First Published: 2024 July 1
Well, it’s been half of a year! Despite the fact that I haven’t really blogged at all1, I do still want to keep making progress on all of my goals. Since it’s the first of a month, and the first of the quarter and half of the year, it seems like a good idea to potentially look through all of my goals and see where they’re at. My monthly goals2 were:
Keep up with BiaY and CCCiaY. I gave up on BiaY, and in general have actually been pretty decent on CCCiaY.
Keep blogging daily. Welllll that certainly didn’t happen, but I’m hopeful that I can start getting better at that.
Get ahead on Jeb. I just got another review requesting the ability to give me money, so this priority should really get shifted higher than it has. As of right now, I am not ahead at all, though I have some plotting done.3
Write and record at least a song. I’ve in total recorded about half of three songs, which does create more than a single song. I don’t know that I did that in January though.
Exercise and stretch more. At least recently, I’ve been doing pretty well at stretching regularly. Obviously something that I’d like to be better at as well.
Finish the book on craft. Hmm I think that i have? I’ve at least read one book on craft since then, even if it wasn’t the one referenced.
Read and/or return at least three of the library books I have checked out. I um don’t know that I’ve read any. I also checked out a bunch more last week, so I should really get on this.
Play guitar more. I was doing pretty well on that, but then put my nicer guitar outside of my reach. I should replace the strings on the less good one, and then I can probably do that more.
Pray better. At least for the past month and a half, I have been doing absolutely horribly at this.
Drink more water. I got a larger water bottle recently, and that has absolutely helped a lot with drinking water.
Moving to the yearly goals, I am somewhat curious about whether they still feel resonant and whether I’ve made adequate progress on them.4
Blog Daily. As mentioned, that did not happen, though it is still somewhat resonant with me. I aspire to doing so again starting now.
Finish dissertation research. I’ve at least made some good strides on the research, though heaven knows whether it’s even close to done.
Make significant progress on writing my thesis. I haven’t really started at all. I’ve brain dumped a few times, but that’s not anything really.
Figure out what I want to do after graduate school. I think that I want to end up in the world of science outreach, though that’s about as far as I’ve gotten. I am meeting with two people in that space this upcoming week, though, so maybe that will help me get some better ideas.
Apply to whatever I want to do next. As mentioned, I’m talking to people about what the next steps could be, so that’s at least in5 the books.
I would like to finish the book on craft that I’ve started and then read the ones that I was gifted this past Christmas. I definitely have not finished it, I realize, though I have finished one of the other books of craft.6
I want to read through all the books that I’ve checked out. I think that I’ve read two or three of them, though I have nothing like returned any of them, and I’ve read far too few of them.
I would like to be better at putting myself out there. I had a very specific way of doing this in mind, and I think that I’ve made some progress on that front, though of course it’s always an in progress thing. Still, I think that I am happy with the efforts I’ve done so far.
Write and record an album. OOOF I really need to get on this faster and more really, because we’re at under 40 days to finish it.
Do BiaY and CCCiaY. I gave up on BiaY and I’m a few days behind on CCCiaY, but that’s fair enough.
Be better at exercise. I don’t remember where I was in January, but I feel as though I’ve been better this year so far at least.
Learn to weave. I think that this goes in the aspiration, rather than practical, goalset. It would be nice to have done, but I don’t feel a drive to do this.
Learn to spin yarn. As above.
Learn a polka on the accordion. My accordion remained in the shop7, but I bought a new one8. That being said, have not worked on a polka.
Swim a mile. I was making good progress and then kind of completely gave up on that. Will get back in the water tonight, and I’ll stay until I’ve finished a very very broken mile.
Be better about exercise. This was a double goal, which is kind of funny.
Improve at prayer. I think that my prayer life was doing better for a while, but it’s unfortunately suffered more than a little bit since then.
Well then, with all this in mind, what are my goals for the month?
Finish the album. Birthday is rapidly approaching, which means the deadline is as well.
Swim at least 4 times weekly. If I want to get to a mile, it’s going to take a lot of swimming.
Read/ choose not to read9 at least a dozen of books that I’ve checked out. Even if there’s stuff in the books that I cannot process rapidly, I still can get at least the notes I want done.
Stretch twice daily. I want to get flexible, and stretching is such a low investment exercise.
Improve my prayer life. I think that to start that’s going to mean a daily rosary, and then at the end of the month, we can see where we’re at.
Get 5 chapters ahead on Jeb. That’s about the minimum I feel comfortable charging people for, and if I don’t do it now, then when?
Blog daily. There’s no way that I’ll be able to keep myself accountable on all of these points if I don’t reflect at least once a day.
With this in mind, the daily reflections will be:
What progress did I make on the album?
How many times a week have I swum? Is it greater than or equal to four?
How am I doing on reading through my backlog? ?/12 for the month
Have I stretched twice today?
Rosary? Other prayer?
How many chapters ahead on Jeb? /5
Blogged daily?
Given that the day isn’t quite halfway done right now, I’m debating between publishing this now and then adding a new draft later, and just waiting to post it until closer to bedtime. I’m leaning towards the latter, as it will give me more time to get items on the list finished.
Having now gotten to the end of the day:
What progress did I make on the album? None, sadly enough.
How many times a week have I swum? Is it greater than or equal to four? I swam today, which may be the first day, but it’s also first of the week.
How am I doing on reading through my backlog? ?/12 for the month. No progress, but I am very tired, and so am ok with that fact.
Have I stretched twice today? I’m about to go stretch!
Rosary? Other prayer? Will do rosary before bed.
How many chapters ahead on Jeb? /5 Ugh I feel bad that i have done nothing.
Blogged daily? Look at this
including after my post claiming that I would restart, whoops↩︎
admittedly in January↩︎
and I kind of want to plot out every chapter until the end of the arc↩︎
Given that we’re halfway through the year, being halfway to the goal seems like something reasonable↩︎
on? like it’s in works↩︎
and I think that I lost another of them, though I have no clue where it could have gone (which I suppose is evidence for its being lost)↩︎
technically still remains, because I do really need to drive up there sometime soon↩︎
well a new to me one.↩︎
meaning like decide that there’s nothing in the content that I need↩︎