Weekly Goals October 19

Sometimes I think I am getting pretty good at this whole time management, organization, goal-setting thing.  And then I realize that I have a LONG way to go!

I spent most of this past weekend grading 7th grade personal narrative essays.  You see, I assigned the essay to be due on Friday.  My students were diligent in completing their assignment and turning the essay in.  I had just made one small miscalculation:  the end of the quarter was Friday and grades were due on Monday.

Those of you who are teachers are now smiling in sympathy.  I had two and a half days to grade nearly one hundred middle school essays.  I stayed up late, had to spend time away from my family, and am a fairly crabby person this morning.

And it all could have been avoided.

If I had simply looked at the school calendar, I would have made a completely different choice about the deadline for the essay.  Sigh.  Lesson learned.

When setting goals and, in general, scheduling your life always look at all available resources first.

If you have a busy week at work, it may not be the best time to set a goal of decluttering your entire house.  If you have many baseball games and dance recitals to attend, it is probably not feasible to set a goal of writing for two hours a day on your novel.  Take life into consideration and plan accordingly.

We can still set goals and try to meet our long-term priorities, but we need to do so realistically.  If we don’t, we can get discouraged and even give up on our big picture goals.  However, if we plan for the busy, for the distraction, for the general messiness of life, we can make realistic short-term goals that will help us achieve the long-term ones.

Last Week’s Goals

Faith:

1. Pray Morning Prayers as a family 4 Days

2. Read Hebrews 1-7

Professional:

3. Begin Mythology Kingdom Project and post it on Teachers Pay Teachers

4. Continue Elite Blog Academy Unit 2

Family/ Homemaking:

5. Go on a family outing (We went apple picking and now have 14 pounds of apples!)

6. Try one new recipe (I made roasted broccoli, which all of my family loved.  Woohoo!)

7. Play a game as a family (Sister is loving Candyland right now.)

Personal:

8. Read 2 Books (You can find out more about the 3 books I read HERE.)

9. Run 2 miles three times ( I actually ran four times.  I am really getting into this running thing!)

10. Call a friend who has moved away (That was the plan for Saturday evening, but I had a date with essays instead….)

This Week’s Goals

Faith

1. Pray the Morning Prayers as a family 4 days

2. Finish the book of Hebrews

Professional

3. Add my Mythology Kingdom project to my Teachers Pay Teachers store

4. Continue Unit 2 of Elite Blog Academy

Family/ Homemaking

5. Attack and conquer the enormous laundry pile that bred while I was grading essays

6. Make one new recipe

7. Have another family over for dinner

Personal

8. Run 2.5 miles two times and run 1.5 miles one time

9. Read two books

10. Call a friend who moved away

What are your goals for this week?