Intentional Living: Weekly Goals

Last week was a busy one, about halfway through the week I started wondering if I was going to finish anything on the list, but slowly some got checked off.  The personal goals were the hardest for me to do because everything else kept me busy.  This upcoming week I hope to do better on my personal goals so I can keep my life / time and resources in balance as I work towards my goals.

Here is the update on last weeks goals:

Family Goals

1. Spend 1-on-1 time with each child everyday
2. Read a book to the girls everyday – Monday was a super busy day with the Holiday
3. Have the girls read 1 book to me 5 days this week
4. Do devotions with the girls every night (sometimes it gets late and we rush to get them into bed) – Didn’t get this done every night with the busy evenings, a couple late nights including our couple Date Night on Saturday.
5. Schedule a Date Night with Jake  – Went on our Date Night on 11/5
6. Schedule a Date Night with each child – Date Night Scheduled for 11/11/11

Personal Goals

1. Exercise – walk at least 5 days this week – As hard as I tried this didn’t get done, it was busy and a couple unexpected things came up.  I hope to do a lot better next week with this one.
2. Finish reading  The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman – Made it through a couple more chapters, maybe I will get it done next week.
3. Listen to The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
4. Go to bed by 10:30 or earlier on Monday through Thursday – We had a couple late nights with extra projects and activities going on (I think I only made it to bed on time once).

Home Management Goals

1. Weekly Dinner Menu planned and written by Monday – Completed a day early 🙂
2. Spend 30 minutes every day picking up / cleaning the house
3. Dinner on the table by 5:30 PM (Monday through Thursday) – Dinner was ready but not on the table on Monday because of the Fall Festival Activities
4. All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one day – Completed all the laundry from striping beds, washing, folding, putting away, and remaking the beds on Monday
5. Summer clothes pulled out of the main part of the closet and put away (it’s getting chilly and we are not wearing them as much now) – about halfway through this task
6. Pick the fresh vegetables that are ready and start preparing the garden for the first freeze. – big thanks to my sweet husband and girls for doing this for me and we even were able to share some of the goodies with friends!
   

Business Goals

1. Spend 10 minutes cleaning and organizing my desk (somehow everyone stacks stuff on my desk, myself included, and within a day I have a pile sometimes piles)
2. Pay all bills that come in the mail this week
3. Work on ideas for upcoming blog posts
4. Research ways to create more residual income – didn’t get to this one

Ministry Goals

1. Email our weekly Community Group update including upcoming events on the calendar, praises, and prayer requests
2. Alms & Legs Ministry – Email upcoming meeting reminder to members, write and print the meeting agenda
3. Meet a friend for Breakfast or Lunch
4. Pack our Operation Christmas Child boxes

Financial Goals

1. Stay within Budget on Groceries $40 for 4 – I went over budget this week. (thankful for the opportunity to stock up and a budget guideline even though I went over it this week.)
2. Pay off remaining debt – working on it and I see light at the end of the tunnel
3. Emergency Fund – save 6 months worth of living expenses – work in progress (we had two vehicle repairs recently which set us back a little bit)

Here are my goals for the upcoming week:

Family Goals

1. Spend 1-on-1 time with each child everyday
2. Read a book to the girls everyday
3. Have the girls read 1 book to me 5 days this week
4. Do devotions with the girls every night (sometimes it gets late and we rush to get them into bed)
5. Start the process of getting the girls passports
6. Go on Mother Daughter Date Night
7. File the last several weeks of coupons in my File Folder and Binder

Personal Goals

1. Exercise – walk at least 5 days this week
2. Finish reading  The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman
3. Listen to the next section of  Desiring God: Finding Complete Satisfaction and Joy in God by John Piper (I am going through this book with my Community Group)
4. Go to bed by 10:30 or earlier on Monday through Thursday

Home Management Goals

1. Weekly Dinner Menu planned and written by Monday
2. Spend 30 minutes every day picking up / cleaning the house
3. Dinner on the table by 5:30 PM (Monday through Thursday)
4. All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one day
5. Summer clothes pulled out of the main part of the closet and put away (it’s getting chilly and we are not wearing them as much now)

Business Goals

1. Spend 10 minutes a day cleaning and organizing my desk
2. Pay all bills that come in the mail this week
3. Work on ideas for upcoming blog posts
4. Research ways to create more residual income
5. Upcoming events, activities, and posted to my upcoming calendar

Ministry Goals

1. Make at least $25 towards my Creative Cash goal this week so I can give more to others.
2. Email our weekly Community Group update including upcoming events on the calendar, praises, and prayer requests
3. Alms & Legs Ministry – Email Meeting Notes to the Team
4. Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch

Financial Goals

1. Stay within Budget on Groceries $40 for 4
2. Close on our Refinance – Our plan is to go from the 30 year mortgage that we have been paying off to a 10 year mortgage with a lower interest rate.
3. Pay off remaining debt
4. Emergency Fund – save 6 months worth of living expenses

I think it is important to share and encourage each other as we seek to improve our lives and the lives of those around us.  I want to live intentionally not just hope all my dreams and goals come true.  When I focus on small steps of improvement I am able to see results as I get closer to my goals.  Some weeks I get closer to the goals I have in my life and other weeks a take a few steps back (life happens, emergencies occur, people get sick).  Once the goals are written down and shared it provides a guideline for what I aim to accomplish this week.

Why Share My Goals?

• To keep me accountable
• To share a piece of my life with you as I strive to be a better Child of God, Wife, Mom, Friend, Homemaker, Entrepreneur and the many other roles I have each week
• To have my goals consistently written down so I can gauge progress more accurately
• Create healthy habits in my life
• To encourage you to share your goals with me as you continue to grown and learn

How did you do this week on your goals?  Feel free to share or link to your list of weekly goals.

The picture above is one that I created for my own purposes, however, The “SMART” acronym was originally coined 30 years ago by Peter Drucker in his classic work, Management by Results