How is it already October? Seriously HOW?! It feels like I blinked and September is over! That being said, I am excited for October. I can’t wait for serious fall weather, a beautiful wedding in the Shenandoah Valley and a lot of very important birthdays!

After writing down and publishing last month’s goals to a place where people could actually hold me accountable, I found it to be truly helpful. There were several times during the month when I thought about the post when I wanted to ignore everything I wrote down for September. But… some of them are still a work in progress.

September Recap

• Slowing down: This goal inspired it’s own post, check it out if you haven’t already! This is something I’m actively working on incorporating into my daily life now and I like the changes that have been happening because of it.
• Track my time: This goal was half-completed. I didn’t end up using toggl in my personal life like I was hoping I would. I honestly kept forgetting I had the timer on and then it would run for hours until I remembered it. I used the app Moment for about a week and a half. I probably would have used it longer, but every morning you had to take a screenshot of your battery usage to determine how much time you were spending on different apps. But the biggest issue I had with it was it had to stay running in the background at all times. So when I went to close out apps so my battery wasn’t getting drained and I accidentally closed it… it would send you notifications until you turned the app back on. I was surprised to see though that I wasn’t spending as much time on certain apps as I thought I was. But… it was still too much time.
• Break up with the snooze button: Surprisingly, this goal is going really well. I’m not exactly sure what triggered this to happen but I have a few theories:
  • I changed my alarm sound to “Formation” and it’s really hard to not want to get up and slay after having Beyonce wake you up.
  • I’ve started showering in the mornings after being a habitual night showerer. Guess what, everyone’s right. Showers help wake you up (and my hair isn’t halfway down my back anymore so it’s much easier to manage in the morning).
  • I started a new job! I have about a 20 minute commute so I want to make sure I’m up with enough time to get ready.
• Morning routines: This has gotten much better. I don’t immediately grab my phone after waking up anymore and I’ve started doing at the very minimum 10 minutes of yoga every morning. I also dedicate a lot of morning time to consuming ALL THE TEA.
• Get involved in the Raleigh community: I’m really excited about this one! Last weekend I volunteered in the Lung Cancer Initiative of North Carolina’s LUNGe 5k event in Raleigh. It was awesome getting to see so many survivors participate in the one mile and then 5k! I’m looking forward to getting to know this community better, too!
• Eat actual meals: … This is a work in progress. I still need to stop eating so much crap for dinner. But I’m not skipping lunch anymore!
• #yogaeverydamnday: This has come back a little too. I’m actually participating in Bliss Body Yoga’s October Challenge to help me get back on track!

What’s in store for October

• Narrow my focus: As you can see, I was a little ambitious in September. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, I felt like I was spreading myself a little thin with keeping up with everything. So for October, I’m only focusing on 3 things.
• Work/life balance: As I get into my new job, I want to start finding the things that keep me balanced in my new role! I expect this to be a work in progress, but I will for sure be starting with getting more sleep!
• Be grounded in the present: Put. The. Phone. Down. Focus on what’s happening in the moment, not mindlessly scrolling.

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And there you have it! I’m so excited to see what October will bring! What are your October goals/plans/intentions, friends?!

Lately, a lot of people have been asking about my goals and how I’m working towards those goals. I’ve been searching for ways to write everything down and keep myself accountable, but have noticed a lot of bloggers post about their monthly/yearly goals as a good way to keep themselves accountable.

In college, instead of doing a New Year’s Resolution, which I generally dislike and don’t necessarily agree with, I did monthly goals instead. The only problem was at the time, I wasn’t breaking my monthly goals up into smaller weekly goals, so I often got overwhelmed by everything I said I wanted to do and never actually did anything. This time, I’m going to create monthly goals and then each week break those down into weekly goals with daily tasks to help complete them. That way, at the end of the month I’m not looking back and kicking myself for not completing or making progress towards goals I had set for myself.

So with that being said, here we go with September.

• Slowing down: Recently, I’ve felt the need to rush. Let me rush through my inbox to get through all my emails, let me rush through a yoga practice so it can be said and done, let me rush through the grocery store because I hate grocery shopping. I’m rushing everywhere I go trying to cram as many things and events into one day and then at the end of the day I feel scatterbrained and only really accomplished one or two things. Some days, I actually feel out of breath, as if I’ve been literally running from one thing to the next. I haven’t, but in all my rushing and multitasking I’ve forgotten to be mindful of my breathing. Literally rushing, like if I’m running behind or am actually late, also just generally puts me in a shitty mood and there’s an easy solution to that problem- slow down. So for September, I’m going to focus on slowing down. This primarily means I’m going to focus on the task at hand or whatever I’m doing and not try and do five other things at the same time. I’ve been a proponent of multitasking for a long time, but it stresses me out, so I’m going to focus on one thing at a time. This will also help me be more productive.
• Track my time: To help with slowing down, I’m going to be tracking my time. For work, I use toggl to track how long I’m spending on certain projects. This can also be used in my actual life when I’m on my computer to track how long I’m spending doing various activities. I’ve also been looking for an app for my phone that would track how long I spend on my phone and track my app usage and just downloaded the Moment app today!
• Break up with the snooze button: I have been in a very serious, long-term relationship with the snooze button since high school and I just think we’re at different points in our lives now and we need to move on. I’m always saying “I was a psych major! I’ve read the studies, I know how bad the snooze button is for your body!” and the few days I do wake up without hitting snooze, I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER! This goal also leads to…
• Morning routines: The days I hit snooze 10 times and am subsequently running late are the days where my mornings start off rushing and I’m in five different places mentally at once. No more of this. Also no more waking up and immediately checking my email or social media. I want at least 30 minutes of journaling/yoga/meditation time before actually checking my phone.
• Get involved in Raleigh community: This means volunteering my time, attending networking events and getting out to some of the awesome festivals/conferences that are happening in Raleigh this month! I’m researching local nonprofits to see which ones I want to get involved with, so stay tuned for more about this!
• Eat actual meals: Aka stop eating crap and calling it “dinner.” No, my mother is a dietitian, I know what I should be eating. Also, stop skipping lunch.
• #yogaeverydamnday: I hate that my yoga practice has been slipping and I haven’t been as consistent. Doing yoga makes me feel 110% better, always. Even when I’m too tired or too sore from a previous practice. Even when it’s 6 am, I just need to get on my mat. This also applies for meditation. Yes, it’s hard. Yes, it gets frustrating. But yes, I feel better. So at least five minutes of meditation a day!

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Friends, help me stay accountable to this! Seriously, text/call/DM/tweet/comment to ask how I’ve been doing with these to help me stay on track! What are some of your September goals?