2016 Goals: April Update

See January, February, and March

Again, I’m not doing so great. But I made some progress!

1. Go to bed/wake up earlier.
Next.

2. Make dinner 3x/week
Again… Next. I made dinner once since I last updated this. But I’m really hoping to do better this month, I swear!

3. Keep living space clean.
My major issue is that I really just don’t have the space for all my things. But I’m planning on purchasing this soon, and it should help.
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4. Live off salary and save freelance income.
This just wasn’t humanly possible in March, but it seems doable in April.

5. Save $1000.
If I can do the above, I should be able to do this fairly quickly.

6. Then get a secured credit card.
One I can actually check off! Capital One’s card requires only a $50 deposit, so I did that and I should be getting the card any day now. Once I get it, I’ll use it for things that I’m automatically paying out of my checking account anyway, like Apple Music and Netflix.

7. Finish dissertation by end of July/Finish draft of middle-grade novel by December.
I’ve made some progress on this, but I’m going to try to start spending one day/week on it, as I mentioned last month. But I did find out that the page-length requirement has been slashed in half since I was enrolled in the program. That is something I can knock out in a weekend, easy, if I really had to. But I’m not going to do that! (Right?) This month I do need to get in contact with a certain professor for an “expert interview,” though.

I did not accomplish my March-specific goal, which was to eat more fruits and vegetables and workout with my Pilates bar once a day. I did eat them a few times, though! I do want to keep trying to do that, and I really should just start my day with the Pilates workout, even though my cats look at me funny.

My April goal is to not eat fast food, and then also to bribe myself–If I go a week without fast food, I can buy myself a piece of (cheap) jewelry. I’m really lacking in the jewelry department, so this should help with that, too.