You thought I’d forgotten all about these little birthday goals, didn’t you…

Well the good news is despite my not posting a blog update on my 29th Birthday goals since last September (for shame, I know!), I actually have been making progress on them all year long. And since I said goodbye to 2-9 and turned the big 3-0 a few days before we hit the road for vacation, I thought today would be a good day to do one final goal-tastic update before moving on with my plans for my 30th Birthday year.

If you need a refresher, you can read about my love for Birthday goals and my 29th Birthday goals here or read my 4 month update here.

1. Become a Time Management Guru

Can I say I achieved time zen? No. Guru status? Not so much.

But I can say that in this past year I’ve come a long way from where I started.

I mentioned in my last update I had started using a sketchbook as a place for all my random thoughts, notes and well, sketches. Considering this past week I started sketchbook number 2 because the first one was filled to the brim, I’d say the sketchbook and I are very much in paper-lovin’ non-techy love.

But beyond the sketchbook, I learned two very important time management things this year:

1) Saying NO is key. 99% of my time management problems stem from the fact that I simply take on too much. The look on Adam’s face when I’ve listed out everything on my plate has told me as much. But it’s tough because I have a million ideas and love to help, so it’s way too easy for me to say yes, both to others and myself, when I really need should say no. Or at least, “no for now.” I can’t say I’ve mastered this quite yet but admission is the first step to recovery, right?

2) Paper & digi can go hand in hand. One of the reasons I’ve always struggled with so-called time management systems is that they always seem to be mutually exclusive: either you use a digital to-do list or a paper one. But I’ve come to realize that for my paper & tech-lovin’ brain I need a combination of both. So as of right now, I’m using The Hit List & iCal for tracking long term projects and deadlines and hand written to-do lists in my sketchbook for my daily/week to-dos. It’s not a perfect system by any means (is anything really?) but I’m definitely liking it more than anything I’ve tried previously.

2. Be More Eco-Concious

Some days I dream about starting a green-related blog. And then I remind myself about saying “no for now” and snap back to reality, haha. But how we can be better stewards for the earth is definitely something that’s on my mind a lot, even more so after our outdoor-heavy trip.

We’re still using all the reusable bags I mentioned in my update post and even I have mowed the lawn with our green-friendly push mower. We chose to scrap both the rain barrel and compost ideas because a) we have to rain gutters which made it a bit difficult and b) we were never sure how long we’d be here. In the past 6 months, we’ve thought we might be moving at least 3 or 4 times.

But for now I’m focusing on what I can work on: using less paper in the house (anyone have a paper-free kitchen?), using reusable bags and just trying to find the right balance between good choices and less-good choices. And maybe one day my dream of a super eco-friendly house will become a reality.

3. Make Each Photo Count

I don’t know if I’ve actually taken less photos this past year than previous years but I know that slowing down has pushed me to think more about composition and light which is exactly what I wanted. Now if I could just get all my photos all organized, I’d bet set.

4. Turn Our Rental House into a Home

A funny thing happened this past year. I don’t know if it was because we actually did take the time to hang up some artwork or curtains or replace the dining table (with chairs ordered and arriving soon!) but our rental house has slowly started to feel like a home. A temporary home for sure but at least a little bit more like us.

It’s far from being done but it’s been fun seeing it start to come together even if it ends up doing so just in time for us to move again.

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