See January, February, March, April, and May.
1. Go to bed/wake up earlier.
I’ve been doing a little better in this department, especially recently. I was sick in bed for about a week, and somehow that reset my clock to where I’m pretty much living on a normal schedule.
2. Make dinner 3x/week
Most of this month was pretty bad, to be honest.
3. Keep living space clean.
The shelves I mentioned last month and the month before are installed, and they have helped, but I still have to do a major reorganization. I’m going to be doing a clean out of my stuff before the end of the month, so that should help, too.
4. Live off salary and save freelance income.
Yes! Some increases have made this possible for me to do.
5. Save $1000.
Not much progress, but #4 should help me get there.
6. Then get a secured credit card.
So far I’ve made two payments, both paying off the balance in full. The first go around (hey, I was in college), I thought of credit as “free money.” Now I understand that I have to think of it more like a debit card: If I don’t actually have the money, unless it’s a mega, super emergency, I shouldn’t use it. I have a credit card for rebuilding my credit and for added security when shopping, not to live on.
7. Finish dissertation by end of July/Finish draft of middle-grade novel by December.
I didn’t really do any work on this, but I’m not concerned because the dissertation length is basically the same as my end-of-term papers from college. I can take two weeks to research and a week or so to write and be fine.
My May goal was to do my Pilates bar 4x a week. I actually did keep up with it until I got sick. My June goal is no McDonalds and to keep up with the Pilates bar. I actually already bought myself a present for accomplishing this June goal, and my hope is that having already bought something for myself will guilt me into actually keeping to it. McDonalds is an issue for me because it’s really the only place to grab something to eat in my neighborhood. So when I’m feeling too lazy to cook or just want to get out of the house, I end up going there. As you can imagine, you can use a Pilates bar every day and it won’t undo the damage that frequent McDonalds visits do.