April was basically hell for me thanks to the pollen, but I made it through thanks to some Allegra, an air purifier, and sadly staying cooped up inside. April’s focus was Work so how did I do?

• Compiling a list of Skillsoft Courses – Nope. It’s still on the to do list.
• The semester ends in May, and I’d like to provide our student employees with performance evaluations and maybe raises before they leave, so I need to figure out the budget which I’ve never had to do, iron out the processes I want to use, and schedule to meet with all of them before they get all stressed out with Finals.  – I got these done in a record 3 days. Meeting with 12-14 students in 3 days was a daunting task especially when you’ve never done it before. I didn’t have any formal managerial training, and I’ve never had to plan out a budget for a company before in my life. I know I’ve been in my office the longest, and I’ve been worked in every single position in the office so I suppose I am qualified to judge performance, but it still felt very new to me, but at the end of the month, raises were approved and evaluations were given before finals week.
• Lastly, our department is trying to focus on an online support knowledge base of sorts to help continue to provide answers to our customers while also being able to focus on improving things for the future. Tidying up this space has been on my radar for a while, and I hope that with the help of my colleagues we can get some Spring cleaning done. – I’m going to say this was both a hit and a miss. Some of the pages got tidied up and revamped because I was asked to, but that wasn’t really the clean up I had intended. I’d love to be able to just sit down with the other people involved and figure out a plan of action, but they don’t seem to be so interested in change.
• Evaluating my current wardrobe to see what I need to add or replace for warmer weather. – After spending a whopping $476 dollars at Forever21, I’m going to call this a success. I now have a plethora of new tops to pick from and some workout gear as well. I actually hit a limit on Forever21’s site that told me I had too many items in my cart. When a website tells you to stop shopping, I guess you should listen. Now the only things I need are a few new pairs of shoes and pants from American Eagle.
• I’d like to tackle painting at least my ceiling in my bedroom. – It’s partially painted… that’s a start.
• I’m also going to work on managing my time better. – This was something I struggled with. I spent the majority of my time reading rather than doing what I was supposed to. Blog posts, workouts, and school, all somehow took a backseat.
• I’m also working on something I’ve sort of informally dubbed “Project Andrea.” – This is sort of an ongoing thing. I can say it’s taking shape though.
• Also, this month’s photo challenge is Filofax themed so I’m excited. – I’ve officially decided I’m done with photo challenges. Oddly enough, that decision made me snap more random photos here and there.

I absolutely love April. It means gorgeous weather is ahead. That means I can start having lunch by the pond again and not have to worry about freezing my butt off as I walk to work.

A recap on March’s projects and goals:

My focus in March was on my budget. I have to say I was a bit optimistic with my savings goals, but I didn’t do so bad overall. I’m really happy with how things turned out.

• I’ve used Smartypig as my main savings account for a while now. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend it. It automatically takes money out of my paycheck and deposits it into various savings goals I have. It’s got a fantastic interest rate as well. You can redeem your savings goals as gift cards and they will actually give you a bonus percentage for certain retailers or you can have it put back in your regular bank.The downside is that it does take a little bit of time to get your money. In some ways this is great, because I really do have to evaluate my purchases, but should an emergency come up, I’d likely need to put the expense on my credit card temporarily and pay for it once the money gets back to my checking account a week later.
• At the beginning of March, I was planning to save around $315 from every pay check just to save it, around $60 dollars for things on my wishlist, and another $25 for my Christmas fund. I managed to keep to my wishlist and Christmas goals, but I did have to reduce the amount of money I was setting aside to around $200. I give nearly half of my income to my mom every month so that she can pay bills, so usually one paycheck a month just goes straight to her so I had to rethink my spending habits and decided it makes more sense to save less right now than putting things all on my credit card because I was saving too much.
• March means time to submit taxes and I managed to get mine submitted. I even used a promo code and saved on filing them. I used my refund to pay back the majority of my one remaining balance on my credit cards, and now I’m using a total of 11% of my credit which feels fantastic. I’m really trying to cut back on my use of my credit cards so that I can be able to pay them off completely at the end of the month, so I took my credit cards out of my main wallet and out of my password manager. No easy access to auto-fill the info means I have to think before I buy.
• Reading – I’m working on reading both Blogging for Dummies and Blog. – Since graduating from college, reading has become an unexpected hobby of mine, so much so I actually went and purchased a Kindle Paperwhite on March 22. I not only read the two books I planned to read, but I read a total of 4 others. The number would have probably been higher but I lent my Kindle to my mom to read a book I had checked out. In any event, 6 books in one month is just beyond ridiculous for me, and seeing that, I upped my reading challenge from 20 books to 30 for the year.
  
• Making progress on my room renovations – This is such a big project, and I’m so overwhelmed with it. I managed to get almost through patching with a few spots I need to go over once more. The next step is to start painting which I’m really dreading, BUT before pictures have been taken so I can start letting you all see the progress which is exciting.
• Completing FMS’s March Photo Challenge. – I really need to find a fun and exciting photo challenge because these FMS photo challenges are just not working for me. I managed to get 16 photos done, but I played catch up for most of the month snapping pictures in bursts rather than daily.

At the beginning of the year, I typed up a document with what I would focus on each month, but stupidly I saved it as “Untitled” in a rush and deleted it. I didn’t realize it until it was removed off my backup drive, so now I’m making this up as I go along, and I’m declaring April’s focus:

Work

Nice weather means I’m going to wish I could still lounge around outside after class or take the dogs out to the local Starbucks for an adventure, so it’s a bit depressing knowing that I’m a grown up now and I can’t because I have to sit behind a desk. Focusing on work will make sure I have a few things to stay focused on:

• Compiling a list of Skillsoft Courses – My job provides me with courses for various things from computer certifications to stress relief, and I have been meaning to compile a list of them that I think I’d be interested in or would be of use to myself or the students in the office. They may not be able to take the courses, but I can certainly pass on some knowledge to them.
• The semester ends in May, and I’d like to provide our student employees with performance evaluations and maybe raises before they leave, so I need to figure out the budget which I’ve never had to do, iron out the processes I want to use, and schedule to meet with all of them before they get all stressed out with Finals.
• Lastly, our department is trying to focus on an online support knowledge base of sorts to help continue to provide answers to our customers while also being able to focus on improving things for the future. Tidying up this space has been on my radar for a while, and I hope that with the help of my colleagues we can get some Spring cleaning done.

Other April projects include:

• Evaluating my current wardrobe to see what I need to add or replace for warmer weather. I know for a fact I need to replace the basic tanks I wear under some of my more transparent shirts, but I also want to get some new things in bright spring colors. I’m quite tired of my go to winter look of skinny pants, boots, a shirt and sweater over top.
• I’d like to tackle painting at least my ceiling in my bedroom. Once that’s done, the painting will go quickly because I can do smaller bits at a time.
• I’m also going to work on managing my time better. That means sticking to my usual routine to get things done, workouts, blog posts, and school work included.
• I’m also working on something I’ve sort of informally dubbed “Project Andrea.” It’s my fairly extensive plan to revamp my life, and I’m pretty excited to start. I’ll post more about what my goals for this project are in a later post.
• Also, this month’s photo challenge is Filofax themed so I’m excited. I’ve been revamping my Filofax here and there so I’m excited to share the little updates I’m making.

I’m really thrilled that it’s April. I’m already excited, and we’re only 6 days in!

Can you believe it’s March already?! I know I can’t. February flew by. So how did I do on my goals and what are my goals for March? Keep reading to find out.

A recap on February’s projects and goals:

• I want to finish reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking – Finished. Great book. I highly recommend it to anyone feeling bit lost in an extroverted world. If you don’t feel like reading the book, Susan Cain sums up the book quite well in her Ted Talk.

• Another goal is to finish patching the walls in my bedroom and bathroom – I didn’t do so well on this one. Most of the holes are patched in my bedroom, but I still have sanding to do. I also have to take a few things (light fixtures, shelves, etc.) and patch those holes.

• I’m participating in FMS’s February photo challenge as part of my resolution to take more picture -This was a total bust, but you can see my February recap here.

• I’m going to work on remembering how grateful I am to have such an incredible boyfriend. – This was also a total bust given that we broke up 4 days into the month. In the past month, I’ve learned a lot though. Mainly that our relationship was not at all as strong as I thought it was.

• I’m going to work on hopefully repairing some friendships that I royally messed up. – I tried, I really did, but some people are unwilling to forgive people. I went out and bought cute little gifts and included apology letters, but when I went to deliver them, the response was a wonderful, “You really thought that was a good idea?”

• and I have some cute little projects for Valentine’s Day that I’d like to complete. – Another bust, Valentine’s day just wasn’t my day this year.

So 1/6… Ouch. Let’s hope March is better.

Now for March’s goals and projects.

My focus this month will be paying attention to my budget. I’m blessed to not have any sort of college debt thanks to my mother working for the University I attended for my undergraduate degree. Now that I work there, they’re paying for my graduate degree as well.  I have a well-paying job with awesome perks (like the brand new MacBook Pro they gave me to replace my old dying one.) It’s really allowed me to do some great things like help out my mother financially. However, I’m not immune to unnecessary purchases, and I always feel like I could do better even if I’m not doing badly.

• I already save $315 dollars from every pay check. I also have around $60 dollars that I put aside every paycheck for a few things on my wish list.
• New this month is that I’m also setting aside $25 dollars from every paycheck so that I have Christmas money. I worked it out and it should add up to about $500 dollars by November plus interest. {Thank you Smartypig. You have been amazing in terms of helping me save.}
• I have a few credit cards for various stores that I pay off immediately after buying something. I also have a main card that usually carries a balance, so this month is dedicated to paying that off and keeping it paid off like the other cards.
• I’m actively trying to ask myself, “Is this something I really need?” Sometimes it works. Other times, like when I decide to get a few items from Sephora that turns into “Well let’s try this just once, and maybe this too,” and before I know it I have a $160 dollar order. I’ve been tracking my spending more closely with Mint so hopefully I’m on to the right track with that.

Other projects for March

• Reading – I’m working on reading both Blogging for Dummies and Blog Inc.
• Making progress on my room renovations – I really need to get the painting tackled in my room. March 9th is a Bring your Friends and Family event at IKEA so hopefully I can pick up a few things to get the ball rolling and get my inspiration sparked again.
• Completing FMS’s March Photo Challenge.

What are your plans for March? Did you set goals for February? Hopefully you did better than my 1 for 6 tally. Here’s to a great month!

I wanted to take the time to make a quick post on my goals and projects for February. {Quick confession: I’ve never actually sat down and written out goals until this year, so this is a bit new for me. So far it’s working out well.} I will probably do a more detailed post of my overall “resolutions” at a later point. This is just what I plan to accomplish in February and what I’m going to focus on.

In terms of random projects I’m working on:

• I want to finish reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking – So far I’m really enjoying this book. As an introvert, I can relate to at times feeling out of place in environments where extroversion is seen as the ideal. It has been extremely relevant and helpful considering one of my current responsibilities has become leading training seminars on a recent online service my university is providing to students, faculty, and staff.

• Another goal is to finish patching the walls in my bedroom and bathroom – I’m going to post a bit more about my bedroom/bathroom remodel in a later post. I’ve been planning this project for a while now, but I’ve been dragging my feet on it. I’m a bit tired of the bubble gum pink and lime green walls from my high school years and am looking forward to a new look.

• I’m participating in FMS’s February photo challenge as part of my resolution to take more picture – I’d really love to complete it on time (without catching up as much as I did with the Filofax challenge, but I’ve already gotten off to a bad start, mainly because I didn’t realize the one I was doing was from LAST YEAR! {Major fail on my part.} I’ll be posting the pictures to both Instagram and Flickr.

Along with my overall resolutions and goals for the year, I also decided to come up with a focus for each month. Last month, I focused on just writing out my goals and resolutions because it was such a busy month getting ready for the new semester to start. This month, I’m focusing on relationships, so I’m going to be doing a few things with that:

• I’m going to work on remembering how grateful I am to have such an incredible boyfriend. – That means appreciating him more, and learning to let little things go. I have to keep reminding myself that the little things he does that may frustrate me in the moment are usually the things I look back on and think of how glad I am that he keeps me on my toes and doing things I would normally be too scared to do.

• I’m going to work on hopefully repairing some friendships that I royally messed up. – This is going to involve some incredibly crafted gift bags, and some explanations I should have given people a long time ago.

• and I have some cute little projects for Valentine’s Day that I’d like to complete. – I gave my one idea away already so now I have to come up with something else. I’m looking to be a bit more creative and crafty though so this is a good way to do it.

Well that’s it for my goals this month. Back to reading for my class.