January Review & February Goals.

January was a strange month - it was long but it went quickly. It feels like my birthday was ages and ages ago, like it should already be mid-March and not February 4th. Still, I'm in disbelief (as usual) at how quickly I was turning over a page on my calendar.

I didn't have any goals this month because January is always hectic. Having my birthday the week after New Year's means that my holiday season gets extended an extra week. On top of that, we had a lot of snow and I had a lot of year-end stuff to do at work, so I wasn't very motivated to do anything other than remember to sleep, eat vegetables, and drink water. (I can very easily live off of coffee and sugary snacks for quite a while without even noticing.)

Here are my goals for the following month. There are no more excuses - I spent the entirety of January on a break from most goals and responsibilities, so it's time to get back into the swing of it.

No-Spend February. Yup, another one of these. Actually, the only month I did this and was really successful was last August, the very first time I tried it. Even when I'm not super successful, though, it's still a good reminder not to spend my money on silly things. I do allow for spending on the weekends, particularly if I'm going on a date with Erik or out with my friends, but I try to limit it to one activity per weekend. I will also allow for any necessary grocery shopping, which is not a lot because my parents let me eat their food. Otherwise, no fast-food lunches or dinners, no coffee, no for-fun shopping trips, and no online purchases.

Weekly health goals. I'm already behind on this because I went to Erik's at the last minute this weekend and forgot to plan which goals I wanted to tackle on which week. My hope is that some of these will stick after doing them for a week, though the sleeping ones might go awry on the weekends. Anyway, I think it's going to look like this:

• Week One (Feb. 1-7) - Less screen time before bed / going to bed earlier
• Week Two (Feb. 8-14) - Getting up earlier
• Week Three (Feb. 15-21) - More water
• Week Four (Feb. 22-28) - Less processed foods

Since I don't use my phone or computer too much before bed when I'm at Erik's anyway, I already met half of this goal over the weekend. For the rest of the week, I plan on turning off electronics at 9:30pm, getting in bed by 10pm, and having the lights out by 10:30pm (unless I'm exceptionally un-tired, in which case I can stay up later). This will force me to catch up on reading my magazines and all the books I want to read, as well as encourage my journaling and cross-stitch habits, since those are the main non-electronic things I can do.

Complete my Holiday Council work. I was so gung-ho about all of my goals after finishing up the last Holiday Council call before Christmas. Because I knew I'd be busy for a while, I tucked away all of the unfinished paperwork and promised myself to come back to it in the new year. Well, I still haven't done that (oops). This month I plan on sitting down and re-listening to all the calls, reviewing the work I've done, and completing the remaining sheets. This year is going to be fantastic, but I need a plan and seeing as one of my goals is to Be Responsible, I have to sit down and do the work.

Blog more. I am slowly but surely blogging here a little more frequently than before. My goal has been to post twice a week, but I think I managed a weekly post only, if that (and not even on a consistent day every week). This month I'm hoping to stick to my two-posts-a-week goal. We'll see.

What are your goals or intentions for February? How was your January?