Monthly goals for October 2024. Every month I set a few attainable goals as a way to stay motivated and focus on what I want to accomplish.
Click to read also: Word of the Year Generator
If there’s a word for someone who consistently sets monthly goals a few days into the month, that person is me. Better done late than never.
Even so, I made pretty good improvements on productivity this month, and my productivity hacks might be somewhat counterintuitive.
First, I cut down the number of things I was expecting to accomplish. I wasn’t getting them done anyway, and it was stressing me out.
Next, I stopped working on tasks as soon as I started to burn out on them, instead of trying to power through the burnout. Once I was tired, I set the rest aside for the next day and worked on something different. There’s never a shortage of things that need to be done, so I was still making progress on something.
Finally, I decided to start taking weekends completely off from working on paid projects. Somehow work was creeping more and more into my weekend, and I think that was contributing to my low productivity.
So far, this strategy is working! I’m not getting everything I want done, even with revised expectations, but I’m getting more done than I was before.
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How Did I Do with September Goals?
What You'll Find on This Page
Time With Kids
I had a great three weeks with my kids while Mike was gone (traveling in Germany and India). We were happy to see him back, of course, but it’s really nice now that they are old enough that they understand trips and we just make it work when he’s not here. Also, for whatever reason, I find it way easier to cook for four people than five. That doesn’t make any sense to me, but it’s true.
Mike came back sick, so we didn’t even see much of him last week once he was finally back. Thankfully the kids and I seem to have escaped the bug he brought home.
Music
I still want to get some music recorded well enough that it’s publicly shareable. Eventually. In the meantime, I enjoy playing it.
Craft
I’m slowly working my way through a block of the month hand-appliqued quilt that I will post photos of once done. This month I made this fancy notebook cover using the Arabesque Crafted Life Companion pattern.
That patten was a splurge, but it was really well designed, and I loved making this. I adore pretty notebooks, and this is now one I can use with several notebooks over the years.
I happened to see the pattern for sale shortly after reading Ticia’s blog post about making a Common Place Book. This idea really intrigued me, so I decided and this is where I will keep my own common place book.
I love that it can hold my TWSBI ECO fountain pen. Since I learned to write cursive in France as a kid, I never adapted to ball point pens. I’ve tried a bunch of fountain pens over the years, and these refillable ones are my absolute favorites.
Blogging
I set a September goal to work on my blog at least a little bit every weekday, and that got results! I updated and republished several older posts, and wrote up posts on helping my oldest daughter apply to college, our summer Alaska trip, and visiting the Jane Austen Centre – highly recommended, even though that post sat in my in progress folder for nearly two years! This might not sound like much, but it’s more blogging than I’ve gotten done in a while, and it felt good.
My October Goals for 2024
I’m keeping October goals pretty simple:
- Help my 15yo finish her Halloween costume. I’m excited to write about it here when it is done!
- Keep enjoying my own crafting and music.
- Continue to work on blogging.
- Enjoy family time. If all of my children go straight to college right after high school, they will all be gone in less than 6 years, and we’ll be down to only one child home in less than 3 years. I want to make the most of this time I have with them home!
What are you hoping to get done this month?
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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
I love your notebook cover! I hadn’t realized it was for a commonplace book! That little patch pocket is so well done.
I know what you mean about having to put firm boundaries to not do work on weekends, it is so tempting to say, “I can just do a few more things.”
I really love how that cover worked out! And thank you for the commonplace book inspiration.
Work just keeps creeping if I’m not careful…