I know, we're more than halfway through January 2020 already so this is KINDA LATE.
ANNOUNCING THIS YEAR'S WORD OF THE YEAR!
This year's word is intention.
I spent too much of last year automatically whizzing through things and not really remembering or being aware of a lot of things I was doing. I think if I continue this for too long, life will just whizz by me without me even noticing.
MY INTENTIONAL GOALS FOR THE YEAR
[1] Intentional Spending
The Problem: I've spent way too much just casually scrolling Amazon or Chapters or Yesstyle. Too much money was spent unplanned because of email offers I got in my inbox, leading to very scary credit card bills oops.
My spending intentions: My goal is to spend money in a more efficient way so I'm putting the money towards things I want (saving up for emergency fund, down payment, etc.) and the things I actually enjoy (e.g., trips to visit my bf, good food and fun experiences).
How I'm going to do it:
Journalling about all purchases that are not part of the planned budget & reflecting on whether it should be something I should add to my planned budget as a valuable expense OR whether I should recognize how I'm feeling/ what I'm doing/ where I am before I purchase the thing to see whether there are patterns that lead me to automatically spend
Biweekly check-ins on budget. I bank with 2 different banks and the statements are off sync so I get new statements to download/ enter in my budget every 2 weeks so it works perfectly :) It used to be monthly but I realized that was a long time.
GROCERY LISTS: I create grocery lists every week from the Food Basics flyers I get to my email. This helps me because too often I walk into the grocery store and just pile on whatever I feel like and it exceeds my budget. Having some sort of guideline helps me focus on making sure I get those Food Groups For My Brain Noodle Fuel first before packing in those treats
[2] Intentional Eating
The Problem: I eat when I'm bored. I eat when I'm stressed. I eat when I don't know what to do with myself. I eat when I'm sad. These are all unhealthy reasons for eating that don't get at what I'm trying to solve (e.g., boredom, stress, etc.)
My eating intentions: I think TOO OFTEN in the past I have tried to go on a restrictive diet as a way of "controlling" these urges but I think that's actually building INTO this habit of eating as a reward or eating as a vice to be allowed if I'm stressed. I intend to make sure I'm eating the planned meals a day and also when I'm hungry, but to distinguish that from eating as a coping mechanism for negative emotions.
How I'm going to do it:
If I'm eating outside of my planned times or meals, to check in on whether I'm eating because I'm hungry, or eating as a coping mechanism. If I'm eating because I'm sad or stressed or bored, I now have a list of alternate self-care activities to do instead. I might blog about this more in the future, but I realized that my coping strategies are usually based on 2 senses: EATING (taste) and WATCHING TV/YOUTUBE/SHOWS (visual), and that I forget about the calming activities I can do for TACTILE (shower, bath, stretch), AUDITORY (music), and SMELL (bath bombs, candles, baking).
Track my eating on cronometer 1x/ week. I settled on 1x a week because I don't want to overfocus on numbers every day, but I do notice that with grad school and life getting busy, that I forget that my brain needs nutrients and don't eat enough vegetables. Not having enough nutrients contributes to some of this tiredness too so knowing what kind of nutrients I need to eat more of (LOL usually vegetables or fruits tbh for them vitamins) allows me to more consciously plan and budget them into my next grocery list
Take on a not-restrictive stance. I think this is what distinguishes this from a diet. If I have a dessert and it actively makes me happy and I didn't choose to just eat it because I was unhappy and needed to fill the void, that's an experience I am enjoying and that is adding to my life.
[3] Intentional Time Use
The Problem: I say yes to a million things and feel overwhelmed and stressed, which I cope by procrastinating (watching tv) or eating, which takes up more of my budget which gets me more stressed about money so I take on more things to afford my #Lifestyle, which in turn means I am MORE OVERWHELMED. (Are you stressed reading this yet).
My time intentions: Really setting up time boundaries and being intentional about what I say yes to. Saying yes to one thing means saying no to other things (we all only have 24h). And I want to make sure that I'm saying yes to the things that align with my goals and values and no to the things that don't energize me.
How I'm going to do it:
I use calendar blocking to block out my time and learn how long it really takes me to complete things so that in the future, I can plan accordingly.
I also track my time by the hour to see what mostly takes up up my time. For each hour, I track what I spent most of that hour on, and how energized I felt that hour from that activity: energized (+), neutral ( ø ), and depleting (-). It helps me make sure that I say yes to more things that are energizing, and also to make sure that if there are depleting things I have to do, that I schedule enough buffer around it so I don't burn out.
I spend up to 30 minutes each day clearing out all emails to be added as tasks to my calendar. I decline anything that doesn't fit into my schedule over the next 2 weeks.
I do a weekly journal reflection on how I spend my time and whether they align with my goals this year. I reflect on what's working each week that I should celebrate, what's not working that I should abandon, and what I really wish I had spent time on so I make time the next week for these things.
THOSE ARE THE MAIN THREE THINGS!
I'll check back in throughout the year and see how things are going :)
Want to learn more?
Amy Landino's youtube video about how she uses calendar blocking
Placeholder for how I personally calendar block + integrate with excel + todoist
Placeholder for post I wanted to write about time boundaries