How quickly February flew by, stealing with it all of my time. Damn you, Time Thief!
2019 hasn’t been the best for me so far, in regards to managing my time and reaching goals. Circumstances outside of my control have nipped in and messed up my plans.
However, I continue to make monthly goals and look back over the ones previous while trying not to get too downhearted.
Last month’s goals
February was a busy month. I was still recovering from January’s medical issues and our house purchase completed. The move was not as smooth as I’d have liked and I wasn’t able to keep control of my on or offline responsibilities.
We also have some family medical issues ongoing that meant more hospital visits to see family members and being around on short notice for when our assistance was needed.
1 – Write 20k – This was part of the 85K challenge. I was already been overly optimistic when I made this, but I came nowhere close – PARTIALLY COMPLETED
2 – Update 10 blog posts – This is always considered my “easy goal” and yet I failed, so not great! – PARTIALLY COMPLETED
3 – Organise my craft room – My craft room is where I run my business, do my blogging, do my writing, store all the household documents… so there’s a lot to organise. I did get it set up and some of it is organised but I didn’t get a chance to complete it – PARTIALLY COMPLETED
4 – Overhaul my shop – I managed to get this mostly done, but again situations cropped up and I wasn’t able to block out enough time to complete it – PARTIALLY COMPLETED
5 – Launch a video – This was probably stupid of me to add it to February’s goals. I knew it would need a decent amount of time and energy to complete, I barely had the SPACE to work on this – NOT STARTED
Overall… I failed miserably last month. Like, the worst I have ever failed at my goals… Oh well, we always have this new month.
This month’s goals
01 – Write
With a lot of stuff going on in our lives with family, house, health etc, I am just changing this to just write. Write something. Write anything. I just need to get something down so that I’m not going stir crazy.
02 – Sort banners
I’m almost done with the post updates, so I’m changing this to adding new banners to my Pages.
I want to give my blog a certain look and I am close to being there. But there are some inconsistencies with the Pages I want to rectify. I also want to organise my Pages.
03 – Post 2 reviews
If you’re on my newsletter, you will know that I wanted to start doing 2 reviews a month. I did one in January and then everything hit and I haven’t done any since. So I want to make sure I actually DO them.
04 – Organise my Craft Room
I’m re-adding this because I seriously need to get this completed. I need to be able to find everything and have space to work.
Now if only I could find my label maker!
05 – Add more products
With the shop being offline for so long I need to crank it back up, that means adding new products and building up my inventory.
I should be able to manage that. I’m not giving myself a quantity amount to aim at, as that will definitely be a way to fail. Right now I just want to get on track to doing something.
06 – Launch a video
If I was smart, I would take this off my current goals list for the time being… however I signed up for a workshop as a way to hold myself accountable and I’m hoping it will help me complete this. We shall see. 🙂
Once again, I’m leaving it at just a few goals. After all, I’ve failed miserably the last two months and during March I’m going back to England for a week so I’m already losing those days of work.
Are you hitting your goals?
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Your goals are very similar to mine – write, blog, YouTube, and Etsy, lol. Good luck with it all!
And no, you didn’t “fail miserably” in February. You accomplished buying a house and moving. That takes a lot out of you mentally and physically, especially when you’re getting over being sick. You didn’t get much “work” done, but you accomplished something and that’s all we can ask for when it comes to time.
You have an Etsy shop? That is so cool, you must send me a link 🙂
lol you are so right. I had a proper moody day yesterday where I just felt like I’m getting nothing done and my partner had to literally spell out all the work I was doing in regards to the house, the family assistance, the blog, my orders, my newsletter etc.
Because I’m not writing and because my house schedule is not yet up due to still unpacking and having tradesmen in sorting things, I keep feeling like I’m doing nothing.
He even told me I need to stop worrying about everything until May because then I should have got everything sorted house wise, have been and returned from my England trip and be back into a solid routine. :p
This is my shop in all it’s bare, dull glory: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SpilledInkPressShop
I’m hoping to open it in the spring. For some reason it says it’s been on Etsy since 1969? I’m assuming that’s a joke on Etsy’s part, lol. What’s your shop? I tried to find it but couldn’t, lol.
Lol, my sister has to do the same thing to me. I love how alike we are. We do so much on a daily basis but because we crossed off one thing on our to-do list, three more things tend to get added. Then it feels like we’re not accomplishing anything. My writing for sure has taken such a backseat to everything else.
I like that advice, you should take it. Stop worrying for two months. Easy-peasy, lol. But it’s true. Only time will tell.
Good luck with your shop! 😀
My current one where I sell jewellery is https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/BlaqKat
I have another one that I’m setting up for printables, called ThePrintVault but it’s still being sorted so isn’t launched yet.
lol I can never take good advice. Had a couple of rough days, partner told me to “take today off” I agreed… it’s 4:41pm and so far I’m still working! lol
Thanks! Good luck with both of yours as well. I plan on doing printables as well. I’d also like to get my photography up there as well. Down the line I’d like to sell physical items such as notebooks or candles. I’ve already started working on candles… but none of them smell so far! Lol.
I do the same thing! I’ll tell myself to stop at a certain time and keep going for an extra few hours, lol.
I’m sure your shop will do great! If you ever need any advice or have any questions let me know. I’ve been running my shop since 2012 and I’ve hit every possible roadblock and problem going before I smoothed it out and started running it well lol.
Good to know! Thanks.
You forgot one more thing: Be Careful of Burnout.
That is a good point, I do need to watch that. I’ve felt myself drifting around the edges of burn out recently.
Start over in March. February had the move and that encompassed a lot of time – with your trip back to England, maybe even begin anew in April.
Don’t be too hard on yourself or get too downhearted, Ari. Your goals are great and I hope you are able to keep to them. I am amazed you’ve managed as well as you have so far, considering what else has happened in your life recently. We all have times when things just don’t go to plan and we have unforeseen problems. We just do what we can and eventually things calm down and we get back on track… or….. we decide that we have to change what we do or how we do it. This will become clear in the fulness of time and is okay because life is like that.
I hope you are feeling better and you are beginning to enjoy your new home.
Thanks Clare, I appreciate your kind, supportive words.
I’ve been good with my goals so far. Hopefully, it will continue.
And I hope that you get your second wind and never give up.
I’m glad you are doing well with your goals and good luck with keeping it up 🙂
This is why Pandora left hope in the box, when all else fails, we can still trust in her judgement…
So true 🙂
Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
Thanks for reblogging 🙂
Best of luck to you!
Thank you, Andrew
You’re welcome.
🙂 I wish you all of the best with your goals for March 2019.
Thank you Renard 🙂
🙂 You are welcome, Ari.
Partial is still pretty good 🙂 February was as slow for me as the frost outside, but I am all excited about March!
Wishing your the best on your March goals,
Yari
Thanks Yari, I appreciate. What are your plans for March?
Write 🙂 LoL I’m so close to the finish line on my book! The plan is to remain focused and follow the schedule I made for myself ✍️ Without a schedule, everything falls apart!
Good luck with your book, I love that feeling when you can start to see the finish line! 😀
If you do start doing reviews, I have found that it’s super useful to not start until you’re a couple months ahead. That way, if I do a month with all HUGE books (like this past December…), I can have enough time to do it then catch up again by reading shorter books.
That’s great, thanks for the tip 😀
These are great goals. Good luck with them! What products do you sell? I noticed you said your online shop, is this like an Etsy shop?
Thanks for your comment. It is an Etsy shop, I make mostly jewellery though when I did pottery I made a number of pieces that I am still selling at the moment 🙂
I’ve thought of starting an Etsy shop but don’t know if it would be successful. So I haven’t gone for it.
I started mine in 2012 in what everyone told me was a saturated market (jewellery), did a lot of trial and error rather than planning and made no profit for the first 2 years. Now it’s self sustaining, has over 1000 orders and I’m loving it.
No one knows whether something they try will be a success but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.
Armed with a plan and knowledge (trust thats bettee that winging it like i did) can help set you off on the best footing.
I’m actually in the middle of planning and creating tutorial videos for setting up and running an Etsy shop.
I have no idea where to start with an Etsy shop. If you’re going to help educate people then I will definitely keep an eye out. Any help is greatly appreciated.
You have made me motivated! I will start to plan our my videos on starting and building an Etsy shop 🙂
I can’t wait to see them!!!! 😊