I want to simplify my life, and this blog is about my journey towards simple living. I started sharing my goals in January in the hopes that it would help me stick to them.
A goal like “simplify” is incredibly vague. I’m still working on what a simpler life looks like for me. But I hope these monthly goals will take me, little by little, closer to that idyll.
In January, I started with four goals, which was too ambitious. I failed one completely. For February, I dropped it to three, and I made the goals a little easier to meet. Because of that, I was able to succeed at all my goals.
I believe in goal-setting, but those goals must be achievable to be helpful. If I set too many goals, I just feel deflated when I can’t reach them all, and then I’m not motivated to achieve the next month’s goals. So if you take any inspiration from these posts, please don’t make your goals into burdens!
How Did I Do With Last Month’s Goals?
1. Do 1 thing on my to-do list for 10 days in a row.
Partial Success. I wanted to spend a little time dedicated to knocking out stuff on my to-do list. I did work through some items on my list—over 10 of them, in fact. But I didn’t do it in 10 days.
2. Unsubscribe challenge.
Success! The plan here was to unsubscribe from every email newsletter that I receive. Typically I just delete them because that’s faster. I did succeed in this, after a day or so when I kind of forgot this was a challenge this month. But after that, I was pretty diligent in unsubscribing.
3. Spend 24 hours off screens every Saturday to Sunday.
Partial Success. This challenge was to stay away from screens from noon on Saturday to noon on Sunday. I’ll rate this as a partial success because I succeeded for a couple of full mornings. The evenings were more of a challenge because I was too tired to read much more and ended up watching some streaming. But Sunday mornings were a success. I feel like I got more chores done and I felt more patient because time moved more slowly without the constant distractions.
My Goals for April
1. Walk every other day for 30 minutes without headphones.
This goes towards my unplugging goals—spending a little less time plugged into my devices. It might be too much to do a 30-minute walk every single day of the month, so I’ll make this an every-other-day challenge. I’ll be interested to see if this will make me feel more present during a walk, and whether the time spent outdoors and moving will improve my life in other ways.
2. Volunteer for Earth Month.
This is a goal to volunteer with an organization this month in some environment-related way. Volunteering at a local park is a great way to get some exercise, meet new people, and give back to the community. And I might even learn something new!
3. Review and Organize Paperwork.
I’ve got at least a file box’s worth of papers. Some are finance-related, others medical- or car-related. Some are just mementos and keepsakes from trips or friends. It’s not that I want (or can) throw it all out. But I’d like to organize it a little better and shred the documents I don’t need anymore.
As part of this challenge, I want to review all the places I have loose papers and make one single, organized home for them.
So there we go! Those are my 3 goals for April. I’ll report back on how these went and whether I think they contributed to simplifying my life.
Do you set monthly goals? Are any of them related to simplifying, starting new habits, or disengaging from your devices? Please share your tips!
