Planned Preoccupation PSA

A new job, a new city, a new diet, meeting new people… I have to do lists, alarms, peer-accountability and tracking apps for days. I’m exhausted from living up to my own expectations. So I’ve decided to take a no-tracking-weekend. I’m taking off my Fitbit, silencing my phone, and enjoying myself.

This is going to cause me to break my Friday Friends and Metabolism Monday streaks, but these habits and my blog are supposed to help me reach my goals, not stress me out so much that my hard work becomes counterproductive.

Hopefully, on Monday I will be reenergized and can evaluate my goals with a fresh perspective. Until then, I will delight in my adventures first hand!

Spanish Saturday – The End

DuolingoOwlAccording to Doulingo I am now 35% fluent in Spanish! I have also earned enough Lingots to give my owl some sweet new digs! The rest of my action plan has not fared so well…

Action Plan Progress:

  • DONE – 70/66 days of practicing Spanish
  • 0/1 Pimsleur Spanish audio-book completed
  • DONE – 2/2 Spanish movies watched
  • 6/10 Spanish children’s books read
  • DONE – 3/1 Spanish podcasts reviewed
  • 0/1 Spanish meet ups attended

Grade: F

Incentive: I have NOT earned my News in Slow subscription yet.

Lessons Learned: I am still learning that summer is a rough time for personal development. I am proud of the progress I have made, and love the Duolingo app on my phone. But I do know that I could have done much better. Rather than focusing on my lack of progress I am going to redouble my efforts and continue improving my Spanish language skills.

One Month Goals: Complete the rest of my existing action plan!

Any words of encouragement are certainly welcome in the comments I as I work to achieve my goals!

Discarding Drill: Books & Papers

I have just completed Phase 3 of the KonMari method, and am thoroughly exhausted. I failed to leave myself enough time to complete two phases of this project and write a proper blog post about it. I also took out my frustration on Clayton, which was unfair. Even though I am technically still on track with my action plan, I am calling this week a fail. The purpose of taking on this task/habit was to try and avoid the chaos moving brings, but it is as stressful as ever.

Please enjoy this photo series on our progress in lieu of an actual post…

BooksEverywhere
Books, books everywhere!
BooksPiled
Book Pile
DiscardedBooks
Books to discard
PaperPile
Paper Pile
PaperAfter
Paper After

Lessons Learned: Planning a Give Away

Pro tip: Test out your brilliant blog ideas before you share them with the world.

So a funny thing happened to me on my way to the Stats page today. My Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life post has garnered 32 views and 21 shares on Facebook. That surpassed all of my expectations, so I was excited to start compiling my list of people for the drawing. I am fairly tech savvy, but I couldn’t figure out how to see the names of the people that shared the post on Facebook. Imagine my horror when I googled “people who shared my wordpress blog,” and found out 30 seconds later that you cannot, in fact, get to that information.

As I skimmed through the forums I realized I’m not the first person to make this assumption, and I probably won’t be the last. Some of the tips said to just pick someone at random without acknowledging the error, but this blog is all about personal growth and learning so I think it’s important to share my failures too.

Apology time for all the people who have already taken the time to share my blog post with their friends. Sorry! I really appreciate your time and effort, and I am sure you are excited for a chance to win the book. I am going to amend my previous post and ask that anyone who has shared it to please leave their name in the comments. This seems like the best way to make sure I can still do a drawing.

If you have a problem with this alternate method of selection, please leave a comment below and you will still be entered into the drawing. 🙂 The winner will be announced on Wednesday.

Hopefully, we’ve all learned something from this. The next time I try to give something, I will be sure to test out my method of award.

“Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”
L.M. Montgomery