I can’t believe I’m actually writing May 2023 monthly goals already, but here we are, over a quarter of the way through the year and almost at summer. The year is really flying by, as time is, and I feel like I haven’t accomplished nearly enough. That’s pretty much always how I feel though — a personality flaw (perk?) that both inspires me to always keep going and prevents me from ever being able to relax or feel satisfied or excited by what I’ve accomplished. It’s something I’m working on since becoming a mom and realizing how I am probably negatively impacting my own family with my out-of-control expectations, but it’s a struggle tbh. I can’t help it. I just always feel like I could be doing more. Hence, these monthly goals that help to keep me on track and focused on the larger picture. I’m also one of those people who could just keep adding more to her plate and getting caught in the weeds, so I’m really trying to use these goals to help me stay on track to focus on my larger yearly and five year and ten year goals (even though I haven’t really set the five and ten year goals yet, but maybe I should? I love how Mackenzie Horan has her 101 things in 1001 days list and have been thinking of making my own).
I have decided that some of my larger goals may not be able to all happen right now. As a working mom with three little kids, something has to give and I don’t think I can grow this blog and brand at the same time as writing books and doing some of the other projects I envisioned, so I think I’m going to try to laser focus on a few bigger things and then allow myself to try to savor my time with my family and especially this fleeting time with the littles while they’re little. I am acutely aware these days of how fast it goes by and I don’t want to miss out on anything. My May 2023 monthly goals are focused on getting everything done for spring on my list, from organizing, purging and clothing swaps to getting on a better schedule and finalizing our summer plans. Here are my May 2023 monthly goals. Now your turn, what is on your list and how can we help hold each other accountable?
Organize My Closet: We finally just painted our closet and gave it a refresh and now I want to get it organized as I unpack at long last all my spring and summer clothes. I’m going to order some organizers and start purging like crazy. Should I do a closet sale?
Set Up a Home Office: This has been on my list forever and I’m finally going to work on getting it done. We have a large room off of the primary bedroom that’s a closet but also has room for an office, so I am going to set up a desk and permanent wfh set up. This is long overdue and will help make me more efficient when I’m working from home.
Clean Out the Kids’ Toys and Set Up the Playroom: The kids’ playroom is set up in the basement and I love it. I don’t like having toys in the kids’ rooms or they stay up playing during naps and bedtime and it tends to lead to clutter, so we keep all the toys downstairs for the most part (with a healthy splattering in the family room). We just had the basement painted and it’s looking great. I now want to order some storage containers and units (Ikea is your bff for this parents) and get it all organized and do a major toy purge when my kids aren’t looking.
Map Out Social and Blog Content for Month: I have been doing a better job at posting more regularly on all the platforms but I’m still sort of doing it fly by the seat of my pants and when I have pockets of time. That’s been working for me with my crazy life, but I think it would save me time and stress if I did more batching of content and mapping out my social and blog content for the month and then allowing for spontaneity in between.
Post to IG and TikTok Daily: I’ve been doing a pretty good job of this but I miss some days so going to really try to post every day for a month.
Go on IG Stories Daily: I always intend to just jump on stories but then I freak out or think I sound like a dork or no one will care and don’t post. Or I just forget about stories. And yet, watching and interacting with other people’s stories is one of my favorite parts of Instagram. I’ve gotten really bad about stories in my mission to post more Reels and I don’t want that because stories is my favorite parts of IG. As the viral Reels audio says, “your fear of looking stupid is holding you back” so I’m going to stop worrying about looking stupid and just post. Don’t make fun of me, kay?
Set Up a Timeline for Kitchen Upgrades: It’s time for new countertops baby, and I’d love to add a console to the kitchen, some new lighting fixtures and maybe a rug. Not sure I can squeeze it in in May but I picked out the countertops and would love to have things ordered and on the horizon.
Finalize Summer Plans: Camp and activities are all set for the kiddos but we still need to finalize our August plans and I’m hoping to rent a house or book a fun family trip. We also have a week in July when James doesn’t have camp that I’m hoping to plan something fun during.
Make Paris Reservations: Andrew and I are headed to Paris this summer for a belated birthday celebration before heading to a friend’s wedding. I want to get my reservations booked now as we’re heading there during a busy time. Please send any and all recs.
Wake Up and Workout Before the Kids Get Up: I have been doing a terrible job of getting up before the kids since we got back from Florida, but it’s one of my #1 May 2023 monthly goals. My days just flow so much better and now that it gets light earlier, there’s really no excuse not to.
Update Blog SEO: I have been slowly chipping away at improving my blog’s SEO. I have 500 posts that haven’t been optimized (I know! It’s been so long), so I’m hoping to cut that number in half by the end of the month and be at 250. I think if I do 5-10 a day, I should be in good shape. I also want to work on optimizing and refreshing my top performers. It’s a lot while also trying to post new content three times a week but I love that my blog is something I’ve created and own and as traffic grows, I can then focus more on the design and user experience.
Put Phone Away When With Kids: I am so bad a this, but I really want my kids to know they’re more important than my phone and get better at putting it away before and after work until bedtime. Anyone have any tricks that helps them with this? Probably need to just leave it in another room.
Buy Less: I was going to say buy nothing, but that’s just not realistic. However, I really want to cut back on the Amazon purchases and Target finds as well as the Net-a-Porter sales picks that are too good not to get etc. It’s really hard not to shop all the time when you spend so much time sharing outfit ideas and shopping recs and work in fashion, and have so many reasons to get dresses especially now that the weather is warming up. But we have so many home plans we want to set in motion, trips I’d like to take with the fam, and I want to be more mindful and purposeful about my shopping. As I’ve been on a mission to do some spring cleaning, I’ve noticed that we end up with tons of stuff we don’t need or wear. Having a lot stresses me out, and makes it difficult to get dressed or cook or do things, so I’m really trying to pare down and be more thoughtful about investing in things that will last, that I truly love or need etc.
Map Out Living Room Plans: We’re still a way’s away from tackling our formal living room, but I want to start making plans for how it might look. It’s one of my favorite spaces so I’m looking forward to starting to tackle it.
And that’s it for my May 2023 monthly goals, as I gear up to finish out spring and get ready for a memorable summer.
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