Hello, lovelies! We are officially halfway through 2020. I don’t know about you, but the majority of the goals I set at the beginning of the year have changed and I really needed to re-evaluate what I’ll be able to do for the rest of the year.
Right now, my family is completely quarantined at home. We’ve taken this social distancing very seriously. Hopefully, my grandparents will be okay and we can convince them to come back to the U.S. and have them quarantine downstairs for 2-weeks, but that’s all up in the air right now. I plan to start working again online next month and I’ve already applied for an online grad school program. Hopefully, I’ll get in and I’ll have something productive to do for the rest of the year. I’ll go into my plans later.
Basically, I spent a few hours journaling the other day, going through some of the beginning-of-the-year prompts in my goal planner, and figuring out what I want to do for the rest of the year. It honestly helped a lot and I hope that it helps you.
March 2020 Goal Update – How Coronavirus Completely Derailed My Senior Year/Post-grad Plans + Deciding What To do Next (2020 Goals Update)
//Mid-Year Refresh//
//Tie Up Any Loose Ends/Final Tasks From The First Half Of The Year
I don’t know about you, but I can’t refocus and start new projects without tying any loose ends first. Before I could start re-evaluating my life, I needed to finish an online training program I was doing and edit the second part of my Harry Potter Marathon blog post. Those were pretty much my top tasks earlier this week, and then I was finally able to start planning for the rest of the year without other tasks nagging my brain.
//Take Out A Sheet Of Paper & Write Out Your Original 2020 Goals
Actually take out a sheet of paper. I mean it. Writing things out in a notebook is much more affirming than figuring things out in your head. Things are less likely to get lost on paper.
Now write out your original 2020 goals. Which ones have you completed? Which ones are impossible right now? And which ones do you no longer care about?
My Original 2020 Goals:
- Get a Job (In My Field) – I can’t leave my house. I also plan on working with children with disabilities, who would likely be immunocompromised, so I don’t want to put them at risk either. I’m not worried (yet) about not being able to find a job once this is over, but not having a paycheck isn’t the best situation to be in. I took the GRE and applied to graduate school last minute, and hopefully that pans out. Right now, I’m not worrying about it.
- Pay Off Student Loans – I don’t have a lot of student loans, so it’s still possible for me to complete this. If they extend the grace period, I may wait until next year because I would rather put any extra income I come by into savings.
- Travel to South America – Yeah…this ain’t happening. In March, I had some hope that I could postpone this trip to the end of the year, but I’m not gonna be able to leave the country again for awhile. This kills me a little bit because there was supposed to be so much travel in the next few years of my life, but I’m reminding myself that one or two years is small in the grand scheme of life. (It’s better to survive now and live longer later.)
- Graduate from College – Complete. I actually got my diploma in the mail yesterday, which was cool.
- Take a Workout Class 4-5 Days Per Week – I was doing this at the beginning of the year, but I struggled to create an effective workout routine at home. I think I’ve figured something out now.
- Write Something Fiction – This was a hobby-goal that I wanted to do for fun. I don’t feel an itch to write anything fiction right now. I’ve replaced this with learning to draw and paint during quarantine. That’s been a fun activity recently, so I got rid of my writing goal for now.
- Post On Blog Every Tuesday – God no! I have published enough posts for this once a week deadline, but I did not post them on consistent dates. I officially give up on this goal. I’ll try to publish once a week and won’t put pressure on myself. I also just haven’t felt the urge to blog these past few months with everything going on. I’m slowly getting that urge back. (Watch me actually start posting every Tuesday now that it isn’t a goal)
- Finish Unread Books On Bookshelf – I’ve been making progress on this. I only have nine unread books left on my bookshelf, which I’m sure I can finish by the end of the year. I’m kind of excited about only rereading physical books after that (I get audiobooks from the library). It’ll be fun.
//Make A T-Chart. On One Side, Write Out The Good Things You’ve Done During Quarantine, And On the Other Side, Write Out The Challenges
Quarantine has been a mixed bag for me. My sleep schedule is completely off and I haven’t been the most productive human, but I’ve also learned to cook Bengali food without help (One of my general post-grad goals) and am pursuing a lot of fun hobbies. I haven’t felt socially isolated because I talk to my friends and extended family every week. Writing out the good and bad things from the past few months really helped me establish the habits I want to keep and the things I want to change. Here are some of the things I wrote.
Good Things During Quarantine:
- Making time for hobbies (water coloring, reading, cooking, Sudoku puzzles, collaging, etc.)
- Calling & Video-chatting with friends and family regularly
- Figured out a system for online college classes
- Learned to cook Bengali food
- Watched new movies
- Social media boundaries
- Decorating my room
- Taking long drives
- Buying things that have brought me joy (I haven’t overdone it, but I’m a very frugal person and buying little things is not a habit of mine,)
- Easing into my day
- Life’s simple pleasures
- A surprising amount of calmness about life not moving forward
Challenges During Quarantine:
- Inconsistent sleep schedule
- Inconsistent workout routine
- I haven’t been blogging
- There are days that pass me by
- Avoiding work
- Waiting till the last minute on grad school applications
- Not showering every day
- My room is very cluttered now that I’ve unpacked all my college stuff (I have two of a lot of items now)
- I am not making money
- Still being late to things
//Journal About What Your Ideal Quarantine Would Look Like For The Next 6 Months
After that, I started journaling about what my ideal quarantine would look like. I was realistic about it of course and know that I can’t reach that ideal every day, but writing out what a good day would look like for me helped a lot. Here are some prompts:
- What do you want to do?
- What would you have time for?
- Who would you call or spend time with?
- Write out your ideal daily routine. How would you spend your mornings, days, and evenings?
- What habits would you practice every day?
- How would you feel?
I used that to help me establish my goals.
//Brain Dump All Your Goals Ideas For The Rest Of The Year
Brain dumps are the best. It’s amazing what writing out all the thoughts in your head without feeling the need to organize them can do. I started writing out financial goals, career related tasks, daily habits I wanted to start, etc. Writing that long bulleted list helped me get all of my immediate ambitions in one place.
//Find Common Threads Among Your Brain Dump
Connect the items that relate to each other. Find the things that popped up again and again. I had a bunch of routine oriented things about reading and working out.I had a lot of different financial goals about saving and investing. Even things like “Inbox Zero” and “Trying On All My Clothes/Extreme Declutter” related together. Doing this showed me what I want to prioritize for the rest of the year.
//Write Out Things You Want To Do “More” of and “Less” of During Quarantine
I made another T-Chart and wrote out the things I wanted to change based on the last list I made. Here are some of the things I wrote:
Less:
- Avoiding my to-do list
- Feeling like I’m crazy for doing the smart thing (wearing a mask/social distancing) or for being upset that people didn’t know about the trending problems that have been occurring for years (Yemen, Bangladeshi garment workers, BLM, etc.)
- Taking breaks in the middle of my workouts
- Waking up late
- Not tracking my expenses
- Invalidation of my opinions
- Putting things off because of discomfort
More:
- A balanced routine
- Learning new things
- Enjoying myself during quarantine
- Spending time with family
- Dancing
- Blogging for fun
- Working/Saving Money
- Taking Pictures
- Planning for the future
- Not feeling guilty about “doing nothing”
- Reading books without pressure
- Resting
//Use This To Update Or Set Your Mid-Year Goals
And that’s pretty much it. At this point, if you’ve been going through all the prompts, you’ll have an idea of what your goals are. Write ’em out and start putting in the work to accomplish them.
Now, onto my new 2020 goals!
//My New 2020 Goals//
//Prepare For Life After Quarantine
Back when we thought this would only last a few weeks/months, it was easy to put life on pause for a little bit. That’s not going to work anymore. I’m a planner by nature, but no one has a contingency plan for this. Even though I don’t know when this will be over, I have an idea of what I want to do. Right now, that just means a lot of career prep stuff. Graduate school is a part of this goal if I get in, but there are other parts to it to. I need to save money to move out and pay off my student loans. I can practice cooking more and pursue other hobbies. I can write cover letters and fill out applications to send in later. This is a very general overarching goal that embodies a lot of possibilities.
//Get A Job Where You Can Work Online
My plan is to start working next month. Georgia’s cases are skyrocketing, so I don’t want to risk myself or my family by becoming an essential worker. I’m in a very privileged position right now in that I’ll be fine if I don’t have an income for awhile, but I still want to start finding online work.
//Completely Declutter My Bedroom
My room is pretty clean, but there’s still a lot of stuff that I can get rid of. I don’t buy a lot of clothes, but I don’t get rid of much either because my style hasn’t changed that much since high school, most of my clothes still fit, and I usually repair the clothes that have tears in them. Because of that, my drawers are very full. I need to do a real purge of all my clothes. I’m just going to try on everything I own and put the things that I don’t wear as often anymore in a trash bag to donate later.
I also don’t have a proper bookshelf in my bedroom, so there are books piled on top of each other. I did declutter my bookshelf and put them in the bookshelves downstairs (after they fell on top of me one too many times), but I can stand to take a few out of my room. I also wear the same jewelry every day but can’t find any of it. I packed them when we went to Michigan and Canada earlier this year, so I know where to look.
Overall, my room is clean and manageable, but I really need to go through everything again to organize it.
//Get Financial Life Together
This is another very general goal. I have a list of things I would like to do by the end of the year that are very tentative. Things like, saving money for the future, learning about investing, my retirement account, etc. All of this depends on whether or not I find a job.
//Create A Balanced Routine At Home
I’ve been going through bouts of extreme productivity to watching YouTube all day. I need to consistently do both. There have definitely been some days where I spend my time getting things done while enjoying my breaks, but I need that to happen more often. Realistically, I can get one or two big tasks done each day without it consuming all of my time. I also want to read every day and have a consistent workout routine, which brings me to my next goal:
//Work Out For 30-Minutes Every Day
I’ve realized that one of the biggest reasons I haven’t been able to have a consistent workout routine is that I keep expecting myself to either work out the way I did before or not at all. I realistically cannot work out for an hour straight without being interrupted and I don’t have access to a gym like I used to. I don’t have a weight goal when it comes to exercising. I just want to do it consistently because it makes me feel more energized. Anna Akana described this perfectly in her last video: “exercising for emotional regulation.” Working out is very much a self-care thing for me and I can realistically exercise for 30-minutes every day without it feeling time consuming. It doesn’t matter what I do. I could lift weights, do a YouTube video, dance, etc. I just need to move my body for half an hour.
//Organize & Update Blog
There are so many outdated things on this blog. I don’t even want to think about how inaccurate my current “About Me” page is. There are just a bunch of design elements that I would like to update in the next few months and I really want to re-organize my blog menu. I can get this done by the end of the year.
//Finish Unread Books On Bookshelf
This is the only goal that hasn’t shifted since the beginning of the year, which truly shows how consistent books are in our lives. (She says as J.K. Rowling taints the Harry Potter fandom forever where you can never read or talk about it the same way again without people judging you).
Well, that’s it for now. I think July is going to be a good month barring any devastations that may happen. I used my goal planner from Cultivate What Matters for some of these journal prompts, so you can read more on their blog.
Funny story, I looked at what I wrote in December about “What will matter to me when I’m 80” and I straight up wrote “surviving the apocalypse” between having a home library and having a good relationship with my extended family. I guess manifestation isn’t complete bullsh*t.
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What goals have you changed during this pandemic? What do you want to accomplish in the next six months?