Is 18 goals too many? Yes, possibly. Probably in fact. So I am looking at these very much as potential aims, things to work towards, not things to stick to like a regime. I’m not going to be too hard on myself when I inevitably don’t succeed in a few of them, because that’s life right?
Goals as a parent:
1. Stop saying “in a minute” to the kids. Either explain why they can’t have whatever it is they want, or when they can have it if I can’t do it right away, or just get it for them if it is urgent and an acceptable request.
2. Stop threats like eat this or you won’t get that, I’ll send you to your room if you don’t do whatever. The issue with this is that if I don’t follow through then it’s an empty threat, a waste of breathe and I don’t really want to parent by threats either. It’s not the sort of parent I want to be.
3. Stop being a shouty mum. Nobody likes being shouted at, I try not to unless it’s warranted (like the little bugger is about to throw something breakable down the stairs) but when I am tired or distracted be something else then I do get shouty. This year I want to have more patience, less volume, and more talking about why we don’t do certain things.
4. Share a Siblings and a Me and Mine post every month. I’ve done this for the last two years and love having the photos to look back on at the end of the year.
Goals for me:
5. Declutter. At the moment I put things in pretty boxes or baskets so I can’t see them and then forget what I’ve got hidden. I plan to sort through all these boxes and be brutal with what I keep and find a proper home for it all. Although the rest of the family will benefit from this a bit they seem to be immune to clutter and piles of stuff so it really is more for me.
6. Make better use of my time. I am very good at procrastinating, and this year I need to find a way to target my time (on clients, blogging and ‘life-admin’) so that things are done in priority order and ahead of deadlines.
7. Read as much as I have this year. I had a target of 40 books in 2017 and exceeded it by 6, so I’d like to aim for 50 in 2018. Here’s what I read and if you’re goodreads please add me as a friend, I find a lot of new books through what my friends read. I love anything other than chick lit and sci fi stuff, so recommendations welcome!
8. Disconnect. I am always ‘switched on’. My phone and/or laptop is always on, with all the buzz of the internet and social media invading my brain. I want to start doing something for a couple of hours a week that takes me away from that. Maybe colouring, maybe taking up a new hobby but something I don’t need my phone or the internet for.
9. Organise my digital life. You know, file my emails properly, delete images and files I don’t need. Catalogue my photos, back them up and back them up again, maybe even the most important ones onto a USB stick!
10. Get more sleep. This realistically means going to bed earlier rather than the odd daytime naps!
11. Stop endlessly facebook scrolling. It is SUCH a waste of time, I have already unfollowed a lot of groups and pages so they don’t appear in my feed to distract me. Buzzfeed and Ladbible I’m looking at you! This will also help with point 10 as I tend to scroll in bed, before going to sleep or when I’ve been woken up by Arlo.
Goals as a family:
12. Start to meal plan and follow it through! Okay this one will be instigated by me but I want to get the kids more involved in food planning and preparation so they might venture away from beige foods and start to enjoy different tastes.
13. Weekly videos to make a record of our year. Every week we plan to upload a short vlog of our week on our Youtube channel.
14. Stop frivolous spending on things we don’t need. I’m going to delete the wish, asos and ebay apps off my phone to avoid the temptation to order. Admittedly I don’t spend a lot as the sort f stuff I buy is cheap as chips but it isn’t stuff that is necessary!
15. Clean more! Both the kids LOVE ‘helping’ me clean, so this year I am going to let them, yes I might have to follow behind them to re-clean in their wake but practise makes perfect and if we can do it all together with some music on in the background then it’ll be a lot more fun!
16. Get outside more. Doesn’t really need an explanation does it!
17. Have a week away somewhere new (ideally with very little signal so we can actually talk and play games)
And finally…
18. Don’t be too hard on myself. If some of these don’t come to fruition then so be it!
So there we go, I think I might print these out and stick them in my planner so I can re-read them every so often and remind myself of what I’m aiming for. Good luck with your goals, resolutions or whatever you call them, and if you don’t make any then good for you too! Thanks to Lucy at Mrs H’s Favourite Things for setting this goal thought process in motion
“Not right now” is probably the thing I say most and I hate myself for it. It’s usually while I’m trying to get work done and they want a drink or something. I beat myself up over it but I have to remind myself that actually, were I not working from home – I’d be at school teaching and not there to make that drink at all.
Good luck with your goals x x x
Some of these are goals that I have written on mine, I spend far too much and have so much clutter! x