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90 Day Sprint – Day 4 Monthly Goals

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Y’all, I told you I had a lot of goals! In addition to those one time goals and daily habits, I have somethings I want to do each month. Sometimes these goals intersect – such as the monthly goal to do all 18 cleaning tasks on my list and the daily goal to clean one thing. It helps me not feel behind the last weekend of the month when I don’t have time to do ALL the cleaning.

Another example is each month I want to complete a puzzle, but I’m not really fussed about which puzzle and when it gets done.

At the end of this 90 day sprint, I want to have 800 hexagons completed, which ties into my goal of riding the bike every day since I can baste and sew hexagons while I ride. Which ties into my monthly goal of completing a quilt top OR 2 smaller projects such as a pillow or table runner. Trust me, I have 4 or 5 quilts in the works and many more small projects.

I also want to meet my savings goal so I can stay on track by the end of the year to reach my overall goal. For me this means putting aside $500/month into my dedicated savings accounts. I’ve reached 60% of my goal so far in 2025 so this should be an easier goal to reach.

When it comes to these monthly goals, if I don’t have a connected daily goal, I need to be sure to add things to my calendar.

90 day sprint – Day 3 One Time Tasks

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In addition to my all the daily tasks which I am attempting to make consistent habits, I also decided to work on 8 one time tasks which just need to get done the next 3 months.

For example, I want to find a local quilt guild so a one time task is to attend a quilt guild once. This means doing some research on local groups, confirming meeting times and choosing one to attend. I’m also leaving it open so if I find a virtual meeting I’d like to attend, I’ll do that.  

Sometimes what we can do in a given timeframe is out of our control. Maybe you’re looking for a new job, wanting to fall in love, or dealing with contractors. Reaching your goal is very dependent on one or more other people taking action. So the way I deal with that is to make the goal what I can control, for example I want to book a particular medical appointment. Because I can’t predict their scheduling, I won’t make this task to have the appointment, but to schedule it. 

There’s one task on my list which I need to do as a “one time” task but it won’t mean I never need to do it again. That, for me, is fully backing up my new computer. I may even keep this on my list every quarter so it gets done often enough that if I have a computer failure, I don’t lose everything.

You might be able to tell that I have a lot of ideas and projects I want to do, there are potentially hundreds of things I could have added from the very easy (recycle metal in the yard) to the epic (reroof the house and paint the garage). So in order to keep my ideas organized, another one time task is to begin my Future Me list to capture these ideas for upcoming sprints.

If you have a one time task you need to tackle, I’d love to know in the comment, if you’re a scammer, please don’t bother. Remove all spam comments from blog is a one time task I don’t need to add in the future.

90 Day Sprint – Day 2 Daily Habits

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As I described yesterday, I am taking 90 days to work on a variety of goals, in what I call widespread mode.

For me those 90 days will be July 1-Sept 30, which is technically 92 days so I’ll be skipping Labor Day and 4th of July. I have a lot of goals so let’s begin with my daily tasks because on July 1st I deleted all my Productive goals to do a nice reset.

While these are all technically personal goals here’s how to break them out…

Personal self-care:

  1. Floss
  2. Double cleanse face
  3. Take vitamins
  4. Use lotion

Personal space care:

  1. Do all dishes
  2. Clean litter box
  3. One cleaning task

Personal mental care:

  1. No social media before 9am
  2. Reach out to a friend
  3. Publish something

Personal physical care:

  1. 20 minute walk
  2. Average 5,000 daily steps
  3. In bed by 10pm

Just a reminder that my goal is not to be perfect in all these goals all the time but to increase consistency over time. Some of these I’m rather good at, I regularly take my vitamins, floss and wash my face (though I want to return to double cleansing). I’m sort of middling at finishing all the dishes before bed, getting in all the steps and cleaning the litter box daily. New tasks include a daily cleaning job, no social media and a dedicated 20 minute walk.

Remind me later how silly it seemed to incorporate a walk in the height of summer out there.

90 Day Sprint – Day 1 The Challenge

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If you’ve been around the personal development space at ALL you’ve probably heard of the 90 day year, 3 month sprints, challenges and more which are all designed to completely and totally transform your life in a single season. 

I’m not here to help you get six pack abs or run a marathon, there are approximately 83 million of those videos on YouTube.

I’m also not going to promise or pretend that we can become different people in quarter of a year – real change is slow and often boring BUT is also more lasting than fads. 

So I’m going to begin documenting here what I’m doing for a personal challenge here for the next 90 days and I want to encourage you to play along. In a minute we’ll get into some guidelines but first, why am I doing this? I’ve spent the last 20ish years in self-development spaces – years ago that was blogs, then tele-seminars, webinars, podcasts, vlogs, social media channels, and too many courses for any one person. 

In that time I also built my own successful consulting business and worked behind the scenes of a LOT of creators and it was an eye-opening experience! 

If you’re interested in the stats, I’m currently 40 years old, I live and work in Kansas, I am single (and happy about it!) and have a dog and a couple cats. Life is good! I own a 100 year old home which I’m slowly renovating, I like to garden when the bugs are not eating me alive and I have a full time job which I enjoy most of the time.

And you might be thinking similarly, my life is pretty good, what needs to change? 

We all have areas which are not as good as we think they could be, bad habits we want to break or good habits we want to adopt. If you’d like to participate, now is a good time to pause and brainstorm what would be awesome to have in your life 90 days from now. Don’t filter yourself, just make the list and then keep reading to get to the next step. 

There are two ways you could go about the next 90 days: focus mode or widespread progress.

Here’s how I think of focus mode: my dad restores antique cars as a hobby and he has this friend who will pick up a project car and get obsessed about it. He’ll turn down invites to tours and meetings and vacation just to finish this car. All of his time and effort goes into that vehicle until it’s done. Then he’ll happy go to the tours in the car and really enjoy it. My dad, who is working on 4-6 cars at once thinks this is crazy. But it works for his friend! He doesn’t do anything else but that ONE project until it’s complete. 

If you look over your list and a bunch of the things make you go “eh, I guess” but one or two stand out as YES that’s the one, then focus mode may be best for you. 

The second option is widespread progress and this is for the person who looks at a list and wants to do ALL the things ALL at once. The idea of focusing on saving money while not decluttering or being more social while also not getting in more steps in is insane. If that’s you go for widespread progress.

For awhile now I’ve been doing widespread progress on a lot of goals and I begin with the App “Productive” – it’s free to download and allows you to set your own daily goals. I add 10-15 goals and every day I check off the ones I’ve done. Then every month I track how many goals I accomplished per day. 

Right now my current goals are: 

  1. Walk 4,000 steps
  2. Floss my teeth
  3. Scoop the cat litter box
  4. Make my bed
  5. Do all the dishes before I go to bed
  6. Journal
  7. Publish online (blog, newsletter, video) 
  8. Cleanse my face
  9. Reach out to a friend
  10. Use lotion
  11. Get in bed by 10pm

If I notice that a goal is not as relevant or important to me, I’ll remove it. 

If a habit is so firmly set that it’s routine, I may remove it from Productive because I don’t need the reminder (this happened with meditation because I have a streak of 7+ years). 

Now, for some of you this might feel SUPER tedious and overwhelming so let me describe the focus mode.

In focus mode, you’re going to be like my dad’s friend on the car. You know what you want the end goal to be and work relentlessly toward that end without many distractions. Now, you’re not going to quit your job or ignore your kids for 3 months, but all your free time is going to be focused on this project. 

The benefit here is that there’s an end date, you’re not going to be revamping your closet *forever* nor would you spend eternity learning to knit. 

How you view success here is important, in widespread progress you want to see yourself doing more of the positive things or less of the negative things over time. If you’re in focus mode you want to be done or nearly done with a project OR have established the consistent habit at the end of 90 days. 

There’s no one way to do things so pick the method that works best for you and, if you choose more than 2 goals, you’re in widespread mode. Just go with it. 

So with all that said, what am I going to be doing over the next 90 days? Well, I’m clearing out my productive and setting some new goals. I’ve learned over time not to be precious about my streaks, and the midpoint of the year is a good time to note records and cleanse it all in favor of new habits. Next up I’ll share my new goals so come back to check that out soon.

Planning a Trip

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I’m planning an upcoming trip and it’s maybe my favorite thing to research, plan and organize my thoughts.

I usually create a note in my phone’s Notes App and then organize those by year so I can look back on previous trips. Sometimes I’m returning to a city I’ve been to a few times before, like Tulsa, and I like to peruse old notes to see what I didn’t get to visit last time.

What goes into the notes? I might look up restaurants that look interesting, then explore their menu. If they’re open during the days/hours I’ll be visiting, I add them to the Note with hours and address included.

If I’m not pre-booking a hotel then I’ll list out a few options and why I short-listed them (pool, hot tub, gym on site, etc).

Then there’s the hobbies. When I travel I like to visit local quilt shops but they’re not easiest to find so pre-planning is important. I may also look at local bookstores, antique shops or small businesses that I want to check out. It helps to know what opening hours are so I don’t plan a whole day around visiting stores that are closed on Monday.

While I don’t need to write down driving directions, I might note distances between cities so I have an idea of how much of my day will be on the road. When I went from Kansas to Arizona a few years ago it was really helpful to see what I could fit in based on arriving at my hotel at 5pm or 10:30pm. Some days I planned to leave early so I could do some sightseeing or shopping midday to break up a long drive.

Finally, in the notes I’ll make a packing list of the things I want to bring with me or what I need to do before I leave. For example, I may want to put ice chests in my car for the drive or I may need to remember to pack a gift, a donation or a jacket for the weather. While I always charge electronics the night before, I may also need to clear files off my camera’s SD card or download a new ebook for the drive.

Planning a trip is second only to going on the trip and having a great time.

Snow Day Luxuries

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I currently live in Southeast Kanas and we received a small heaping of snow over the weekend. While some nearby cities are buried in feet of snow, we’re dealing with an inch of powder and ice that covers most everything.

It’s really beautiful, but a pain in the butt to be outside. Since my 8am meeting was cancelled, here are my favorite snow day luxuries to enjoy:

  • Snuggles with the puppy, especially after he bravely goes outside to pee and has cold feet.
  • A hot coffee or chocolate in front of the fire place.
  • Sitting in my most comfortable chair with a few big blankets and journaling.
  • Reading a book and being grateful for the heat and power.
  • A long, hot bath with bubbles.
  • Using the good lotion to keep skin hydrated.
  • New windows which keep the drafts out and warmth in.

Now that so many people work from home, it’s easier than ever to power through and work work work, even on a snow day. Compromise by taking at least an hour to yourself to enjoy being out of the bad weather and relaxing.

Tonight when I go to bed I will layer up my quilts and cover them with a cheap throw (because puppy isn’t fully housebroken yet!) and then snuggle in to sleep filled with appreciation.

I’ve never been homeless but I have lived through rough winters with no heat, broken windows and negative temps. It has gotten so cold in my home that the Keurig stopped working and the olive oil froze solid. Now I try to remember and appreciate how far I’ve come and the warmth, always the warmth.