I have a goal to simplify my life and my possessions. And because I started this blog partially as a way to stay accountable to my goals, I’m going to share my monthly goals here.
Why set monthly goals?
A goal like “simplify” is incredibly, incomprehensibly vague. It’s unmeasurable and therefore kind of unhelpful. I’m still working on what a simpler life looks like for me. To be honest, I can’t paint a picture of my ideal life. But what I can do is describe a fulfilling day. For example, I would want to go for a walk in the morning, enjoy coffee and a pastry at a bakery, volunteer at a local park in the afternoon, and then spend my evening curled up on my sofa watching a new episode of an awesome show. Another example of a fulfilling day might be meeting up with a friend for a day trip to a nearby town or a long hike in the wilderness, taking our time, and getting home as the sun sets.
And while those are just a couple visions of a fulfilling day for me, some aspects tend to repeat across most of my “dream days.”
I want to spend more time with friends. I’d like to spend more time in my local community, and do something to give back to that community. I want to spend way less time plugged into the internet. I want to spend less money on acquiring stuff. I’ve got a long reading list that I’m barely making any headway on, despite reading 100 books last year. (The list keeps growing…) I want to learn new skills and try new things. These are all things I can work on, even if the rest of those routines come later.
So, here are four things I want to accomplish in the month of January:
1. Declutter 50 items.
If you’ve visited my blog before, you’ll probably know I just completed a major 30-day decluttering challenge. So I don’t want to take on a decluttering challenge that’s too demanding. But I was horrified, after decluttering 465 items, that every room looks virtually the same. It’s almost like I didn’t get rid of anything at all!
This will even out to about 1.6 items a day, so I think it’s manageable. Especially after the holidays, when I tend to receive some unexpected gifts, I think it’s a good time to declutter some items to make room for the new things that I received. And the post-holiday period is a great time to go through holiday decorations before you pack them up and put them in storage—get rid of anything you don’t need.
2. Do a day trip to a nearby town.
As part of my “explore my own community” goal, I will do a day trip somewhere nearby. It can be somewhere I’ve been before, as long as it’s been a while since I last visited.
3. Complete a 7-day digital detox.
Like many people, I use the internet as a crutch whenever I’m bored or stressed. In moments when I’m wondering what to do, I turn to YouTube. Waiting in line, I check my emails. Too often, I rely on para-social relationships with my favorite creators instead of reaching out to my real friends. None of this brings anything meaningful to my daily life.
Therefore, I want to try a week-long break from the internet to see if my days feel more productive and more meaningful. I’d like to know if I sleep better when I’m not streaming YouTube videos on my phone at night. I’d like to know if I make more progress on my actual goals, like reading and getting some exercise.
This challenge comes with one giant exception: work. I do have a full-time job that requires using the internet. But I will attempt to stay away from the internet for any personal reasons for the duration of this challenge.
4. Read In Praise of Slowness.
I admit there is such a thing as reading too many books instead of just doing the things you’ve already decided you want to do. However, I think books, like blogs and vlogs, play an important role in motivating me to accomplish my goals, even when I already know how to accomplish them.
In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honoré, I’ve heard, is kind of the original slow living book, published back in 2004. So I’ll be interested to see how much of what we now consider slow living comes from this book.
So there we go! Those are my 4 goals for January. 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?
