Quarterly Goals: First Quarter 2020

I know this is when most people are talking about their resolutions for the new year. However, resolutions have never worked for me. I get overwhelmed with the thought of trying to make all those changes at one time, and I never make it past week four.

For me, starting slow with some easy things, making those habits, and then adding to them works far better. So I found where I wanted to be at the end of 2020, and then I broke down the steps I would need to take in order to get there into workable goals.

It takes me a fairly long time to establish something as part of my routine, so I have made these quarterly goals. I will come back at the end of each quarter, tell you how I did and list my new goals.

First Quarter Goals
​

1. Make a habit of exercising at least three times a week.

The typical treatment recommended for burnout, especially autistic burnout it seems, is a lot of time off for complete and total rest. This is an unattainable privilege for the vast majority of us, and I know it is for me. Bills and parenthood pause for no one, after all. Even if taking this sort of rest were possible for me, I find sitting around doing nothing is a stressor, so it would be counterproductive in my case.

In the absence of prolonged, complete rest, the next best thing is to start by focusing on self-care. Between my commute, work schedule, and the amount of sleep I need to be functional, I had maybe an hour and a half in the morning and an hour and a half to two hours in the evening for everything I needed to do. Can you guess one of the first things to be cut in this time crunch?

The number of times I have managed even a cursory workout in the past year is probably under fifty. There simply wasn’t time to get all sweaty and gross because then I would never manage to get cleaned up in time for work. And working out after work wasn’t an option because by the time I got home and did the work out, I’d be so keyed up, I wouldn’t be able to get to sleep before midnight. 

When your alarm goes off at 4 a.m., that’s way too late.

Now, a year and some months later, I am in desperate need of getting back into an exercise routine. Over the past several decades, I have noticed the things that stick are the things in my usual routine. I’ve also noticed, it takes time for a routine to be established. If I relax on it too soon, I revert back to former habits. So for the next three months, I will make it a point to fit in at least three workouts a week, at the same time on the same days.


2. Make writing a daily habit again.

I tried to stay in the habit of writing while working full-time, but I failed. I had already gotten out of the fiction writing habit early in 2017. So trying to get into the fiction writing  mindset usually took so long, by the time I did, I only had five minutes left of my lunch break. Needless to say, I didn’t get anywhere fast.

Discounting stuff written for work or in applying for other jobs, I think I might have written about 6000 words in 2019 before beginning to work on this blog again.

Writing isn’t just a hobby for me. I’ve never made enough from it to consider it an occupation as of yet, though that is a dream. It’s a passion, a way for me to work through things, and a creative outlet rolled into one. This makes it an integral part of recovery for me, so I have set aside an hour a day to try and get back into the habit.


3. Get back to regular meal planning.


With the combination of the fact C.L. was working part-time with an extremely early shift and how very late I was getting home, it was only natural for him to take over the grocery shopping and cooking. He can do pretty well, but his focus was set on homeschooling the girls and managing his classes to the best of his ability. Running errands and cooking was pretty low on his priority list, so quick meals requiring minimal prep became the norm.

​You know how those tend to stack up on nutritional factors.

So focusing on getting us back to a healthier way of eating is another means of self-care not only for me but the family as a whole. Considering C.L. and I now both have full-time jobs working from home and mean to continue homeschooling our daughters means we have to be time conscious in the extreme. So meal planning is going to be a must.

With proper planning and time on the weekend dedicated to making the weekly grocery run and meal prep, it should be doable. Then during the week, meals will just need to be reheated. This will allow us to hold classes before work, focus on our new jobs, and then answer questions or help with schoolwork during lunch breaks and in the evening after work.

4. Completely restock Contented Comfort, including updated product photos.

This is likely to be the hardest of these goals to meet this quarter, but if I have any hope of salvaging the company, it is necessary. As another creative outlet and passion, perfumery and soaping is something I feel will be helpful in recovering from burnout, if done right.

Over the past year I haven’t had much time around work, and I have been kind of afraid to take time off. So there was little to no restocking done for Contented Comfort. Because of this and selling at Nerdy Noel last month, stock has gotten rather low.

Just substitute build a creative career in place of have a social life.

I took as many vacation days as I could at the end of December, and I set my start date for the 6th to give myself time to do a few different things. First, I have been spending several hours a day decluttering, organizing, and deep cleaning the whole house as an end of year reset of sorts. I have been getting back into the swing of schooling the girls for the subjects I have taken. Finally, I dedicated a couple hours a day to making two or three batches of soap to start this project. I will continue this until I start my new job.

After that, I will really only have time on the weekends. But, if I have made some good headway, it should be doable.

There you have them. I have four goals for this first quarter of the year, and I will build on them to create the changes in my life I want to see in this new decade.

What goals do you have for 2020?