October 2016 Goals Review

Today’s post is an overview of how well I did throughout October with my goals, which I wrote about here. But here is a quick recap:

• Read two books this month
• Revise Spanish/Italian for 30 minutes every day
• Eat healthier
• Drink a litre of water every day (I added this one after making the post).

Okay, goal number one was a complete failure. As I wrote about it here yesterday, I did not manage to finish one book in October, let alone two. This is the first time this has happened to me this year and I do not like it, so I am determined to get back into reading throughout November.

Goal number two was again not great. I started my second year at uni this month and I have been getting into a routine for that, as well as keeping on top of all the work (which there is a lot more of than last year), so I have been pretty busy with that. However, only today I was thinking about how much more work I need to put into my languages, as this time next year I will be on my year abroad. I need to get to work.

Goal number three was a reasonable success. I have been eating healthy lunches and dinners every night, however, recently I have been snacking on a lot of things I need to cut down on.

Number four was a success! I have drunk a litre of water every day this month. For someone like myself who before drunk hardly any water, this is a huge step forward for me and something I will definitely continue and hopefully improve on even more.

This is a quick summary of how I did throughout October. I didn’t set very many goals as I was just getting back into goal setting, and I wanted to keep it vague to make it a little easier. Next month I will be setting more specific goals regarding eating healthier, getting back into reading and improving my Spanish and Italian.

 

Books I’ve Read: October Review

For the first time this year, I am sorry to say I have not read one book this month. I am disappointed about this but I have been in a reading slump, and I also started my second year at university this month so I have been busy with that.

As I mentioned in my last book post here, I said that I was reading a YA novel: The Potion Diaries by Amy Alward. I am still reading this and I have slowly progressed so that I am in the last 100 pages now. However, I have still not finished it. I don’t know why because everything about this book is very quirky and unique: the plot, the characters, the fictional world, the language, the way it is written… everything. So, I have been really enjoying it. But not enough to finish it in a few days like I normally do with a book.

Perhaps I have been in a reading slump as well because I have not been watching so many BookTube videos recently. When I watch videos about what people have been reading, seeing their hauls and their TBR’s, this always massively motivates me. So, I need to get back into this.

On the other side, I have also not been reading so much because I have been watching a lot instead. I spent last weekend watching the first season of Stranger Things on Netflix. Furthermore, I watched a total of 4 films yesterday alone, as well as a few more earlier in October. I have been enjoying watching more but I need to balance my time better so I get some reading in there as well.

October 2016 Goals

This post is very similar to something I use to do very often, which was called ClearTheList. This was, basically, a monthly goal setting chart. I want to get back into this as I think setting short term realistic goals are a great way to be productive and achieve more. These goals can be as little as changing one thing about your diet like ‘eat one more piece of fruit every day’ or ‘go walking for 20 minutes every day.’ Whatever it is, as long as you are improving yourself or your lifestyle for the better then everything counts.

My goals in the past, however, have been quite academic based… specifically language based. Because I study Spanish and Italian at university, I like to set myself goals at the beginning of every month to try and improve a certain area of that subject. For example, ‘revise vocabulary every day for 30 minutes’ or ‘read 10 pages of Spanish every day.’ But then I stopped doing this over the summer and now because I am only just getting back into goal setting, I am going to keep mine a little vague and cover a few areas of my life (university, reading, and diet) and then see how this month goes. I will review the goals at the end of the month and, hopefully, I will have done well and then I will set more specific ones in more areas like exercise.

But without further or do, these are my goals for this month:

• Read two books this month.

I could set a specific amount of time to read each day but in the past this hasn’t worked and instead I like to just set a number of books to try and read by the end. I have been in a bit of a reading slump (mentioned here) recently so I don’t want to aim too high.

• Revise Spanish/Italian for 30 minutes every day.

I can alternate each day with a different language or however I choose, but I want to spend at least 30 minutes every day doing something extra outside of uni work to improve my skills.

• Eat healthier!

I have just moved back to uni and this week’s diet has not been good. But I start uni tomorrow and I am looking forward to getting into a routine and eating better. I am going to say I have achieved this goal each day if I have eaten more fruit and veg, had a healthy smoothie, and drank a lot more water… anything like this. I am going to try to begin to do all these things but slowly entwine them into my every day diet. Otherwise, I think I will go mad all at once, be great for a couple of days and then burn out and pig out on all the normal sugary foods.

I know these are not many goals nor are they very specific. But they are just different areas I want to try do better in and I do not want to be specific yet as I am only just getting back into goal setting.