for each month of this year (I started in March), I’m going to be doing a monthly challenge, where I practice something NEW for the entire month (about 30 days). I didn’t want to preselect all the challenges for the entire year, because I’m always changing and there are always areas of my life that change and some need more help than others at certain times.
let’s start with a recap of the last month and then get into this month’s challenge!
september’s challenge: recap
september’s challenge was to listen to a new podcast episode everyday. I didn’t do this very well, because it’s impossible for me to listen to podcasts while doing anything that requires typing or writing (which is a big chunk of my job.) either I work more slowly, can’t focus, or I just end up turning the podcast volume down and can’t even hear the podcast.
when I’m cooking in the kitchen, it’s much easier and enjoyable (caught up on my friend Liz’s Healthier Together podcast and some episodes of How I Built This I’ve been wanting to listen to), but in general, podcast listening is tough for me. I don’t drive distances in the car or commute otherwise when a podcast would make sense. I don’t walk to work or take the Subway.
needless to say, I won’t be incorporating this into my daily life, but it was great to catch up some podcasts and I really enjoyed the episodes I could actually focus on listening to. however, it isn’t something I’ll be making a conscious effort to do more of.
october challenge
I’ve spoken about this before on this blog, about how taking care of things like tidying up the house and meal prepping is my “self care.” it’s self care, because it allows me to do things that make me happy and relax me, like spending time with Luca and Lu.
these things include cleaning all the dishes in the sink and putting them away, prepping Luca’s muffins at night so I don’t have to do it in the morning, making a to-do list before I go to bed so I don’t have to stress about it, I have a gameplan already set up. another thing is working out in the morning, instead of leaving it for the late afternoon.
SO my October challenge is to set myself up for success each night. I started last night so I’d start this month off well. last night, the entire kitchen was clean, my clothes were put away, my desk area was cleaned, and all of Luca’s eating utensils were put away and ready for use in the morning.
it felt really good to wake up to a clean space, ready to start the day. and I got to spend more time with Luca, which started the day off really well.
I’m looking forward to this, mostly, because I need to be a better organized person. and this is one step in the right direction!
what will your october challenge be?