Holy cow, can you believe we only have two months left of 2014? I’m kind of in shock at how fast 2014 has flown by. I guess having a baby mid-way through the year will do that to you, huh?
The second half of this year has definitely been an exercise in patience for me as I’ve tried to learn how to balance running a business and being a mom with a husband with a demanding job that involves regular travel. It hasn’t been an easy transition by far and there are times when I’ve been frustrated with myself for not doing more before the baby got here to make sure I’d be in a better place now. But I guess that’s how life goes sometimes.
What I do know is the days/weeks/months when I stop and take a second to write out my goals and tasks go a lot smoother. Sometimes it’s a few notes scribbled on a post-it, sometimes it’s a list in my planner and other times it’s simply a “To Done” list to remind me on those bad days that, hey I actually did get quite a lot done today, even if it wasn’t what I was hoping to do.
The key here is not that the process is fancy or involved, but simply that the act of writing out my goals a) cements them in my mind and makes them visible to me and b) forces me to prioritize and be honest about how much I can actually get done. If you have a tendency to take on too much like I do, part B is key!
Since we’re nearing the end of 2014 and with that comes another round of new-year goal setting, I thought it would be fun to start sharing my goals each month with you. For this purpose, I’m primarily going to focus on my creative/business goals rather than the less-fun home goals like “update the budget” and “keep our two bedroom apartment from looking like a disaster zone.” Some of these goals will be tied to my 14 in 2014 list which I’m still chugging along on and others will simply be new goals that have come up as time has gone on.
So with that bit of backstory, here are my creative goals for November 2014:
1) Launch another round of Holiday Faves: Yes, Holiday Faves is returning! Holiday Faves is my take on a holiday album and is hands down one of my favorite scrapbooking projects I do all year. Last year with being in my first trimester of pregnancy and having a baby vampire sucking all my energy, I didn’t get past putting the foundation of my album together, but this year I am raring and ready to capture our first Christmas as a family of three.
I will be releasing a NEW set of mini album templates specifically for this so stay tuned for those this month.
2) Make and send Ryan’s birth announcements (and thank you cards): I’m a little ashamed to still have this on my list considering our little guy will be five months on the 15th (say what?!) so I say it’s high time I got these done. I have a design in mind and the photos taken, just need to put it all together, gather addresses (ugh) and send it all out. We also owe all the nice people who sent us gift thank you cards so I’m going to be getting on that asap.
3) Finish my 2014 Week in the Life album: Photos has been taken and a design is in place so it’s just a matter of putting everything together. More details of my album to come but if you’re looking for templates, all three of my previous photo book template sets are now available in the shop.
4) Hang art work in the master bedroom and office: Numbers 7 & 9 on my 14 in 2014 list are to decorate our master bedroom and office/nursery. The nursery side of the office is all done but both the master bedroom and the office still need a little tweaking and some art work. I’ve got all the art work ordered and framed so it’s really just hanging it all up which should be fairly easy.
And those are my top creative goals for November! I’m sure there will be a few more to-dos and must-dos added to my list behind the scenes but these are the four goals that when I look back at the end of the month and have all four checked off, I’ll be able to be like, “yeah, I did awesome this month.” And isn’t that the point of goal-setting in the first place?
Now, what about you: what do you have cooking creatively this month? Share it with me in the comments below or over on the Nettio Designs Facebook page.
P.S. I’m currently doing a bit of research around the idea of creative goal setting and would love to know:
What do you find challenging when it comes to setting creative goals?
Leave a comment below or send me an email to share your thoughts!
My biggest hangup about setting creative goals is that they always get bumped to the bottom of the list by my day-to-day responsibilities. Even though I know that a daily dose of creativity, even a small one, will help my attitude tremendously I feel like it’s too indulgent/selfish/unimportant to give it priority. If I were to give advice to someone else, I would TOTALLY tell them to take time to feed their need to create. I guess I need to take my own advice.
YES, this is so true, especially about feeling selfish for spending time on ourselves. That seems to be primarily a female trait (or so it seems) which makes me wonder whether it’s something we innately feel as part of our instincts or if it’s a learned behavior. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Amy!
Hi Lynnette,
I have to agree with Amy — my biggest roadblock to creative goal-setting is that life, with all of its demands and obligations, gets in the way. Unfortunately, scrapbooking often comes last on my “to do” list because I am just too tired from work at the end of the day to tackle creative projects, even though I know that creativity is therapeutic for me. I am going to try taking Amy’s advice and set aside some “creative time” this weekend. I also plan on using your list as inspiration for setting some goals for November and December because things can get overwhelming this time of year.
Setting the goals is easy; it’s the follow through that gets me. Creative pursuits are for my “free time,” which comes after the kids are asleep. By then I’m worn out, and surfing online takes less mental energy than being creative. I complete the scrapping goals eventually (though they usually take me longer than I planned), but the non-digital tasks keep getting put off indefinitely due to lack of motivation.
Follow – through is the hardest part – especially making sure to finish on time!
Yes, so true Aggie! Thanks for sharing!