I am a little late to getting to my September 2024 monthly goals post. Well, I mean September just started, but I usually start thinking about my September goals midway through summer when I’m feeling guilty for getting nothing accomplished and craving some routine again. Even before I had kids, I always felt like September and the start of a new school year brought a fresh start, a new beginnings. For me, it feels like New Year’s even though I no longer am in school (although now that I’m a mom with 1/2 my kids in school, I do feel like it’s a fresh start all over again). So I love to set goals and hit the ground running after Labor Day ends.
Of course, now that I’m a mom, it’s a bit harder to hit the ground running after Labor Day. There’s the transition back to school and the fact that nothing ever starts on the same week and figuring out the new schedules and activities and helping the kids get through the massive transition of a summer off to scheduled, full days. But I’m really feeling the pull right now to get going on my goals, so I was eager to write down my September 2024 monthly goals. In part, it’s because this summer was a real juggling act, where I mostly just tried to keep balls afloat but didn’t feel like I really moved the needle forward in any way. Although now that I’m writing that I think I’m selling myself short in many ways. I was able to take on a stack of new brand collabs and partnerships, which something I’ve slowly delved into. I got a lot of home projects done. We did some traveling and adventures, and I accomplished quite a bit on my August goals list.
But it’s time to look forward. No point in looking back right? I actually thought I had already written this post, and then realized that was August, but time has just flown by. So now, here are my August 2024 monthly goals.
Get Trees/Privacy Hedge Installed. This was an August goal, but I’ve moved it to my September 2024 monthly goals because they recommending waiting until the summer heat and sun die down before planting new trees and shrubs.
Do a Fall Clean Up. We are slowly learning the ins and outs of home ownership and I am remiss to say that we have really neglected our lawn and landscaping. I thought this was the year I’d learn gardening. But alas, I didn’t become a master gardener this year and let the existing planting get a little overgrown and overrun with weeds etc. The Type A in me can’t stand to look at it anymore and I just feel too overwhelmed with where we’re at to start. So long story short, I want to do a big fall clean up and get everything in tip top shape before the leaves begin to drop.
Finish a Slate of House Projects. We got a lot of house projects done in August and I’m really excited and proud of where we are, but I have a list of projects I still want to get accomplished before bebe arrives. For this month, this list includes:
-Paint hallway
-Install hallway light
-Bedroom design finalized and window treatments ordered.
-Have Bedroom wallpapered or painted
-Change knobs on James dresser and paint
-Cover living room chairs
-Window treatment for kids’ bathroom
-Nursery art
-Mudroom wallpaper installed
This feels like a lot of home projects to put on my September 2024 monthly goals list. I am going to prioritize: nursery, primary bedroom, hallway, and living room cushions. I’d love to have it all done, but that feels like a good list.
List Facebook Marketplace. I have so many home items and toys we need to get rid of. My goal is to list and sell all that this month to clear the way for baby… and more home stuff!
Closet Sale. I started to work on cleaning out my closet and have bags of giveaway set. But I need to do a closet sale. I set up the Instagram account and started populating it, but I really need to find time to dedicate to just getting it up and publicizing it. I’m going to schedule it into one day.
Reach 100K on Instagram. Sadly, with the algo shifts this summer, new feature rollouts causing glitches and struggling to get on top of everything, my growth has been so slow. I feel so close to my goal and yet so far away. I know it feels like a vanity metric, but as I’ve mentioned before, it’s a big milestone in terms of working with brands, and I really want to get
Plan a Trip to London. I couldn’t make this work this summer with schedules etc, and I’m a bit nervous about traveling that far this close to my due date (the Braxton Hicks have begun), so I’m thinking we will go for our anniversary and maybe bring the baby. Or Maybe the baby and bigs and leave Brooks behind if he’s still as hard as he is now. Or should I just risk giving birth in London and go solo this weekend?!
Secure More Brand Partnerships. As I’ve mentioned before, I want to expand and diversify my business. To that end, I really want to work to build relationships and secure partnerships with some of my dream brands. This is out of my comfort zone, as pitching myself is new to me and sometimes feels uncomfortable (versus pitching a brand or business I’ve built or grown, which I did a lot in my corporate life, if that makes sense). I feel weird putting business goals on my September 2024 monthly goals list, but I think there is something to putting your goals and intentions out in the universe in order to manifest them, so that is what I’ll do.
Spend 1:1 Time with the Kids. Brooks gets a lot of time with me, but the bigs less so. Charlotte still does as she’s not in full day programs but James really doesn’t get a ton of me. I want to really invest some more time with my (big) babies, especially James right now. When the baby comes, my attention will be far more limited and even though, I feel like I don’t focus my full attention on the kids these days as I struggle to get so much done before baby and just in every pocket possible, but I can tell he needs more time with me and I feel it too.
Finalize and Host James’ Birthday Party. James’ birthday is coming up this month, and I’m behind on planning his party and getting all his gifts. I’ve partly been dragging while I wait for a full class list (whyyyyy can’t we just get things all at once?) but I want that done this week.
Work on Not Yelling. This is a big one for me. I really don’t want to be the mom that yells, and yet, I have found myself yelling and frankly, losing it on my kids this summer. It’s been stressful, my hormones are crazy, I’m exhausted, they’ve been fighting and acting up, but it doesn’t help for me to lose my cool. This is lower on my list but really one of my top Septamber 2024 monthly goals. This is so important to me so any recs for how to make this work would be greatly appreciated!
Stop Eating the Kids’ Snacks and Leftovers. I wrote this last month and did not follow it, but I really have a bad habit of doing this, and have sort of justified it by playing the pregnancy card, but frankly, I need to stop. If I’m hungry, I want to eat something nutritious that makes me feel good. I know I’ll be thankful to get back into that habit when baby arrives and I’m exhausted and ravenous from breastfeeding, so I’m prioritizing that.
Create More Service-Driven Content for Stories. I didn’t have the bandwidth to create more engaging content for IG stories this summer and I really miss doing it. I know I share a lot of links and random tips and day in the life stuff, but I think it’s more helpful when I can do roundups around things people need like boots or bathing suits for long torsos or get the looks or save vs splurges or top tips for whatever, so I’m hoping to do more of those now that the kids are back in school and I have a bit more time.
Stay on Top of Blog. My goals for three new blog posts a week may be overly ambitious, so I have a new plan for my September 2024 monthly goals. Publish two new posts a week, one of which will be What I Wore This Week, and then one day a week, I will update an old post. So it will still feel like fresh content Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and in many ways it will be, but I was struggling to do all this new content and update all this existing at the same time and it was just too much to stay on top of, so then I’d get overwhelmed and do none of it, which also isn’t helpful.
Continue to Experiment with Substack. I’ve been playing with format and making it more of a newsletter type situation or long form writing space. I don’t know what I want to do here tbh, but the weekly edits don’t seem to perform well enough to justify the time, so I’m thinking I need to play around more to see what type of content I enjoy producing here and what hits.
Do a Big TikTok Push. I am going to try to publish three times a day to TikTok for the month of September. This is a huge push for me and perhaps more than I can chew, but I’d really like to grow my TikTok and I think I need to give it a real try and now, before baby arrives, is the time. Let me know what you want to see from me on there!
Prioritize Where the Wins Are. As you can see from my September 2024 monthly goals, I have lots of work and personal and life goals and I think I tend to bite off way more than I can chew. There’s only one of me and I have three, soon to be four, kids, a dog, a husband, friendships I ant to build and nurture, and an 8 and 3/4 months pregnant body that is craving sleep. To that end, I want to get better at prioritizing my goals and focus based on what is giving the biggest payoff. And the areas I enjoy the most. I think I always put pressure on myself to do all the things but when I look at the most successful people in both my industry and in their work/home life, they’re focusing on fewer things and doing them really well, and I want to lean into that more.
And that’s it for my September 2024 monthly goals. It’s a lot. I have a lot I’m hoping to get done before I start to hardcore prep for Baby #4. Let me know what you have on your list this month.
Dedicate This Month to TikTok.
Comment