Saturday 4 January 2014

Kicking 2014 into order!

Hello everyone!
I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year.
I most certainly did. In fact I think it might have been the best I have had in years. It was lovely to spend quality time with family and my girls seem to now be reaching an age where they don’t have to argue about everything anymore!
As many of you know, I haven’t been blogging for a few weeks and looking back, I now realise that was the best thing for me to do. I definitely needed a blog break. I had got to the point where I didn’t want to read, let alone write about books. Thankfully after such a long break, I am feeling revitalised and I have nearly finished my second book of 2014.
I have also been very busy organising and planning for the future. I realise I still want to write, which I had doubts about all through December. So I have been busy planning and creating some awesome organisation and motivational material, which I want to share with you.
After scouring Pinterest, which has become rather addictive, I came up with the following motivational board, which in reality is more organisational than motivational, as I couldn’t print off the awesome sayings I also found on the site.
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This isn’t the clearest picture, so I will break it down with some close up ones. All it is, is a normal cork pin board.
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Firstly the pretty post-it notes all down the side. I bet you are wondering what they are. Well I’ve discovered that apparently it takes 21 days to form a habit and by keeping a note like this and taking off a number each day, I should form a habit by the end of the period. I have a lot of things that I would like to become a habit, but I am starting with just one – drinking seven glasses of water a day.  This might sound like a weird choice, but I very rarely drink water and my skin is really beginning to tell because of it, so with the help of this chart and reminders on my phone, I am hoping to gain this healthy habit by the 21st of Jan! This can also be used to break a habit too.
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So what else have I got on my board?
Well I am trying to keep a visual of all the books I read each month. So I have set myself a target to read 10 actual books as well as 5 Kindle books each month, which is less than I normally would read. However I really don’t want to have another reading slump again, so I am hoping by keeping a visual of my list I will be able to stick to it.
Below my reading targets, I have my January Goals; these have been broken down from yearly goals and include every area of my life. On the right hands side, next to my habit stickers, I have a numbered grid. Well these represent the miles I hope to walk this month. I am aiming to walk 150 miles, which may sound a lot, but as I have a dog and already walk 3 to 4 miles most days according to my pedometer, this really isn’t that hard a target to reach. If I do reach it, I will increase it next month. At the end of the day, I just cross off the miles walked so I can see how many I have left.
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On the left hand side of my board, I have a month plan of January which has each day broken down into 3. This is where I will record my writing each day. I hope to write 1000 words of my new project, edit one chapter of my children’s book and spend 15 minutes planning out another idea. I know it sounds mad having more than one project on the go, but it works better for me, than just concentrating on one. And that doesn’t mean I just do this and nothing else; this is the minimum I hope to achieve each day.
Below that, I have my weight loss chart, showing how much I plan to lose by Summer. I haven’t been very good over Christmas at all, and everything is feeling tight, so it is back to the drawing board for my diet plans for the year.
Now you would think that would be enough creativity for one day. Well it was, until I decided to make a weekly goal chart too.
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I saw this idea on Cornflower Blue Studio, via Pinterest and thought it was  a great way of keeping the goals I really needed to do that week in focus. When they are done, I can just peel them off and put another one up.
So as you can see I am raring to go. Alongside tidying my shared office completely, I have the space as well as the motivation to make 2014 a more productive year.
Tomorrow I hope to list my reading resolutions for the year before I start the reviews back on Monday. I look forward to jumping into 2014 with you all.

7 comments:

  1. SO awesome!!! You have inspired me to make a motivational board of my own :)

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    1. Yay! That is what I want to hear Molly! I want to see others joining in with me. I can't wait to see it. Send me a link when you post about it.

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  2. Awesome ways to organize your month and week. I especially love your monthly chart. I think I need one too :)

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  3. Oh Viv, you've gone and ruined me. I wasn't planning to set a single goal this year (my new year's resolution was 'no goals'!)...but this is just too fun not to try! I have three empty pinboards on the wall that could do with prettying up a bit ;-) Good luck x

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  4. Good luck with the motivational board - it looks awesome!

    And welcome back :D

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Hiya, thanks for stopping by, it is always nice to hear what you have to say, so do leave a comment if you have time.