A few years back, I began writing monthly to-do lists to help me keep track of what’s on my plate. I share these lists here, and report back each month on what I was able to accomplish.
My January list focused on launching into some of my 2023 annual goals. Here’s what I was able to get done in the last month:
- Listened to five podcast episodes. One of my 2023 goals is to listen to more podcast episodes each month, so I wanted to make sure that I kicked this off in the first month of the new year. This month, I decided to catch up the outstanding episodes I hadn’t listened to yet from Literary Disco.
- Scheduled my summer vacation time. I’m pretty bad at taking extended vacation time (which is why I made it an annual goal!), so I marked a couple of weeks on my summer calendar so that they won’t fill up with meetings. I’m not sure which one will be the best to take off, so I’ll hold both until the dates get a little closer.
- Got a haircut. Since I have longer hair now, I usually only get haircuts ever 4–5 months or so, and it feels so good each time I get a trim. I’ve found a salon close to my house that has evening appointments, so that makes it even easier to fit this task into a busy schedule.
- Cut back on sugar. If I’m honest, I feel like this is a work in progress. I’ve cut back a little, but probably not as much as I should. I’ll continue to keep an eye on this in February as well.
January always passes very slowly for me, but I was glad to kick off my annual goals in this past month. Now it’s time to plan for a new month of to-do items! I’m ready to launch into February and see what this next month with bring.
Here are some of the items on my February to-do list:
- Submit a conference talk proposal. I was asked to be an invited speaker at a conference in April and I need to put together my proposed title and talk description early in February. I have a couple ideas for what could be a good fit and I’m looking forward to getting feedback from the conference organizers.
- Complete a library book challenge. I have so many books out from the library right now both in physical and digital forms. I decided to focus on reading through these piles in February so that I can get as many off of my to-be-read stack as possible before they are due back.
- Journal more regularly. For years, I had a daily journaling practice, but that has been harder for me to maintain over the last couple of months. I’d love to get back to more regular journaling in Q1 so that I have that habit in place for the rest of the year.
- Listen to a Taylor Swift album. I listened to the first album from Taylor Swift in January (self titled Taylor Swift from 2006), and I need to keep up with this annual goal in February since there are 11 albums left to go. Next up is Fearless from 2008.
Once again, this next month is looking pretty full! What are you looking forward to in the month of February?
