Quarterly Goals

{Sorry for the weird formatting on this post. I spent way too long trying to fix it before I gave up and just let it have random line breaks here and there.}
Goals, goals, goals. To set them? Not to set them. I’ve been unsure how to proceed.
Laura Vanderkam writes her goals out in quarters. I like this idea, as three months is a decent amount of time to get things done. This year, Ana decided to set her first quarter goals as well. I finally committed to approaching my goals that way last week, but I’ve struggled to get them down. The first two quarters were pretty easy, but I struggled with the second two, as six months from now feels so far away. I ended up drafting some for each quarter, but I’m totally open to reviewing and editing them as the year progresses. It should interesting to see if/how my goals change throughout the year.
I decided to look at goals in a couple of different areas of my life, which I know just creates more goals and therefore may defeat the purpose. I thought about making fewer goals, but in the end I decided to try for a lot of smaller goals in more areas of my life for a few reasons: (1) I really want to see that I actually achieved some of my goals this year, (2) I’m hoping that by categorizing my goals, I’ll see in which parts of my life I don’t dedicate the time and energy to meet my goals. Who knows, it may be insightful.
So without further ado, here are my quarterly goals for 2017 with notes about the first quarter.

Q1 (JAN-MAR)

Professional:

Write and teach “fútbol” chapter. This is for my 6th graders and will require a lot of work, but will hopefully be very rewarding.

Connect with two difficult students in each class. This is part of my attempts to be proactive about classroom management.

Personal:

Meditate 5-10min/day during work week. This is proving to be difficult – my son interrupts me most mornings! My new plan is to meditate in the evening if I don’t get it done before work.

Take Vitex every morning and Tumeric every night (make this a habit). The Vitex is to help ease the moodiness I’m experiencing during the second half of my cycle. The Tumeric is to combat shoulder pain (I re-injured my torn rotator cuff and the discomfort it just not going away. Blerg.)

Creative:
Draw pictures for “fútbol chapter.” This is hard for me, but I draw the pictures so I can hopefully sell my work after it’s all done.

 

House:

Find contractor and make appointment to look at water damage and talk about the possibility of pocket doors. We have avoided dealing with some water damage for a while and now it’s been raining all winter and the damage is, of course, much worse. We’re also going to look into pocket doors to separate our “bedroom” from the living room, mostly because we don’t expect to move downstairs anytime soon and we’re sick of not having any privacy (or at the very least quiet) in our bedroom.

Get heating ducts/furnace replaced. We just learned that all our heating ducts are insulated with asbestos. Awesome! The whole heating system needs to be removed and replaced. The good news is after it’s done we can get an automatic garage door! Of course we won’t have any money to do that after the water damage and heating system are dealt with.

Financial:

Track spending for 3 months. I’m not doing this very well yet. I really need to get on this bandwagon. I’m trying to avoid cash so I can go back and categorize it all, but I’m still slacking on this and it’s frustrating.

Only buy necessities. I’ve done well with this so far. I’ll write more about it soon.

Family:

30-60 minutes of quality time with each kid per week. I know my kids really appreciating having one-on-one time with me. I really want to work harder on making that happen.

Buy St. Louis tickets for summer. This needs to happen regardless, but it would be much better if I did it earlier in the year.

Marriage:

Hang out 2 times per week (put on calendar). This has been hit or miss. We’re still working out the kinks. The good news is my husband seems genuinely interested in figuring out how to make it happen. I appreciate that.

Friends:

Meet up with a friend one time per month. Keeping the bar low on this one. I better be able to manage that.

Q2 (APR-JUNE)

Professional: Apply for at least 2-3 jobs (even if I’m not really interested in them).
Prepare “fútbol” chapter for TeacherPayTeachers and post
Purge when I pack up my classroom (UGH!!!!)
Personal: Meditate 10-15 minutes a day
Creative: Morning pages during work week
House: Purge winter clothes before packing away
Purge kids’ toys
Financial: Review tracked spending

Make short- and long-term financial goals with husband and create action plan
Continue only buying necessities (daughter’s birthday?)
Family: Spend 10 minutes of QT with each kid 5 days a week.
Create list of city adventures to take with the kids during the summer
Plan San Diego trip
Marriage: Continue hanging out once during work week and once during weekend
Listen to the same podcast during week and discuss during hang out
Friends: Meet up with a friend 2 times per month

Q3 (JULY – SEPT)

Professional: ??? (Not sure what I’ll be doing at this point.)

Get Day of the Dead chapter ready and post on TpT
Personal: Meditate 15 minutes a day
Have list of at least 5 Spanish-speaking cities/countries I want to visit with kids
Train for a late summer half marathon?
Creative: Morning pages during work week
Make St. Louis photo book
Take photos with my Olympus once a week
House: Do ultimate “junk stuff” purge
Organize/clean/purge garage
Work on backyard (specific goal to be determined)
Financial: (Insert action items from Q2 discussion)
Continue only buying necessities
Family: Go on one city adventure a week (see Q2 goals)
Marriage: Go away for a long weekend
Friends: Meet up with a friend once a week
Visit a friend during the summer??

Q4 (OCT – DEC)

Professional: ??? (Not sure where I’ll be at this point)
Personal: Meditate 15 minutes per day

Add new strength training regimen
Creative: Re-read The Artist’s Way (or sequel)
Morning pages during work week
House: Purge summer clothes
Work on backyard (specific goal to be determined)
Financial: Continue only buying necessities (son’s birthday?)
Price out summer trip abroad
Family: Trip to Disneyland for son’s birthday?
Marriage: Read an article and talk about it every week
Friends: Continue meeting up with someone 2-3 a month
Do you have any goals or resolutions for the new year?

3 Comments

  1. Thank you. I think this is an impressive way to think positively and concretely about goals. You are being measurable too which helps. Most important: Please remember having a goal does not mean failure if it is not 100% achieved at the end of each quarter. Goals are for measuring progress towards an end point; goals are about stretching your self. If you could 100% achieve each goal with ease from day one, it would mean you set your goals too low. So be kind to you as well.
    Now I have to gather pen and paper and follow your example!

  2. I understood the idea of quarterly goals as doing one quarter at a time…so its more short term. You over-achiever you! I have no idea what my goals for the fall are going to be. I’m focusing on this winter. These are good goals, though, overall.

    1. LV wrote hers out for the year so I guess I was following her lead. But I’m already rethinking a few of them. 😉

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