. My desktop has about a zillion things on it, and I currently have 46 tabs open in Firefox, not to mention the 3 windows/72 tabs I have open in Google chrome. I’ve been trying to organize my folders, but with all the stuff everywhere, it’s not going so well.

Needless to say, my computer is not very thrilled with me. This week’s goal (18) is to go through all of my tabs, close out the ones I’ve forgotten about and don’t need, read the stuff that I intended to read months ago, and start working on clearing off my desktop, not to mention clearing my browser histories and cleaning up my disk registry.

Also, I’ve started falling behind on the going to bed at 2am, waking up at 10 schedule, but I’ve still been waking up before 11 every day, so I’m going to try and focus a little more on that.

What counting calories this week taught me about myself:

I don’t eat anywhere near the same amount of calories every day. There will be a couple days where I’ll only eat 1000-1200 calories, and then there’ll be several days where I eat somewhere between 1800 and 2000 calories. I really like dessert (and anything you could potentially call a dessert), and it’s not exactly healthy, but it’s enjoyable, so I eat it. I also eat a lot of ice cream, even though I inevitably end up in a small cramped ball somewhere on the floor 15 minutes later, because I’m lactose intolerant (you’d think I’d learn my lesson, but it just tastes so good…).

I don’t eat the healthiest, but I don’t eat less than what I’m supposed to be eating on a daily basis, and I don’t eat extra on a daily basis, either. I rotate it through, and that’s good enough for me.

Goals 16 and 17

Another week of summer is already gone, so I'm here to post another goal to keep me on track, and to avoid losing time. This week's mainly body-focused. I've been meaning to exercise for years, and last year there was a time-span of about 2 months where I actually got some crunches and push-ups done on a regular basis. And then I failed again.

Thus, goal 16 comes in to play. I plan on walking or using wii fit for half an hour, twice a week. It's not much, but it's a lot more than I've been doing, and it's a step in the right direction. If I can incorporate this in well enough, I might bump the number of times a week up, later in the summer.

My other goal this week is paying attention to what I eat. Overall I'd say I eat a pretty balanced diet (especially when I'm at home, with no Starbucks or bakeries around...), but I couldn't tell you how much I eat. About the only thing I know is that I probably eat way too much in the form of candy and dessert and such, and the calories there are killer. So, for this week, and only this week, I'm going to try and see how many calories I eat a day.

I don't want to become obsessed with calories or numbers. Quite honestly my brain does not function in math terms. Poor Kyle spent like 20 minutes the other day trying to explain to me percentages and such (100% more than 1 is 2. For some reason this was a hard concept for me to grasp. Yeah, I suck at math.) But this week, I want to experience what it's like, force a little bit of addition into my brain, and make myself see exactly how much I'm putting in my body. For my height, weight, and age, I'm supposed to eat somewhere between 1580 and 1780 calories a day. (So I'm going with roughly 1700.) If I'm feeling really motivated, I might use Livestrong's calorie counter, which also tracks what foods I've eaten, which will give me heads up on how "round" my diet actually is.

So, goal 16 is to start exercising again, and goal 17 (for only this week) is to pay more attention to what I'm eating, and how much of it.

-M.

Goals 14 and 15

Keeping in mind my rapidly passing summer, and the fact that I want to do something with my spare non-school time, I’m adding on more goals that I’m hoping to keep for the summer months.

During the school year, I’m kept pretty busy studying text books that range from interesting to the most deadly weapons I’ve ever seen (either useful as blunt objects to hit people with, or to force people to read until they die from the horribly written thing). If I’m not reading straight-up text books, there’s usually websites and research bits of text to read to help with whatever essay I have to write for class. Needless to say, I rarely get any time to just read what I want to read, and trust me, I love to read. Depending on how many hours my new job gives me, I’m hoping to get through a book a week. I might change that—to fewer, or greater—next week, but I guess we’ll see. Currently, though, goal 14 is to read at least one book a week.

I usually have trouble with scholarships, because I know I need them, but I usually forget about their deadlines until they’ve passed, which is pointless. I also have trouble getting over the idea of writing an essay that won’t get me a good grade, isn’t necessarily on a topic I enjoy, and might have been written for no purpose (such as if I don’t get the scholarship). The thing is, I need the scholarships, and it’s actually worse to do like 5 scholarships in one day, than if I’d spread out a few across a couple of weeks. Not to mention that the written portions of my scholarships get significantly better if I haven’t already written something unappealing earlier in the day. At the very least, if I don’t get the scholarships, I can help improve my writing. So, goal 15 is to find and complete at least 1 scholarship a week. (Preferably in some kind of order that correlates to when they’re due.)

As far as last week’s goals, they’re going pretty well so far. Except for yesterday, I woke up between 10 and 10:30 every day, and I went to bed by 2 on most days—though that could use some improvement. And here I am, writing another weekly post, so hopefully I keep up with that, as well. I have orientation for a new job this evening, so that might put a little bit of force behind my time schedule, too…

-M.

I haven't made a goal post in about a month,

due to a load of final papers, final exams, and general procrastination. Actually I’ve been out of school for 2 weeks, so procrastination really is a biggie, here. Consequently I’ve also done absolutely nothing in the last 2 weeks that I can count as anywhere near consequential. My daily routine has basically become me waking up somewhere between 11 and 12, then going on tumblr for ages, playing an online game, watching tv with lunch, and going back on the computer for most of the day (more tv and movies with dinner), until I finally go to bed around 4am. It’s ridiculous.

In mounting frustration, I’ve tried to take control and do some dishes and laundry the past couple of days, but I still feel utterly unaccomplished. Every summer, without the structure of schoolwork and things that need to get done at certain times, I feel like I flail around hopelessly, getting nothing done, until August, when I realize I’ve frittered away most of the summer. At that point I make a few last attempts to cram in something worthwhile in the 2-3 weeks I have left before school starts up again. I don’t want that to happen again this year. So, I’ve had almost an entire month to wind down from school, and I’m ready to start living my summer.

The first thing I want to change is when I’m waking up (and consequently, when I’m going to bed, as well). It doesn’t matter that I have the same amount of time between 12pm and 4am as I would if I changed my sleeping time to 12am and my wake up time to 8am; every time I wake up at 12, I feel like I’ve already wasted most of the day. Then I feel like I’ve done nothing productive, and have no reason to do anything else productive, and my day goes from there…Not to mention that I’m usually the only person awake from about 12-4am, so I can’t accomplish anything that would be noisy. Naturally I turn to watching netflix on my laptop with the door closed, or I have another go on the internet. To be more productive, goal 12 is: I want to start going to bed by 2 am, and waking up by 10am. It might only be a 2 hour difference, but I know I won’t even bother trying if I make it too drastic.

Just waking up isn’t nearly enough, so this week’s other goal (goal 13) is to make sure I start up my weekly goal posts again. I should be able to accomplish writing once a week, and quite honestly, I’ve missed it.

-M.

Goal 9, Week 10

I’m writing this outside, sitting on a deck chair and enjoying the over-80 degree weather, cooled down a bit by a breeze that’s sprung up. It’s absolutely gorgeous out. The trees are still dead and leafless, but the grass has reached its peak greenness, and the daffodils are all blooming. Which leads me to this week’s goal: Make sure to go outside as often as you can this week. At least in PA, it’s been a long, miserably-cold winter, and the fact that it feels almost summery now is amazing. Today's the warmest day of the week in my area, but it doesn't get below 60° for the rest of the days, according to the forecast. Even just studying or doing homework outside is about a zillion times nicer than being locked in the house day after day, and it’s a nice change from what I’ve been doing the past few months. The sun’s enough to cheer me up over any little annoyances that I come across during the day, too. (Yay for vitamin D!)

So, Goal 9, Week 10: Get out of the house, and do whatever can be done outside as much as possible. I’ve already started—writing this outside, right now. And after this, I’ll be working on my Philosophy homework. With luck the rain that hit central PA earlier won’t hit where I am until later this evening. I’m looking forward to maybe getting rid of some of this paleness I have going on, too, but enjoying the weather, and enjoying myself outside are the biggest things. Living life is being happy, and being happy is enjoying the little things, like the plants growing back, the smell of summer, and the feel of the breeze on a hot, spring day…

-M.

We got to wear reflective vests while cleaning up...it's crazy how much people litter!

Volunteering; Goal 7/8, Week 8

gah, procrastination is seriously killing me if I can barely keep up with one written blog post a week >.< Anyway.

When’s the last time you went out of your way to do extra work to help someone else out? The last time I volunteered was at a nursing home when I was 12 or 13. My grandma was in the home at the time, so I would stop by and play the piano for the people living there, and help out however I could for a few hours. I flat out refused to do more volunteer work after my grandma died, so here it is 6 or 7 years later. As part of my environmental biology class, we’re required to volunteer for something to help out the environment, and to write a paper on it. Reading that requirement I kind of grumbled a bit—the usual complaints; a waste of time, I probably have to wake up early, environmental stuff means I’ll be getting dirty, and so on and so forth. Then I stopped and thought about it. There were a few times in high school where I’d thought about volunteering, but had homework to do or college apps to fill out…and I realized something. I am really really good at procrastination.

Luckily, my assignment is forcing me to break that habit, so I’ll be volunteering this Saturday with a group that regularly meets to pick up trash. So my goal (7) is firstly to volunteer for something. My second goal of the week, though, is to sign up to the group so I find out when the next clean-up is, and will volunteer again (Goal 8, week 8). I want to get back into the swing of doing something good for the community around me, and giving back to the world that I’m living in. The thing is, there’s always a reason to put off volunteering, but there’s just this awesome feeling you get from doing it, knowing that you’re doing your part to help out. “It’s like getting dressed up, you never want to put the time in, but you feel great once you do.” (-theiceallmeltsaway)

So, goals 7 & 8, week 8: Volunteer somewhere, and make a point of doing it again in the near future. (kill procrastination!)

-M.