August 2016 Goals // July Recap

Considering I’ve spent most of the summer miserable, it’s really flown by. I’ve honestly really only been able to enjoy summer for the last few weeks. But hey, I’ll take what I can get! July has treated me a lot better than May or June did.

July has been very busy. In fact, this past weekend has been the only one spent in Duluth since my birthday weekend back in June.

Dan and I spent 4th of July weekend in Ohio with my in-laws. We celebrated the first birthday of the cutest baby ever (my nephew).

We spent the next two weekends in Greenwood with my dad, and I spent the whole week with him. That also marked the one-year anniversary of my mother’s death, which sucked, to say the least.

Then we spent last weekend in Pennsylvania for a wedding. It was a whirlwind trip, but Dan and I loved every short minute of it.

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And in-between all of these travels, I’ve continued to spend too much time at the doctor, on the phone with hospital registration, or doing research to combat my health insurance. But hey, I look like less of a leper, and I went an entire month without throwing up! Progress, right?

It was not the most productive month, but let’s look at what I did.

Also, Dan was taking pictures of me for a blog post, and he put a wine bottle next to me. Hence this photo.

Read my June 2016 Goals // May Recap

July Recap:

For my career:

• I continued to blog regularly, usually twice a week.
• I updated two old blog posts. I really should have done more, and I also made the easy choice of updating two posts that just needed vertical graphics. I chose two posts on feminism, since those are popular. My Parents Made a Feminist out of Me and How to be a Good Wife in 3 Easy Steps
• I honestly dropped the ball on using MassPlanner. Considering how great it is, there is so much more I should be doing with it.
• I’m at roughly 3,220 Twitter followers, woot! Thanks, MassPlanner! (affiliate link)
• I did not quite reach my goal of 15,000 Instagram followers. I have about 14,900. But I greatly slowed down my efforts to increase my following, so I’m not that surprised.
• I’ve worked so hard to improve my Instagram engagement, but I’m still not getting 3% in 24 hours. I’m getting 4% in 5 days, though, which is an improvement from June. A lot more of my photos are getting 500-700 likes, which is awesome. They just take so long to come in.
• I didn’t reach out to any brands for an Instagram collaboration, although four of them reached out to me.
• I created an editorial calendar for the Instagram account for The Lee Haugen Long Foundation, but I haven’t followed it in two weeks. Managing two accounts is a challenge!

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For my health:

• UGHHHHH. I had to cancel my MRE TWICE. The first time, I never received guidelines or a letter in the mail on where to go for my appointment, so I went to the same location where I went last year for my MRE. I found out my MRE had been scheduled for a location an hour away. So I rescheduled it for the hospital where I usually go. Less than 48 hours before my appointment, a representative called me to pre-register. Oh, and by the way, my health insurance rejected a claim for lab work from January, so I had to pay at least 1/3 of it before my MRE. That didn’t leave me with enough time to figure out my health insurance issues, so I canceled my MRE.
• And there’s no point in my follow-up appointment with my gastroenterologist if I haven’t had my MRE to check out the rest of my small intestine. Yay.
• I did have my stitches removed.
• I probably could have obsessed even more over my skin than I have. I got a little lazy about the twice-daily application of petroleum jelly during the time when I had to take a break from the prescription ointment.
• I definitely prioritized my mental/emotional health and let myself grieve as needed. I also distracted myself from grief as needed.

For my marriage:

• Dan and I resumed a healthy sex life as soon as I was physically able.

For our household:

• I still have one wedding present left to order! Plus a few cards with small token gifts. But Dan and I took care of the others.
• I’ve been so good about the laundry all month, particularly before I went to Greenwood for a week.
• I’ve been pretty good about watering the plants, and Dan did a great job while I was gone.
• I started dusting our bedroom, but I didn’t finish.
• I cleaned our bathroom really well.
• I only went to the consignment shop once in Greenwood. I realized I need to resort the items I’d set aside for the consignment shop. Quite a few things won’t be appropriate until they start taking winter clothing.

August Goals:

For my career:

• It’s time to up my quantity of blog posts. For the month of August, I want to blog at least 10 times, to pace myself back to 3-4 posts per week.
• Create an editorial calendar through September. I’ve really slacked lately with my editorial calendar.
• Write at least two political posts.
• Do more with Massplanner. (affiliate link) Specifically:
  • Finish at least one spreadsheet of content and set up an automated posting schedule from that.
  • Connect the Instagram for The Lee Haugen Long Foundation to Massplanner.
  • Set up more automated Pinterest repins to group boards.
• Reach 3,500 followers on Twitter.
• Reach 17,000 followers on Instagram.
• Reread all of Instarevealed. (affiliate link)
• Pitch at least one company/brand for blog/Instagram collaboration.

For my health:

• Figure out my health insurance bullshit.
• Reschedule my MRE.
• Reschedule my follow-up appointment.
• Be more consistent with my vitamins.
• Start working out again!
  • I’m actually really excited about this. Dealing with physical health problems and grief for months now has basically kicked my ass. Last fall, I had made SO much progress with my strength and physical fitness. Now I’m basically starting over. But I have a new secret weapon! I’m collaborating with HeyWorkout to improve my fitness. Considering I collapsed four minutes into their Express Abs & Core workout, I need to workout regularly again. Luckily the Easy Yoga class is more my speed. Keep your eyes peeled for a full review of HeyWorkout once I’ve tried a few more classes.

For my marriage:

• Schedule two date nights! I want to have at least one proper date night out and one nice at-home date night. Also, date “night” could be any time of day, as long as it’s intentional time with Dan doing something fun.

For our household:

• Clean all three bathrooms.
• Dust all window blinds.
• Weed the garden.
• Move the orchid into a larger pot.

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A quick word on how I decide my monthly goals.

Once something becomes a habit, I don’t list it as a goal. For example, I rarely use my laptop in my bed, so that stopped being a goal ages ago. I’m also pretty consistent about turning out my reading light by 11pm. I regularly keep up with the laundry and the dishes. I don’t need to write any of these as goals anymore because I already do them. If they end up as goals again, then I’ve fallen out of the habit and need to jump back into it.

So. Those are my monthly goals for August.

What did you do in July? What do you hope to do in August? Share your monthly goals and progress in the comments!