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

MINI BREAK TIME CHECK IN:
1) I finished typing the edits into the computer and have shared them with my beta readers!!! Hurrah!

2) Successfully did not study Japanese vocab. I have been taking a lot more lunch time walks instead and suspect that will continue with the new HP game being out. 

3) Major success! I've been cleaning up a bag of yard waste/weeding per sunny day and cleaning the basement on rainy days. The progress is steady and maintainable! 

Hello all! This is a bit late because I've been busy and I'm working on not overexerting myself just to finish a goal by my deadline when it's not going to negatively impact my plans. I'll make some mini goals for the break, and update once at the end of the week for the accountability. 


AFTER ACTION REVIEW:
Big Goals:
1) Wonderfully and completely done!

2) This is the goal that needed an extension. I'm done writing out the edits on paper, now I need to put this into the computer before sending it out to beta readers. My intention is to have this done by the end of the month. 

3) I haven't been doing nearly as much official Japanese studying as I intended. I have been watching and playing games in Japanese with English subtitles and been trying to listen to it as much as possible. Overall I did get two months of really good studying there where I was making excellent progress, but trying to increase the daily time dedication made me start to stumble. Perhaps the jump was too great? I'll consider it over the week break and come back renewed and ready for the last 100 days of studying! 

Small Goals:
1) This was basically made obsolete after some good improvements at work. Overall it's still good to keep an eye on, but the financials are doing alright.

2) Successfully scheduled two workshops and have had a library reach out for another option. Hosted one so far and it went quite well! 

3) Successfully read 10 books. I think I got slowed down/stuck by reading a longer/slower story in the middle, so I'll focus on shorter books at the start of a round and finish with the longer ones.

4) Happily read four self-improvement books. Two were great, one was good, and one was pretty bad. Overall a fine distribution. One has to wade through stuff to find the best, particularly things that work for them.

5) The family visited over the weekend and had a great time! This goal felt like it was thwarted by the vast amounts of rain that we got this year, and how it always seemed to land on the weekend. So the inside of the house was really great, probably the best that it's been in a year. The yard was an overgrown mess. 

Still, the weather was great for the everyone to hang out outside all weekend and my family is wonderfully helpful. By the time everyone left most of the fire wood from three different mini piles was burned or stacked up in the one spot they're supposed to be in. The patio was weeded. Plus the gas for the grill refilled. The momentum was really great, so I tried to keep up by doing some mowing and additional weeding once everyone headed home too. 


BREAK TIME MINI GOALS:
1) Finish typing edits into computer and send novel to beta readers.

2) Do not study Japanese vocab specifically, because it's break time. (But if I'm playing a game with Japanese in it then I will listen as much as possible.) 

3) Keep up the outside momentum. Ideally put together one bag of weeds or one mowing session per day that it's sunny. Get rid of five things from the house on days that are rainy. Reward myself with some Harry Potter Wizards Unite!

See everyone on the flip side! 

For those tuning into this round my master goals list is here. The list of everyone participating in this round is here. I personally format my check-ins as an after action review, then the setting of intentions/minigoals for the next check-in. Please leave a comment, even if it's not related to the goals I don't mind, it's nice to know that someone sees this page!


​AFTER ACTION REVIEW:
Big Goals:
1)  Completely done!
 
2) Didn't actually do the edits yet, but planning to really focus on them while I'm at writers group later today. Allowed myself a more leisurely weekend to recharge, so more reading for fun instead of for my projects.
 
3) Still not back into the swing of studying Japanese here. I did start a new game which has Japanese audio, trying my hardest to pay attention to it while playing.
 
Small Goals:
1) Sent out the eBay deals. So far one was accepted, and that's one more thing out of the house!
 
2) Took a bit of time today to go through my emails, respond to what needed to get responded to, and put all events on all calendars that they needed to be on. Slowly getting back to the place that I should be here.
 
3) Read one of the short books that I wanted to read. I have two more left to finish before the end of the round to complete this goal.
 
4) Did not do my DnD prep yet, but will also be doing this at writers group. I need to talk out some of the ideas with fellow idea people, ya know?
 
5) Did half of what I intended here. Cleared off the guest bed, changed the sheets, and took out all the trash/recycling. Decided to not wash the kitchen floor because it's raining again and my doggo is just going to get it dirty again. The bathrooms aren't too bad right now, so they'll get cleaned during the week.
 
Bonus) Got around to the goals from last week on this; collecting photos and making sure there were enough of everyone. Then went to the website to put everything together and realized that the calendar doesn't need to get ordered until August. That'll be better for my finances and for my planning, plus that leaves the opportunity for new photos to add to said calendar! Overall a pleasant winning surprise!
 
 
INTENTIONS/MINI-GOALS
I'll probably do my weekly checkin and the overall round checkin in Thursday, so mostly these goals are to finish things out.

Big Goals:
1) Done, thank the goodness.
 
2) 61 pages of detail level edits, typed into the computer, and sent to beta readers.
 
3) Try to get 15 minutes of Japanese studying a day.
 
Small Goals:
1) Ship out eBay items as needed.
 
2) Complete.
 
3) Finish reading two books out of the three I have started.
 
4) Official goal is done. Sub goal of DnD hosting to be worked on.
 
5) Prep the house for a family visit this upcoming weekend! 

For those tuning into this round my master goals list is here. The list of everyone participating in this round is here. I personally format my check-ins as an after action review, then the setting of intentions/minigoals for the next check-in. Please leave a comment, even if it's not related to the goals I don't mind, it's nice to know that someone sees this page!
 
​ 
AFTER ACTION REVIEW:
Big Goals:
1)  After 8 years this is 100% done, with the degree successfully arriving at home.
 
2) It took an extra push of effort, and the knowledge that I was writing this up and would be accountable, to get these 40pages done. But they did get done, and the edits were all reasonable! I found three plot related issues that need to get fixed, and the rest were all sentence structure or adding additional emotional depth. I'm really looking forward to having this out to beta readers on the 20th!
 
3) Ended up ignoring this for most of the week. Just a bit too busy and a bit too high on anxiety to get around to it. Taking a deep breath now, and refocusing this upcoming checkin.
 
Small Goals:
1) Success! Sent out eBay sales. Withdrew from the old investment. Kept spending to a minimum. (Still splurged on 2$ pizza for lunch, because it was that kinda week. Still a reasonable price for not having to make or pack lunch.)
 
2) Responded to all emails and rescheduled appointment to August. Cleared the schedule a little, which is helpful with the extra life that is happening.
 
3) Read some more of the books I'm in the middle of. Opted for podcasts instead of audiobooks because that was what I was in the mood for.
 
4) I did not read some of 'Ask More' nor did I watch GoT. As before there was too much to do, and as smaller more fun goals they got placed to the wayside. I did some more of the prep I needed for DnD and will be doing a test battle after posting this!
 
5) Huge success! I finally got around to cleaning the house! I also did a test run of touching up the mortar on the house. The color match ended up being pink instead of red. Some of the mortar on the house is an odder color than that, so I did my practice patch there. On the other hand some of the mortar matches the red brick color very well, so I'll probably try another entire jar of mortar next time I do this. That all being said, I think I underestimated this project a bit. This is a much better goal to do a bit at a time so that I can learn and focus on getting it to look good, instead of all at once. I shall continue forward!
 
 
INTENTIONS/MINI-GOALS
Big Goals:
1) Nada!
 
2) 20 pages of detail level edits.
 
3) 15 minutes of vocab studying a day, and 1 letter a day.
 
Small Goals:
1) Send out eBay sales. Keep spending to a minimum.
 
2) Respond to emails as needed. Review notes for workshop.
 
3) Finish two shorter books I'm in the middle of.
 
4) Do more DnD prep. I doubt I'll have time for much of anything else.
 
5) Keep the house clean. It'll be raining for most of the week, so I'll keep this simple.
 
Bonus) This is a goal for the week; make grandma's calendar on Shutterfly. This is often a lengthy process for me, taking an average of four hours. So I'd like to spread it out over the week. I also just got a coupon that ends on the 17th, and I do love me a deadline. 

For those tuning into this round my master goals list is here. The list of everyone participating in this round is here. I personally format my check-ins as an after action review, then the setting of intentions/minigoals for the next check-in. Please leave a comment, even if it's not related to the goals I don't mind, it's nice to know that someone sees this page!

AFTER ACTION REVIEW:
Big Goals:
1)  Wonderfully done~
 
2) Got 20pages done of the 60 I was aiming for. A bit too much life in my plans. I'll adjust course this checkin and keep at it!
 
3) Did not really get back on the studying Japanese streak at all. I think I needed more recovery time after the weekend that I did not account for. Plus it's been a particularly social
 
Small Goals:
1) Sent out all packages on Monday. Did spend money on a couple cheap lunches this week, cause sometimes that's just needed, and I was that out of spoons.
 
2) Did 6/9 emails on Monday. The other three haven't been gotten to yet. Normally I have three or less important ones, so this is above my normal.
 
3) Continued book.
 
4) Did not get around to reading the book Ask More. Did finish watching Good Omens, it was as amazing as the book with some brilliant acting. Did about half of the prep that I needed to for my DnD campaign, which was what I needed for Monday night at least.
 
5) Still didn't get to cleaning the house. I want my house to be cleaner and it's just not happening! Ugh!
 
 
INTENTIONS/MINI-GOALS
Big Goals:
1) Done, thank goodness. I've been low on spoons so the extra time is a huge help right now.
 
2) Edit 40pages of scene level page edits, bringing me up to half.
 
3) Maybe just go back to 15 minutes on Thursday/Friday. Try for letters and 15 minutes on Sat/Sunday.
 
Small Goals:
1) Send out eBay sales. Check in with old investment. Keep spending low.
 
2) Respond to all emails. Reschedule events and appointments as needed. Did not realize that so much was scheduled for this month, and it's even more unusual to not have it on my calendar.
 
3) Listen to more audiobook.
 
4) Read some of 'Ask More'. Watch up to 4 episodes of GoT. Finish prep for DnD.
 
5) Weekend project to touch up the mortar on the house. Put in the order for supplies already. 
​

For those tuning into this round my master goals list is here. The list of everyone participating in this round is here. I personally format my check-ins as an after action review, then the setting of intentions/minigoals for the next check-in. Please leave a comment, even if it's not related to the goals I don't mind, it's nice to know that someone sees this page!

I'm very happy and lucky that this is the writing challenge that knows I have a life, because life happened. Had a car accident over the weekend. No one was hurt, but my car will be in the shop for a while, with all of the chaos that such brings. I'll adjust my life and goals accordingly, so that I can continue to take steps forward towards the goals that need it most while still getting life done. 
 
AFTER ACTION REVIEW:
Big Goals:
1) Eight years of complete, and right before the most recent chaos!
 
2) Finished typing all of the edits into the computer. It took longer than I was expecting, but it did get done. A spellcheck was completed. Then I changed the font. Remembered to add page numbers, and printed it out again. Winning, with progress on the most important goal!  
 
3) This was a bit of hit and miss with trying to get back into a groove after vacation. I'll continue to work on it, and try to keep at the top of my mind that there are only a few months left until the trip! Nothing like a deadline to make a goal more real!
 
Small Goals:
1) Lowered the price on 20 items and sold a handful more before the end of the month. Kept the spending reasonable while having a good time out and about. To be talked about a bit more in the minigoals.  
 
2) Many emails received that I need to respond to now that I have a moment at my computer.  
 
3) Decided to not continue the audio book in the car. It's a solid 3 stars, but there are so many more 5 star books that I could have in my life. I choose to listen to those instead.  I did not watch GoT, instead I watched a couple episodes of Good Omens, which is an absolute delight!
 
4) I reached out to the mentor and they emailed back! I'm not sure what will come of this new relationship yet, but this is honestly already more than I expected.
 
5) Actually didn't get to the housework, which was a little surprising since I kept the goal so low and it was all stuff that I wanted to get done to have a cleaner house. But there were real life distractions, plus big goal two took longer to do than I hoped, so that time had to come from somewhere.
 
 
INTENTIONS/MINI-GOALS
Big Goals:
1) STILL DONE! Actually been feeling a little restless with the extra time I have since this is done. It's just such an odd feeling, having time!
 
2) Review 60/121 pages of the novel for scene content and any remaining major edits.
3) Start the studying streak anew. Study Japanese for 15 minutes per day and write one letter per day.
 
Small Goals:
1) Send out packages Monday morning.
 
I was going to say a lot more about this but really it's simple and I just have some weird baggage about money that I should address at some point soon. I got a raise at work and financially things are looking up and much more in the green than last year. Basically this goal isn't needed anymore and I shouldn't spend much more time on it. But, I do like getting stuff out of the house. And a lot of the eBay stuff took time to put up, but doesn't take time to leave up. So I'm going to coast this out for the rest of the round, keeping to small cash ins and the eBay stuff, while using the time for everything else.
 
2) Respond to all emails bright and early Monday morning, so they don't sit around turning into frogs.
 
3) Actually already started a new audiobook (Slaughterhouse-Five). Continue that this week.
 
4) Parallel with the talking to mentors goal of mine is the goal to be able to ask them good questions to get useful advice. To this effect I got the book Ask More and want to read at least sections of it while talking to mentors.
Finish out Good Omens before going back to GoT.
Also prep for the DnD campaign I'm hosting this month.
 
5) With all of the rain I have not been able to get this goal as far as I need to. I'm at the point where I need to figure out if we should hire someone to do all of the major yard work once, so that at least I'm caught up with everything, or if I should pick at most 6 things and make peace with the rest not getting done before the family visits.
I'm not sure what the right option is yet. All I can dedicate myself to this checkin is the general cleaning of the house again.  
For those tuning into this round my master goals list is here. The list of everyone participating in this round is here. I personally format my check-ins as an after action review, then the setting of intentions/minigoals for the next check-in. Please leave a comment, even if it's not related to the goals I don't mind, it's nice to know that someone sees this page!

​

For those tuning into this round my master goals list is here. The list of everyone participating in this round is here. I personally format my check-ins as an after action review, then the setting of intentions/minigoals for the next check-in. Please leave a comment, even if it's not related to the goals I don't mind, it's nice to know that someone sees this page!

​Overall a solid start to the week, with all goals achieved! 


AFTER ACTION REVIEW:
Big Goals:
1) Complete! I did post the pictures on FB and have gotten a lot of pleasant responses about it.

2) Success on the main goal, and no surprise that the stretch goal didn't happen. I worked within the time that I had, so absolutely no worries!

3) I responded to all the letters which had built up over vacation and did some vocab studying. It'll take a bit to get this back into the right groove.  

Small Goals:
1) The last ten items are posted! For now that's it from the house for eBay. There might be some other things that can be gotten rid of, but if they aren't as specialized they'll likely make more money on the FB marketplace anyways. 

2) Responded to all important emails. There were quite a few after vacation!

3) I started to listen to a new book in the car called Lipstick Jungle. I'm not loving it, and the person reading it is pretty bad all things considered. Still I'll give it until the end of the first disc before I decide to drop it or not. On a more fun media note I also finished watching the third season of GoT! There were a lot of momentous moments, and I'm enjoying finding out all of the backstory behind said moments! 

4) I did do the research on people who might be good mentors. (I probably don't sound enthused, it's simply one of those tasks that eats my energy, which is why I haven't done anything like this before now.) 

5) Success! Used the one sunny day we've had to paint the front stairs and fill the trash can for this week. 


INTENTIONS/MINI-GOALS
Big Goals:
1) Wonderfully, completely, utterly, after 8 years, done. 

2) Finish typing the rest of the novel edits into the computer.

3) Keep up with letters, though trying to space them out properly again. Plus 15 minutes of vocab per day. 

Small Goals:
1) Lower the price on 20 items that don't have a lot of views/watchers on eBay. Try to keep spending to a minimum, even though I'll be out and about a lot this weekend. 

2) Respond to emails as needed.

3) Make decision about audio book in car on or before Friday. Watch four episodes of GoT season 3. 

4) Reach out to one potential mentor. I kinda feel like I should do more, but this is the kind of goal that really eats at my energy and that I agonize over too much. Since I know it's frog item I'm going to treat it accordingly. I'm taking the smallest actionable step. And if I do this Thursday morning I get the rest of the week to relax and not worry about it, which is the plan.

5) Between me not being home for a large portion of the weekend (lots of hanging out with friends and writing) plus the fact that it'll be raining almost the entire time I've decided to make this goal simple. Take less than an hour to bring the house to the level of clean I like to keep it at. This means load/unload dishwasher, unpack the last of my luggage, put away laundry, clear off the counters, put up the poster that fell. Stretch goal to cook some good meals that can be easily microwaved before the busy weekend.

For those tuning into this round my master goals list is here. The list of everyone participating in this round is here. I personally format my check-ins as an after action review, then the setting of intentions/minigoals for the next check-in. Please leave a comment, even if it's not related to the goals I don't mind, it's nice to know that someone sees this page!

Just got back from vacation. Taking a slow day to reorient before kicking off on the next lap of the pool called goals. 

​
AFTER ACTION REVIEW:
Big Goals:
1) ​Still done! While I was traveling I picked up my official awards, it's nice to see something physically for all of this work!

2) Super success here! I finished all of the edits for the architecture of the book!!! This is super exciting and it was so much more relaxing knowing that this stage of this was complete before vacation!

3) I did not do the more official studying that I had hoped. But there was a lot of unintentional studying anyways. One of the panels I went too was hosted in Japanese with a translator. Combine that with plenty of the other panels I went to and I'm more motivated than ever to do this properly!!!

Small Goals:
1) No major sales lately. Did *finally* turn in those coins for $60. I also kept to my budget while on vacation, which is a lovely win!

2) Responded to some emails, two big ones that need to get responded to today now that I'm home.

3) Started and dropped two ebooks.  Also finished catching up on The Magnus Archives! Read some of the physical book while on vacation, 

4) Success! Finished reading success principles!

5) Turned in the light bulbs to Home Depot. ALSO found a place to drop off the ancient computer AND dropped it off while driving for vacation. That's a big win!!! I started the trip with my car full of stuff, and ended it with a couple awards, a stand, and a trunk full of groceries. Talk about a huge and wonderful improvement for the house! (And in correlation my mental well being!) 

​
INTENTIONS/MINI-GOALS
Just getting back from vacation it's time to coast through the rest of the month. Then I'll kick it up into the next gear in June. 

Big Goals:
1) Absolutely done! (Though I do want to post pictures of those awards on my FB today!)

2) I'm going to take today (Monday) to go through and add the obvious dialogue tags and descriptions that I often lack on a first draft. Then I'd like to get the last 20 pages typed into the computer. Stretch goal to get everything typed into the computer and then the next draft printed in a different font. But that would be a bit crazy.

3) 15 minutes of vocab and 1 letter every day.

Small Goals:
1) Post the last ten items I found in my house on eBay. The only other big thing is to focus on not spending money. 

2) Respond to email from library.

3) Now that I'm done catching up on Magnus Archives I'll be going back to listening to books in the car until I'm caught up on this goal. Just a touch behind now. (Behind the quarters goal, still ahead of my yearly goal.) Also want to watch a couple episodes of GoT. Possibly finish out season 3? 

4) With me finishing Success Principles over vacation this goal is officially complete! Still, I'd like to take some actions on the success principles I read, namely to work on my support network. The goal is to research some people who I might like to become a mentor. I think that I'll need three different ones, for different aspects of my life. 

5) The weather is really nice today, so I'll be painting the front stairs at least. Plus some cleaning of the house and throwing out some old stuff. Stretch goal to start cleaning windows or other gardening.

Cheers!
Shannon

​AFTER ACTION REVIEW:
Big Goals:
1) Absolutely positively nothing since this is DONE!
 
2) Massive win! I overachieved by getting to over 20 of the 25 major edits. (The goal was 12.) The last edits are all new scenes, so they will take longer to do. But with the momentum of this week behind me I hope they'll get done that much faster!
 
3) I did study vocab every day but have been running a couple days behind on the letters. They take a long time to do, and I've been busy at work which means lunches were less available to get said letters done.  
 
Small Goals:
1) Did put the change into the car. Did also find a couple more items to sell in the last three places I looked, though probably won't post them until next month. Every week more and more is leaving my house, and I'm enjoying the items that are still here that much more!
 
2) Emails received and responded to. Email to the editor sent.
 
3) Read a couple more chapters of the physical book.
 
4) No progress, as planned.  
 
5) Flung 20 items from the basement. Rescheduled the light bulb return to this week, since I know I'll be driving by there on Wednesday. Fewer trips is better for the environment!
 
 
INTENTIONS/MINI-GOALS
I'm going on vacation for over half of this week, so I won't be checking in until Sunday and the goals are small.  

Big Goals:
1) STILL DONE! Eight years and this is finally complete! A new level of freedom has been found!
 
2) It's a big goal, but I'd really like to write out all of those new scenes before I go on vacation. I think there will be a lot of good with getting the major rewrites done, and letting them sit for most of a week, before typing them into the computer and reading the post overhaul version.
 
3) Study Japanese for 15 minutes every day, even when I'm on vacation. 1 letter per day, even when on vacation.
 
Small Goals:
1) Send out eBay purchases before I leave Wednesday morning.  
 
2) Respond to emails as needed.
 
3) Continue reading and enjoying any of the books I'm in the middle of right now. No GoT until I get back. I've been listening to a wonderful podcast called The Magnus Archives and I'm finally on the current season. Thus I would like to officially catch up while I'm on vacation. Stretch goal to finish the physical book while I'm on vacation as well.
 
4) Finish reading Success Principles while I'm on vacation.  
 
5) Turn in the light bulbs to Home Depot on Wednesday. Stretch goal to look into a way to get rid of the ancient computer in the garage.