Hello everyone,

With summer here things are a bit hectic but that isn't slowing me down. I was hoping to par this down to 7 goals, but that's just not enough to cover my aspirations. So I went for 8 again, a pretty consistently important number in my life. 

Big Goals:
1) Anthology. Send out line edits, review line edits for any additionally needed edits, put together book, figure out book cover, review everything for the new Createspace, and put in an order in time for our Sep 14th release date! 

2) Health improvement. This is a major lifestyle change, and it's a bigger deal because I want to do this with the SO. I've done many things before such as Crossfit etc and they work fine for me, as I have a lot of internal motivation, but the SO needs the external motivation. So this time, we're in it together!

First I'm getting the SO a step counter. Once that's in we'll both have the goal of 8k a day. 

Second is to improve our food intake. I think that the easiest way to do this is through a meal plan. The SO doesn't like eating the same thing too often in a row. Thus I think having a three week meal plan that rotates should give us the variety to keep to it. There's a personal bonus of being able to preorder our groceries with saved grocery lists, so that will save us a chunk of time every week as well! (Of course now I need to see if we have enough healthy recipes to actually do this with a three week rotation.) Once this is implemented we'll work on making small improvements and trying new recipes to add to the rotation.

Third is to have at least two weight lifting, stepper, badminton, Pilates, or rowing machine sessions of 30 minutes a week per person. I might have to schedule them so we both do them at the same time to have the accountability. We'll figure it out as we build on this life style.

3) Learning Japanese. 15 minutes of studying vocab a day. Write a letter to a penpal every other day. Watch an episode of anime in Japanese with no subtitles at least once per checkin. 

Small Goals:
1) Misc stuff that needs to get done. I don't want to overload myself, so I'll work on one at a time and call them all goal 1. First is making the family calendar. After that is watching/reading borrowed things and return them. This includes GoT, Outlaw star, and TMNT. After that I'm sure something will come up, probably to do with crafts and/or up-cycling. 

2) Read 10 physical books from my shelves. I've got a handful already chosen, and will choose more as those are gone through. 

3) Read 3 self improvement books. One will be, 'Ask More'. The other two will be writing related.

4) Home improvement. The first goal is to get the yard squared away. I've given up on the actual outdoor improvements and would be happy to simply have everything weeded and not completely overgrown. (Keeping expectations reasonable is an important part of my happiness!) After that I might go back to cleaning the basement, or some of the house repairs that the SO and I are considering. One thing at a time, mostly I'm aiming for progress, while being flexible. 

5) Outline for NaNo. I expect this to get more time later in the round. The first part is taking the many ideas I have flying around and fleshing them out enough to know which has enough meat to work on. After that will be some plot development and character development. After that I'll make a whole Aion Timeline for the novel and fill it out/do research as needed. 

Cheers,
Shannon

Hello everyone,
 
Last round was a smashing success! Thank you all for welcoming me into this amazing group, it's really helped me get more of the important stuff done and understand that it's ok for me to take time for myself too.
 
Big Goals:
1) Finish my most recent degree. If everything goes smoothly this will be finishing in early May. I'm two online classes, which I intend to get an A in. This will involve me handing in all of my assignments on time and calling into class twice a week. One of the classes is creative writing, so that will be most of my new writings  for this round of words.
 
2) Edit my romance novel. I wrote this for National Novel Writing Month in November of 2018. It's my best first draft to date (out of eight or so) and I'm really ready to get it to a state where I can get feedback from beta readers. This happens to harmonize with Camp NaNo, so I'll start it then, though in order to keep myself from burn out I do intend for it to take the whole round. (Not that I would stop myself if I really feel like editing the whole thing quickly.)
 
3) Learn Japanese and get ready for my Japan trip. I took last round to refocus on this, but I need to at least double my effort if I'm going to be as fluent as I'd like to be. That being said, I think this will really be getting focus as soon as Big Goal 1 is complete. Until then the goal is to study for 15 minutes a day, and after Big Goal 1 is done it'll be 30 minutes a day.
 
Small Goals:
1) Save an extra $1,000 dollars and use it to finish paying my student loans. With the extra effort last round I'm within reach of this goal. (It didn't even seem possible when I was making my goals in Jan.) It's time to seal the deal and get these out of my life!
 
2) Host two workshops and one event at local libraries/businesses. This will mostly involve putting together the material and attending the events.
 
3) Read 10 books. My intention is one a week for the year. Last year I was super behind by this point, this year I'm already at 20. Honestly I think this is a good indicator of my mental health.
 
4) Read 3 self-improvement books. My intention is one a month for the year. On the top of the list are: The Art of Non-Conformity, Leadership and Self-Deception, and The Success Principles. I realize that I haven't read/plan to read any writing related self-improvement books, but I'm not feeling it right now either. I think that I'll add them in next round to prep my mind for NaNo.
 
5) Tend the outside of the house and basement before my family visits June 22nd. I think the hardest part will be remembering that this is a small goal, and is not supposed to get prioritized above the big goals. Still there's a lot of stuff that needs to get done in relation to this, including but not limited to:
                Getting rid of stuff in the basement, and then organizing what's left
                Getting rid of stuff in the garage, and then organizing what's left
                Get rid of my attempted garden from last year
                Take out prickly bushes
                Put in fruit trees
                Put in perennial flowers
                Fixing the holes that my dog has dug in the yard
                Taking care of the invasive vines
                Touching up the bricks and mortar
                Outside paint touch ups
                Painting the front stairs
                Washing all of the windows around the whole house
                 
Thanks for reading!
Shannon