2021 Goals and Plans

I read an article somewhere, probably the New York Times, about how our resolutions should be modest this year. Low-key, undemanding. It makes a lot of sense. When I look at my list of plans for last year I'm impressed by how few of them I managed to tackle. It's all about the pandemic -- what most of us did in 2020 (and this was one of my resolutions) was survive. Actually, my resolution was "Keep the household running." But that's quite similar to "survive," and I didn't know there was going to be a pandemic.

So now I'm looking at 2021, and survive is #1 on my list. It's also #2. Specifically, #1 is "Survive the rest of the pandemic" and #2 is "Keep the family going and the kids going on in school." And I'm thinking about how #1 is actually not in my control (of course, neither is #2), because although I try to do the right thing, the virus is easy to catch, hard to avoid. So, the real goal is something like "hang in there, if possible." I think the New York Times would accept that as modest enough.

But, being me, I didn't stop there, and my resolutions list for 2021 actually has 26 things on it, many of which I know I won't do. I was looking at the list last night, thinking about how hard it looked, and I decided that what I really needed was a plan for how these 26 things might be accomplished. A schedule, perhaps, but with lots of flexibility built into it, because -- yeah.

I decided that I should break the list down into

• Daily goals
• Weekly goals
• Monthly goals
• Quarterly goals

In other words, there are things that I want to do every day, and there are things I want to do once or twice a week, and there are things I want to do once or twice a month, and there are things I want to do once or just a few times a year. At the start of each week, month, and quarter, I should take my list of resolutions (goals, plans) and make a subset of the list to apply to that week, month, quarter. The new list would be based on what I did or didn't accomplish the previous week, month, quarter, etc.

This might all be insane. But I do truly love lists and plans, and it's January, and I'm looking ahead to this very bleak year (and month, and season), so this exercise appeals to me. I'm also totally miserable about what's going on politically, feeling really desperate and hopeless and powerless. I need to get some control over something. Also, Rocket Boy starts driving back to St. Louis on Tuesday, so this will help me keep going, encourage me not to fall apart.

So here are my Daily goals, more or less:

• Go for a walk or get some other type of exercise (preferably involving twins)
  
• Help the kids with school (5 days/week)
• Clean the kitchen (evening, unless it's too messy for me to cook)
  
• Spend 30 minutes cleaning this week's room on my (separate) cleaning schedule
  
• Make dinner or otherwise arrange for it to happen
• Clean the cat boxes
• Read
• Write (4 or 5 times a week is fine)
• Get at least 7-1/2 hours of sleep at night

Many of these are things I do already, but maybe I need a little nudge to get them done every day. You'll note the list doesn't include "get dressed" or "feed the cats" because those things always happen. On the other hand, it does include "read," which always happens, so I guess by putting it on this list I'm declaring that it's important.
 
Moving on to slightly more difficult stuff, here are my Weekly goals:

• Cook dinner with one twin, alternating weeks. Planned for Wednesday nights.
  
• Lift weights (twice a week, probably Tues & Thurs)
• Bake something (on the weekend)
  
• Watch a movie with the kids (probably Saturday night)
• Blog (usually Sunday)
  
• Deal with the trash, recycling, compost, and weeding out the accumulation of stuff (Thursday, since pick-up is Friday)
• Pay bills and put money into savings (Friday)
  
• Work on the current home improvement project (see Quarterly goals below, probably Wed & Fri)
  

I notice that I have things planned (roughly) for every day except Monday. This is because Monday is Horrible Day, when the kids have asynchronous school at home with Mom and everybody's miserable. One thing not on the list is laundry, which I do about every 6 days for me and every 5 days for the kids, because it's governed solely by whether we have any underwear left.
 
Now we have Monthly goals:

• Make contact with at least one friend or family member -- last year I tried to have coffee with a friend each month, but the pandemic shut that down after two dates. This year I'm thinking it could be a letter or phone call.
• Read the book for the book group
• Read the book for the Classics Challenge (if I do decide to do that this year)
• Take the twins somewhere fun
• Donate $$ to some organization
• Do one of the smaller goals on my master list (e.g., get new glasses, get the piano tuned, take my new sewing machine out of the box)

The idea is that at the start of each month I will plan when each of these things will happen. We'll see.

And finally there are Quarterly goals:

• Read a presidential biography
• Work on a home improvement project

Home improvement projects could be big things, like re-do the water-damaged, falling-apart bathroom (maybe next summer), replace the damaged kitchen floor (I don't know when), or major cleaning tasks.

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OK, so this is all very interesting. Now let's try to set up our first week/month/quarter.

It's Sunday, January 10th -- the beginning of a new week. It's also the beginning of a new month (last week doesn't count), and the beginning of a new quarter. Let's work backward, starting with the new quarter:

Quarter 1: January through March

• My presidential biography is Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Already reading it, enjoying it very much
• Home improvement project: I think the best choice is to work on my section of the office, and our piles of un-filed stuff, and the overstuffed file cabinets. I will try to spend 30 minutes on this every Wednesday and Friday this quarter.
  

Month of January:

• I had a great time connecting with some old friends on a Zoom call yesterday, but I'm also going to write to a friend I heard from at Christmas who adopted a daughter this year. Maybe this week.
  
• The next book group book is The River by Peter Heller, which I need to obtain. I doubt if this is something I want to add to my permanent collection, so I've put a hold on it at the library. We're not actually meeting until February 8th, so I won't read it for a while.
• I need to decide whether or not to do the Classics Challenge again, choose the books, and then find my first. I'll work on this throughout the month.
• Next weekend would be a good time to take the twins somewhere, because that Monday is MLK day. I'll aim for Jan 17th or 18th, depending on weather. We'll decide what closer to the time.
  
• I don't know who I want to donate to yet. I'll put this off until the last week of January.
• The small goal we're working on this month is new doctors and physicals. The twins saw their new doctor on Friday. I will try to call to make an appointment for myself this coming week.
  

 Week of January 10-16:

• Sunday: (Laundry). Blog (I'm doing it). Make a pie or coffee cake later today.
  
• Monday: Get Kid B to decide what he wants to cook this week.
  
• Tuesday: Grocery shop. Lift weights. Call about a new doctor.
  
• Wednesday: Cook dinner with Kid B. Spend 30 minutes on Office/Files project.
  
• Thursday: Lift weights. Deal with the trash and recycling.
  
• Friday: Pay bills and put money in savings. Spend 30 minutes on Office/Files project.
  
• Saturday: Watch a movie with the kids.
  

And finally, my Daily goals for today -- how am I doing so far, considering it's already 3 pm?

• Exercise: I shoveled the walks. Rocket Boy took the twins sledding.
  
• School: not on Sundays
  
• Haven't cleaned the kitchen yet
• Haven't cleaned the living room yet
  
• Dinner will be waffles
  
• I'll clean the cat boxes this evening
  
• I'll read before bedtime (Team of Rivals!)
  
• Write (this blog post!)
  
• Get at least 7-1/2 hours of sleep at night (managed it last night; will try to go to bed by midnight tonight since my alarm goes off at 8 am)
• Other stuff: The laundry is calling me, and then I'm going to the library.
  
• When will I make this pie or coffee cake? 

Well, we'll see how this goes. It already looks impossible. It will probably have to be broken down a little. I may not manage to make that pie or coffee cake today. But it's January, it's 2021, and the world's falling apart. I need plans and goals and structure. So I'll give it a try.