My October Goals: More Decluttering, More Reading, and a Charity Walk

Tyrone sitting in the tote I'm using for Limbo books.

In September, I had too many goals. I realized it within a week and let myself off the hook for some of them.

The goals that stuck were:
1. So Damn Domestic Clutter Free Countdown.
2. Blog my way through the countdown.
3. 750 Words daily writing challenge.

None of them were perfect, but all of them were finished. Sadly, 750 Words has a different definition of "finished" than I do. I'm okay with writing twice as much the next day if I skip a day. They consider that failing. One month I will complete the challenge by their standards and you will be mine, Sassy Horse Badge!

I want it. 750words.com

It's too late for me to sign up for the October challenge with 750words.com, but I will continue to use it as a brain dump and to write drafts.

My goals for October are as follows:

1. Remove all decluttered items from my home. I was originally only going to give myself a week to do that, but it's a bigger job now that I know I have to check everything for roaches and sanitize it before it goes anywhere. (It should be okay. I packed everything up in air tight-ish containers. Eeeee.)
2. Read more! I've decided to give myself a daily page number goal of 75 pages.
(More about this below.)
3. Promote and prepare for the NF Walk in L.A. on October 25. A sub-goal of this is to keep up my routines and start moving them earlier in the day. I have a few events scheduled, including the walk, that start early in the morning, and I'd like to be rested and strong for them.

I thought about structuring this month differently. Instead of having task-based goals, I thought about using the Todoist app to set productivity goals instead. "Complete X number of tasks per day." I might do something like that for November, when I have big things planned, (wink wink), but it doesn't feel right for this month.

These used to be organized by color.
It was beautiful.

I like the idea of a reading goal because at the end I can say, "Look how many books I finished!" The idea came when decluttering my books last month. I realized I have four long shelves of books I haven't read, or haven't read in a long time.

Four shelves is the amount after decluttering 60 books! 


Many of my books are "In Limbo," because they very well may be decluttered if they aren't life-changing and referenceable. I'm also reading a few library books for book clubs, and because I couldn't resist.

75 pages is not an ambitious goal at all. I purposefully set a low number so it would be achievable without getting in the way of all the other tasks. It's still more than I had been reading, and that's how goal setting works sometimes. It doesn't always have to be a big jump. So far I've read closer to 300 pages a day, because I got in the zone.

I finished reading my first book of the month yesterday and it felt great, as that particular accomplishment always does. I'm reading four at a time in different genres, which I wasn't sure was the best idea, but I'm enjoying it.

I think I'll go read right now!