It's time to share my theme for the year and how I'm using it to guide me in my third year of keeping a bullet journal.
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In 2019, I embraced my chosen theme --
Less is More -- as best I could. By the end of the year, I was proud of the progress I had made on my goals. When considering themes for this year, though, I realized I still had some work to do on last year's goals.
So I picked a theme for this year that would allow me to continue moving forward. Inspired by my green goals of reducing food waste and reducing household waste, I'm aiming to
Live Green in 2020. I'm going to continue keeping a bullet journal to help me stay organized... Plus, I do a much better job on goal completion when the goals are all outlined in one place.
The minimalist look I adopted last year worked so well that I'm going to use it again this year. To expand upon the idea that less is more, I've decided to stop using some of the standard bullet journal spreads. I will no longer create the monthly spread at the start of each month. I found that using the monthly spread resulted in a lot of extra writing. It didn't make sense to me. Why was I writing things out in the monthly spreads only to rewrite them on my weekly spreads?
So I stopped creating them altogether. And life was great.
Keep reading to see how I plan to
Live Green in 2020 this year and how I designed my bullet journal spreads this time around!
For me,
living green isn't only going to be about focusing on the impact our family has on the environment. There are many ways to live green. And the color green has so many different meanings.
I took all those meanings into account when choosing my theme for the year. When I thought about the color green, five words popped into my mind:
- Growth
- Progress
- Prosperity
- Renewal
- Balance
When I identified specific goals for the year, I made sure they fell into at least one of those five categories.
Growth
- plant herb garden
- grow planter tomatoes
I had more success with
last summer's potted herbs than I thought I would. That success has inspired me to
plant another herb garden this spring. And, to test my budding green thumb, I'm going to attempt growing
tomatoes in a planter on our deck. The kids love tomatoes, so I know we'll eat every single tomato that grows out there.
*fingers crossed that something actually does grow out there*
Progress
- reduce food waste
- reduce household waste
You'll notice that these goals are two of the same goals I had last year. As I said earlier, I want to
make more progress on these goals and to make an effort to push myself further. I have some untapped ideas on ways to continue
reducing our food waste. Plus... I fell in love with
MightyNest and I love incorporating more sustainable products into our day-to-day lives to
reduce household waste.
Prosperity
- pay off credit card
- pay off one student loan
Again, the same general goals as last year. Paying down my debt feels so great. And I'm so grateful that I'm finally in a place that allows me to sock a little extra money away in savings each month.
Renewal
- plan monthly dates
- create more new blog content
I first
started keeping a bullet journal in 2018. One of my goals for that year was to plan monthly dates with Stephen. Our work commitments made achieving that goal a little difficult, though, so I didn't make monthly Date Nights as high a priority the following year.
I regret that decision.
With everything we have going on with our respective careers and the kids... Stephen and I need to make time for ourselves. We're much better partners for one another when we do have one-on-one time. Given my commitment to this goal, we stand a better shot of succeeding on
monthly dates this year.
As for creating
more new blog content, you're all already seeing evidence of this. My content calendar is keeping me on schedule (for the most part) and motivated to keep writing and to keep making those back-end updates to improve the look and usability of the blog.
I'm bummed that I'm not sharing my theme for 2020 with you on the day I had planned to, but I'm only one day late. I had intended to sit down and finish writing this post last night, but it didn't happen. I didn't have the energy or enough brainpower to string two sentences together.
This reality just emphasizes that, even with a content calendar, things happen. Life gets in the way and priorities shift... And, honestly, it's not a huge deal!
Balance
- read 20 books
- plan monthly "mom only" outings
I fell short of last year's reading goal by one book. I had to accept the fact that I didn't have as much time to read as I thought. But I didn't want to nix the idea of reading altogether and lowered my
reading goal for the year from 25 to 20. And, thanks to my trip to Atlanta for work earlier this week, I've already finished reading
my first book of 2020.
Why does a reading goal fall under "balance"? Because carving out time to read means I'm closing the work laptop for a little while. I'm taking a break from enriching the kids' lives with books so I can enrich my own. Reading keeps me grounded, hence... "balance".
And the
"mom only" outings?
That's an obvious goal. I love my husband... I love my kids...
But in order for me to be the best wife and mother for them, I need to take better care of myself. I need to schedule time away from them to regroup and find my feet again. This month, I attended
a cooking class as part of my
40 Before 40 challenge... and the class was the perfect escape from my usual routine. By the time I got home from the class, it felt like I had oxygen in my lungs again... it felt like I could breathe without feeling stressed out about my to-do list.
Time for me is 100% necessary, and I can't wait to plan my next outing!
Besides these goals, I've also decided to track
how much money I'm saving throughout the year. I want to have a visual representation of the savings to make sure I'm putting enough money into each bucket. While I don't have a specific dollar target to share, I am looking forward to seeing the category totals... for retirement, the kids' 529 accounts, and general savings... at the end of the year.
Do you have a theme for 2020? Do you keep a bullet journal? Let me know in the comments below so we can keep each other motivated and inspired!
Previous Themes
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One year ago:
Less is More in 2019
Two years ago:
Weeknight Beef Stroganoff
Three years ago:
Where I've Been
Four years ago:
Movie Night with G.H. Cretors Popcorn
Five years ago:
Vinoteca di Monica - Boston, MA
Six years ago:
8 Soup Recipes to Make for National Soup Month
Seven years ago:
Sushi Zen - New York, NY
Eight years ago:
Food Memories of Atlanta: Carpe Diem Cafe & Bistro
Nine years ago:
Idea for Valentine's Day: Wine and Chocolate Tasting
Ten years ago:
Brunch at Philip Marie Restaurant
Eleven years ago:
Orange Sage Risotto
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