Fall Reset and Goal Setting

September 15, 2021 Dinah Saglio

The end of summer and start of a new school year always puts both of us in the mood to reset - with new goals, getting back into more of a routine, and focusing on what we want to achieve before the end of the year. We both really love this process and have slightly different ways we approach it with a few key things in common - planning tools, good music and inspiring non-fiction. Today we are both sharing the tools we use, the themes we are focusing on and what some of our roadblocks are!

Fall Reset and Goal Setting

Dinah

I am putting big focus on career and money right now, along with my health. It was so much fun this summer to have more flexibility about where I was working and how many hours each day, but now I am starting a big new project and need to put my nose to the grindstone and get back into a strict 9-5 routine. For me, this means making sure I get to bed on time so that I can wake up early to exercise (I tend to let exercise be the first thing to go when I am busy and I need to break that habit), and giving myself the tools and motivation to settle in at my desk and focus on my priorities. I do the best when I can sit down at my desk in the morning, and clearly see my schedule and my priorities laid out, and then disconnect from my phone and get into the working zone.

I’m also really trying to keep an eye on my goals. This time last year I made a massive list and was very excited to look at it after the summer and realize I had made two of them a reality. It helps me to have them visible on a board in my apartment at all times, with the smaller steps clearly laid out. I updated my list recently, shifting the goals I had achieved into the next stage and looking at what worked and what didn’t in the last year. With my new schedule and workload kicking off, it’s more important to me than ever to make sure I have that big picture in mind.

Reset Tools:

To motivate myself and keep my eye on my career in both the short and long term, I have been reading Power Moves by Lauren McGoodwin, who is the founder of Career Contessa. I feel like I have been in a two year long career transition and have been working hard on being open to new opportunities, and trying to be fearless - while also getting over my impostor syndrome! This book has really been helping me in a positive way.
My treat to myself for my desk set up was this new calendar pad from Chez Gagne! I bought it at one of our favorite boutiques in RI - OMO - and the mantra on it is basically what I want my approach to life to be. I like the way it’s organized, with a spot for my schedule and more fuild space, plus a list section that helps me to prioritize key to-dos.
I need music to help me stay in the zone, and Kacey Musgraves Golden Hour is usually one of my go-tos. Her new album Starcrossed just came out and I love it. It’s not too rowdy to be distracting and since I don’t know all the words to it, it doesn’t pull my focus at all.
This board would be perfect for keeping track of goals! I like having one that’s small enough for me to stash away when company is coming over, and I actually prefer to write my goals down on paper, then put them on a cork board because it feels more permanent.
Falling asleep can be a challenge for me, but I have found that the CBD Oil from Equilibria really helps to relax me so that I can get to bed early on the nights I need to. I try not to use it every night, but on nights when my anxiety is a little bit high it’s definitely a life saver.

Eloise

Now that we’re home from our summer travels and the kids are back in school, I’m excited to get into a routine and have more time for working and getting creative with the blog during the day. My biggest obstacle for this is time management for sure. I should be spending several solid hours at my desk every day, but instead I tend to fill every day with appointments, errands and meetings, leaving me squeezing in desk time at the beginning or end of the day, or doing it on my phone while I wait for kids in my car. Not ideal!

I’m aiming to prioritize my desk and office time by blocking off four hour a day during the week. I started with doing that three days this week, and my goal is to get that to five days a week and then to gradually make that longer as the fall goes on and I build my scheduling muscles.

I’m also working on streamlining my approach to dinner. When I get tired and don’t feel like making dinner, I tend to default to take out or delivery, and I want to work on defaulting to simple home-cooked meals instead. I also want to do a little more meal prep earlier in the week when I have energy, so that by the time Thursday comes around and we have have dinner on the table by 6 so that we can zip out the door to practices, I have an easy meal in mind that’s already been partially prepped-it would be so much healthier and less stressful. Let me know if anyone has any tips for this!

Reset Tools:

I love my Golden Coil Planner and write down everything for the month and then my daily to do list and schedule as well. It also has customizable options to keep track of projects or your water consumption or any other goals that you have.
I’m trying to do a better job of saying no to things so that I make sure that I have enough time to work on my long term goals, and I’m using Set Boundaries, Find Peace for moral support when that gets tricky.
If I’m having a hard time getting into a creative space, reading a few pages of Big Magic is usually a big help to me. Then I sit down at my desk and turn on Taylor Swift’s Folklore and my brain knows that it’s writing time. I’ve read about having a musical cue to prompt writing time (ie playing the same song or album or type of music) for years and thought it was was silly, but I’ve started using it over the past year and found that it really helps me.
The Feel Good Effect Podcast has a whole series on meal prep for unpredictable schedules or very simple healthy eating and I have found it to be so helpful. Sometimes the simplest ideas can have a big impact! She has me inspired to stick to very easy meals when I’m tired, such as making some pasta and Rao’s and a simple salad, rather than reaching for the takeout menu, and that has been a game changer for weeknight cooking this fall.