Our August theme on Wit & Delight is about Drills—Plan and organize our lives around the values we want to promote, the goals we want to achieve, and the experiences we want to prioritize. With that in mind, I wanted to share a look at my own personal goals for the remainder of 2022.
My personal goals for the rest of the year are all about being really intentional with my energy and the decisions I’m making for myself.
I hope this post also encourages you to take a moment to reflect. What do you want for the rest of the year?
1. Return to work with renewed focus.
I have a renewed energy for the work I’m doing on Wit & Delight these days and want to put more of myself into it. My biggest goal is to go back to work with the same kind of focus I could have given before having kids. What does this mean for me show every dayFocus on priority projects and eliminate unimportant redundant tasks.
I understand myself and my work goals a lot better than before, and our time with our kids is a little more flexible now than it used to be. We’re hoping to have an after-school babysitter for the kids this fall so I can once again have a truly work-specific 9-5 schedule.
2. Work *with* my brain — not against it.
To help avoid burnout, I want to continue to plan my days so that my brain works at its best. I learned my ADHD brain often dissatisfied with light or long-term rewards, like checking tasks off the list repeatedly or working on a long project. Instead, it looks for fast-acting dopamine, which often comes as a distraction from the work I need to do.
Instead of fighting hard against this reality, I tried to plan my schedule in ways that still stimulate my brain, building in time for varied and creative tasks in my life. throughout my day and week. Having a job that’s inherently creative is helpful because I get those dopamine hits from the challenges of creativity, play, and discovery, all of which are part of my job to some extent.
Ultimately, this shift is focusing less on the things I can’t fully control — less on “boiling the ocean” — and more on the simple act of creating everything, sharing everything. stuff and look for funny and interesting moments in it all.
I realized that there was so much to enjoy out there when I was able to distinguish between what was really important to me and what was not.
3. Be really intentional with your time and money.
Looking back on the past few months of spending freeze, I’ve learned that I tend to try to find quick fixes to problems. Usually, these fixes come in the form of spending money or packing up my calendar, often in unnecessary circumstances. When overdone, both of these contribute to burnout in my life.
For me, being intentional with time and money means going slower when it comes to making decisions. It also means knowing that saying yes to a task, activity, or purchase doesn’t feel emotionally burdensome when it’s “right” and aligned with my values. As I continue this process, hopefully more time and money will be spent on the things that I really interesting. I realized that there was so much to enjoy out there when I was able to distinguish between what was really important to me and what was not.
All of these goals come with a caveat: In the times when I don’t keep up with them, I won’t beat myself up for it. I used to think that if I beat myself up for any “failure,” I would feel motivated to do better next time. That kind of thinking would only (unsurprisingly, in retrospect) push me deeper into the vortex. Turns out, it’s a lot easier to get back on track when I’m not punishing myself for not being perfect.
Kate is currently learning to play the ukulele, leaving her husband, children and dogs desperate. Follow her on Instagram at @witanddelight_.
