My 25 in 2025 goals list

Guess what? I started a Substack!

That is one of my 25 in 2025 goals, by the way, and no better way to get things done than just to do them. I’m such an ESTJ!

I hope you’ll go over there and read the list, and subscribe.

(I don’t know fully what I’m doing yet but jumping in feet first – this is also how I started blogging in 2006)

{goals} 2024 reflection – how did the 24 in 2024 goals list go?

It is now the part of the year I love – reflection time! I may decide to post twice a week to get through, or I may decide to write the very abbreviated version of the annual reflection here, and properly do it in my workbooks; we’ll see!

 

I don’t think I ever posted the full list of 24 in 2024 goals. I actually have two lists and this I did tell you about.

quarterly goals update after Q1

six months in

And now here we are, with the year practically over.

24 in 2024

The statistics

  • I set 24 goals on the main list, abandoned one item and finished 21 out of the 23 which is 91% done.
  • On list 2, I set 23 goals and finished 16, which is 70%.
  • Not mentioned but done with 100% compliance to medical professionals – breast cancer, surgery and treatments – so I think I did great this year on the things that mattered.
  • My relationships are worse in some areas but I have to keep reminding myself that it takes two people to keep things alive. Not everything in the world is my responsibility.

What worked?

  • Having once-off items sprinkled into the list amidst project-based goals
  • Having an open mindset so that upholder tightening didn’t set in
  • Getting big things done early
  • Building review time into every month’s rhythms
  • Abandoning some things that were just not going to happen

my favourite jacaranda tree in Jhb

How do I feel?

  • After the breast cancer diagnosis, I considered abandoning everything but I found I needed a few things to work on and look forward to, like reading, exercise and writing. This turned out to be a great plan because many times, it felt like I was deep in the weeds and it helped me to have other things to focus on.
  • I will again make a 25 in 2025 list but there are a few things that are on there every year that I need to now admit are never going to happen, like weekends away with friends. I have a way higher likelihood of just doing my own thing. I think I have finally admitted that to myself.
  • I will, however, continue to set goals on the things that bring me joy, like creating, connecting and moving my body.

How did your 24 in 2024 list go?

Have you thought about what your 2025 list will look like?

{planning} It’s time to talk about diaries (planners)

Do you still use a paper diary?

Yes? No?

I use both electronic – Outlook at work and my iPhone Calendar for personal – and a paper diary.

Before each work day, I write a list of my meetings and the top 3 things I want to get done (sometimes the whole day is meetings).

Work is not the point of this blog post though.

For my personal use, I still use a paper diary, but a weekly one.

This year I used a daily one until the end of July and then I switched back to weekly from August, and it has been the best thing because my mind thinks in weeks.

Many of us are visual people and we need to see something in front of us to be most effective.

Here’s a post I wrote a few years ago that help you discover what you need in a diary/ planner.

If you have consistently bought a diary and tried to use it and have stopped after a month or so, it may be that you don’t have a consistent habit.

Is your diary visible daily? Do you have a weekly and daily routine to look at it? (set a reminder in your phone) You could try now to just write a daily and weekly list of things to do/ meetings/ appointments, etc. and if you build the habit, then buy one for the new year. If you don’t create the habit though, you’re going to again waste lots of money.

I should technically be using the rest of my diary I started in Aug (and it works perfectly for me – I even like the monthly goals and review section) but I am 98% sure I’m going to start afresh with a new diary, just as I want my life to be fresh in the new year.

What are your thoughts about diaries for next year?

My habits and routines for exercise, healthy eating and photos – some work and some don’t

Sometimes it’s fun to consider other areas of life to see how those work or don’t work. I’ll share both to show you the difference.

Exercise

  1. I like to exercise three times a week and feel most like myself when I keep to this rhythm.
  2. Whenever Spanish happens, I’m there because I’m paying for it and don’t like to waste money. I almost never miss a class unless I’m out of Johannesburg. Most years I’d get the highest attendance award.
  3. The one part of gym exercise that has been a solid habit for the last 21 years is Saturday morning Zumba. I set my clothes out on a Friday night, roll out of bed on a Saturday morning, dress and go. No thinking allowed.
  4. What doesn’t work? When the gyms move the schedule around during the week, it completely throws me off. I’m currently able to attend Tuesday night Zumba at the gym of my choice during the week because my current gym is undergoing renovations. When that ends and I’m restricted to just my usual again, the mid-week exercise will be spotty, at best.

Healthy eating

  1. When I pack my lunch bag for work, I am excellent. I eat everything in the bag most days so my eating is nutritious and healthy.
  2. When I work from home, I just eat whatever. I still try and eat enough fruits and vegetables but honestly, most times, I grab and eat what is most convenient.
  3. I guess the answer is to pack myself a bag for WFH days too but that feels like too much work.


Photos

I have an excellent photo system. If only I could be disciplined to follow it through right to the end most months.

These days the teens don’t want to have photos taken of themselves so I take fewer photos than I ever used to. I guess this is normal but it still makes me sad (especially when I compare myself to some of my friends).

  1. I do a “daily delete”, something Becky Higgins made famous. Mine doesn’t always end up being daily, but I get to it at least 4 times a week. This way you end up with a clean camera roll of photos you really want to keep.
  2. I also “favourite” any photos I want to post to Instagram or the blog so that it’s quick and easy to find later. Some of these also get saved to my albums.
  3. Once a month, in an ideal world this would be the first weekend following the month end, but is usually around the middle of the month, I remove all the photos from my phone and back them up. I leave some favourites (usually the people photos) on my phone.

Tell me about some fun hacks you have for exercise, healthy eating and photos.

PS I intended to write about money habits here too, but I think that can be a post all on its own.

I still use a paper diary. Here’s the 2023 one.

I’ve written many, many times before about how it’s important to know what works for you in terms of planning.

My perfect diary is a weekly format, preferably some space for other notes too and enough space horizontally.

I’ve used the same type of diary as I’m using this year before – in 2018 and 2020. I like that I can zip up a pen or thin bullet journal inside and nothing falls out.

Let me show you more:

This is the monthly goals and planning page – goals, to-dos, birthdays and other important dates.
This is the monthly overview – I LOVE this page because there’s space for plenty of tracking – I track work from office days, exercise days as well as actual events.
This is the weekly view. I use the top section for events and the bottom for any specific daily to-dos. I write my weekly goals in the bottom left section (Priorities) and my weekend to-dos in the notes for the week section.

Here’s the key: I take some time every Sunday afternoon/ evening to update my diary for the week ahead so that this tool is truly useful and not just lovely to look at.

Do you use a paper or digital planner/ diary? When do you update it?

How to use the one-minute rule at work

We’ve spoken before about the one-minute rule. We also talked about ways to use this rule at home.

What about at work?

Here’s how you can use the one-minute rule…

with your emails

  • if you’ve opened and read the email, and don’t need to refer back to it, delete it 🙂
  • if you need to delegate, forward it so that other people can work on it while you go through the rest of your inbox
  • decide there and then on your next action step and quickly type into the beginning of the subject line READ/ MEETING/ TALK TO ___ so that when you’re ready to work, you know exactly what to do next

in meetings

I like to write my meeting notes on the top 70 – 80% of the page and leave the bottom section for actions, OR sometimes there’s so much being said, I just write notes and later as we summarise, I allocate actions and I write the initials of the person in the margin. Now for the rule…

  • do your quick actions in one-minute bites immediately after a meeting
  • many actions are multi-step actions but you can always do the very first step even if that first step is just to allocate a block of time to work through the actions (“actions from XYZ meeting”)

with daily or weekly planning

  • if you’re a daily planner, start the next day’s to-do list page and keep it ready
  • as things pop up, add them to your list so you don’t have to keep it in your head or on random sticky notes in your notebook
  • the same principle works for weekly planning but since I don’t know if I need two more pages to close off the week or eight, I use a long post-it note for next week’s actions. When I’m then ready to make my actual weekly list, I have all my priorities in one place.

How do you already use the one-minute rule at work? Can you think of where you could use it?

Meal tip Monday – how to plan for busy nights

Are you enjoying this focussed series? I didn’t want to announce it as such in case it brought up my inner rebel (!) but really, that’s what it is.

If you’ve missed the previous posts, here you go:

cook a double batch

know your style

Let’s talk about planning for busy nights. This might seem obvious but sometimes, and I know this is true for me, I’m planning the menu for the week without looking at my calendar. In South Africa, we have plenty of loadshedding at the moment. These tips work well for those nights too.

Here are a few things to consider:

  1. Check your calendar!
  2. Write in the nature of the busyness on your actual menu plan. For example, “late meeting/ 7pm Zumba/ school meeting, etc.”
  3. Think through if you have any freezer meals that will work and defrost them early.
  4. Alternatively, buy a rotisserie chicken on the weekend, heat it quickly and serve with rolls or crusty bread, and a salad. Chicken has the advantage of being good whether eaten hot or cold.
  • My Zumba nights are our standard “busy nights” on the menu as I arrive home at about 7:30.
  • For these nights I plan a “make your own ________ ” night. Burrito bowls work well because everyone helps themselves and the toppings can be prepared and set out beforehand.
  • Alternatively, I pop a complete meal in the oven and my family retrieves it via a timer and serves themselves. Any baked pasta or enchiladas is a good idea.

Which are your favourite tips for busy nights?

Weekly planning – should you or shouldn’t you?

I started off with the question in the title because we are all different.

I can definitely say that weekly planning helps me in my life, but I recognise that we all prefer to do things in different ways.

If you’re very happy with your current non-weekly planning process, I’m delighted! However, if you feel like things could work a bit better here and there, then, as I always tell my coaching clients, test it and see. At the most, you’ve had two weeks that were more structured and a learning that the exact way you did it wasn’t optimal for you. But who knows? The opposite is also true – you might love something and never stop doing it (menu planning for me the last 15 years).

If you do decide you want to play with weekly planning, here are some ideas you can try planning:

  • meals (supper, or all meals) for 5 or 7 days – put down some ideas and pick from your list every day
  • exercise days – my gym requires that we book our classes to avoid capacity issues
  • connection time with family and friends
  • personal goals – like reading a book or working on your photos
  • house goals – organising your clothes
  • work/ side hustle projects

Please note all of these are just ideas – the thought of doing all of that might overwhelm you. Don’t let it. Pick what you want and leave the rest.

I know that Laura Vanderkam recommends one goal in three areas every week: work, personal, and relationships.

If you don’t like those three categories, choose your own 😉

Who’s ready to try weekly planning? Which categories are important to you?

Other posts on weekly planning:

{planning} Let’s do our quarterly planning together

Here we stand at the start of a new, fresh, shiny quarter. If 2021 didn’t start as you wanted, you can let the first quarter go with all the expectations you had for it and just dive into this new quarter.

I spoke before about how and why I love quarterly planning.

Last quarter (Jan – March) I did my quarterly planning but I kept it in my bullet journal. That was…okay, but more inconvenient as I kept having to flip back and forth in the bullet journal to find my list.

This time I decided to write out my list as I did last year but I would then stick it up on the cupboard door in my study (where I now spend 90% of my time!) so I can see it all the time and take action.

And that’s exactly what I did.

Some things I want to do this quarter:

  1. play more (I’m doing Superhero Photo again – it’s a photo course I did about 8 years ago – I saved the emails and am working through them again)
  2. plan next quarter’s holiday and hopefully a mini-break at the end of the month as it’s our anniversary
  3. get some inexpensive but effective stuff done in the house (paint my downstairs)
  4. do some once-off coaching sessions (see more below)
  5. see more friends than I did last quarter

Now over to you.

What went well last quarter? Can you replicate it again this quarter? What did you specifically do or which things were in place helping you have that success?

What do you want to do differently this quarter? Are you using your tendency to help you get those things done? If you’re not sure how, book your 75-minute Four Tendencies coaching session with me for $75. If you’ve come on one of my workshops, you get $20 off. Paypal me and let’s get your session scheduled. I can’t wait to coach you.

{planning} 6 important things about monthly planning

Even if you’re not a goal-setter, monthly planning is a good way to start adding some structure to your life.

Why

You can plan your month such that events within your control are spread throughout the weeks.

You can find your optimum busy rhythm.

You can plan things like birthday presents and reserving book club books in advance.

When

I do my monthly planning either on the last day of the month (if I finish my goals review early) or otherwise on the first day of the month. I don’t feel late as I’ve glanced over the first few days to make sure nothing will fall through the cracks.

How

1. Add anchor events first (these are things that are already due to happen)

  1. Birthdays – do you need to buy a present, send a card or arrange to take someone for lunch or supper? Make a note of these action items.
  2. Socials – add in any fixed friend dates you may have, like a monthly book club, family get-togethers with extended family, or a standing tea or lunch with a friend. Do you have any action items you need to make a note of? E.g. do you need to buy the book club book or borrow it from the library?
  3. Any other anchor events – work meetings that might bleed into personal time, etc. I add my coaching client appointments here. Pre-covid, this is when I’d add all my business travel too as it would mean I’d need to get to bed early for early flights the next day.

2. Add in all the want-tos

  1. Exercise – if you’re a daily exerciser, this might be useless step but most people aren’t daily exercisers and need to plan out of the house time with spouses.
  2. Courses, workshops –it’s easy to schedule if it’s a once-off session. But what if it’s a self-paced course like my Discover Yourself course? When I sign up to an online course or workshop, I schedule time every week to make progress otherwise it’ll never get done. If you’ve purchased a course, have you actually done it? You might need to block out time once a week for an hour or two to work through the content.
  3. Catch-ups with friends – these are non-monthly standing appointments but you would like to arrange this time together.

3. Evaluate and answer these questions honestly

(you might not have a true idea when you first start but you’ll get better as you go along)

  1. Do your weeks look too busy?
  2. Are there some of those want-to items that would do better for you to move to another week instead?

4. Review your goals and add what you can to your non-busy weeks

Skip if you haven’t set any goals BUT I call goals anything you want to get done.

I set goals in 7 categories and for the purposes of this post, I’ll share the three goals I set in the Finance/ House category for March.

  1. Fumigator
  2. Make waterproofing decisions (the quote is way too much but I asked them to break down all the work into the 3 areas so we can do it in stages)
  3. Send canvas pic to my printer

My style is to put all 3 of these onto a house list and do the research and send out the emails all on one evening. An ideal evening would be after a vigorous exercise session like Zumba since I’ll be too tired to do anything else.

I should also write every week for my blog/ newsletter or if I’m creating a course. I usually have a night for writing every week and I like to couple that with something else computer-y like updating my budget or editing photos, etc.

5. Maintain and evaluate as you go through the month

As the weeks pass, notice how you feel at the end of each week.

Was the week too busy even though you thought it might be doable?

6. Speaking of energy…

I don’t like more than two evenings out (even if it’s at the gym) during the work week but I don’t feel it that much if those evenings are spread out – like a Monday and a Thursday. This is something I noticed while evaluating my weeks. I also don’t mind a Barre and Zumba class one night after the other, but I wouldn’t like two Zumba classes on subsequent evenings (too heavy on my body), or two coaching evenings in a row.

Do you need to change the order in which you plan according to your energy?

Do you do monthly planning? Is there anything else you add that helps you?

I work with clients in 30- or 60-minute time management sessions and show them how to translate their goals to quarterly, monthly and weekly action steps. We talk about the best method to get things done for their own personality type – there is “no once size fits all” approach. Send me an email and let’s schedule your session.

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