Goal & life planning: Part 1

I'm one of those annoying people that thrives on organization but typically seems spacey due to my brain never shutting up. I'm starting to take more risks, and set more goals and I'm really excited to kill them! 

So I'm going to do a few posts about how I plan to accomplish some goals I have in mind, and some soul searching on what I really am passionate about and want to do with my life. I feel like I'm a little late on this, but better late than never right?

Planner
I'm one of those weirdos who still prefers a paper planner, though I do keep meetings and appointments on my phone as well (yea Outlook at work!) I use one called Passion Planner. I originally backed her on Kickstarter and absolutely love my planner. Right now she is doing a Kickstarter to fund a smaller one, and I have already backed that one as well. It's great! If you want to try it, she has free printable pages on her website as well, or you can back the new Kickstarter here. It has 14 days left.  

Each week starts on Monday (the new one starts on Sunday, but this is the original one). Has a place to put a weekly focus, write down good things that happened, a quote, and a small goal or task to do each week. Below is a section for a Personal To-Do List, a Work on, and a blank space to get creative. This is a week I haven't written on yet but I enjoy this planner. 



Goal Planning
Another thing I am going to be using to get organized and set goals is something called PowerSheets from Lara Casey Shop. Information from the site:

Picture is copyright of Lara Casey

105 PowerSheets™ last for 6 full months and include: 

• 2014 Goal Setting and Action Plan Sheets 
• Monthly/Weekly/Daily Tending Lists 
• Monthly PowerSheets Checklist
• Great Things That Happened This Month
• This is My Year Goal Sheet
• Big Dreams Page for big ideas
• What Fires Me Up
• Things I Want to Learn/Things I Learned
• My Vision
• Access to exclusive PowerSheets Facebook Group

NEW in the 2015 PowerSheets™:

• Streamlined beautiful design
• Set of 8 tabs, in tan and gold foil
• Three-Month Goal Refresh 
• Words of Inspiration
• New motivating quotes and notes from Lara

I heard about this from Val Marie Paper  when I was looking for a prayer and/or gratitude journal. I'm excited because for some reason, having it written down makes me more motivated than just jotting it down on a post it, or telling myself I'll do it.

I also keep a Moleskine or small notebook with me at almost all times. I like writing and I also use the Notes application on my iPhone to jot down things, such as grocery lists. I'm more likely to forget a paper one but having it on my phone, I have no excuse.

For budgeting, I've always use Mint, but I'm looking into others as well. I like it because it keeps everything together, and emails me updates if I want them. I can add my credit cards, loans, bank account information, and it's all there in one place instead of me logging into each site individually.

Yeah finally! New post

Life has definitely gotten hectic, but I'm finally working on some balance.

My job is interesting and I'm constantly learning new things. It keeps me engaged for the most part and they are a huge proponent of Work/Life balance which makes my life so much easier. If I, or my child is sick, I can stay home.

Updates. I tried the 21 day fix. Not for the workouts; I only did a week and a half of those before I got bored with them. I did it for the portion control aspect and it has been wonderful. It's really taught me about how and what I need to eat more of to feel better but mostly that I eat too damn much of certain things! I noticed an increase in energy and I did manage to lose a bit of weight.

I also bought a mountain bike. Living in Austin, being outside is absolutely necessary. There are trails, bike paths (both mountain and street), ponds, rocks to climb. So much! One of my favorites is in Johnson City, called Pedernales. Plus, I really hate running and machines are boring.

Look how neat this place is! This was taken a couple of years ago, but I can't wait to go back this weekend and take the munchkin.

I'm working on planning everything out for meals, workouts, Bible study/reflection, and time with my family. Adulting is hard. I like to plan, and I love having a paper planner so I'm using Passion Planner! It was a Kickstarter I backed earlier this year and I love it. She actually has printable sheets on her site if you want to try them out. Pretty neat and she's super sweet!

Blatantly "borrowed" from her site.

I'll update this post with my own planner pages too; I'm working on the rest of the months now. 

I've also been going to a Bible study group that some people at work started. It's an awesome way to start the day on Friday.