Last year, I began writing monthly to-do lists to help me keep track of what’s on my plate. I thought it might be interesting to share these lists here, and to report back each month on what I was able to accomplish.
My July list focused on my “restful July” project and making more progress on some summer goals, but I held back on a BIG SECRET PROJECT that I was working on in July — more on that below (and in this podcast episode). First, here is what I was able to accomplish in the last month:
- Took a break from content creation. Each July for the last several years, I’ve taken a break from podcasting and blog writing. I call this my “restful July” project and it’s always been a really refreshing time of year for me. This break was pretty perfectly timed since I had a few other things I needed to focus on in July…
- Finished my change management credential. Done! With just three classes left to wrap up, I was able to get this completed by the end of July. Getting this done at the end of July was perfectly timed so that I could put my energy into some new directions…
- Completed a goals refresh for the second half of 2021. This is done! I’ll be sharing more about this goal refresh on the podcast soon and it was also perfect timing since I’m getting ready for a BIG transition…
- Read at least 15 books toward my summer reading goal. Done! I loved tucking into more fiction this past month, including some pretty great audio books.
Okay, enough teasing! If you follow me on social, you might have already seen some pretty big news:
I’m about to transition jobs —that’s right, we’re moving again!
In late June, I accepted a new role at CU Denver that starts in mid-August. I’ll be joining the institution to serve as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Digital Strategy and Learning and I’m thrilled to be taking this next step in my leadership journey.
Want to hear more about this transition? Check out this podcast episode to hear all about it.
This transition meant that I also had a few other tasks on my July to-do list that I couldn’t talk about until the news was public. In July, I was also working on:
- Prepping our Kansas house for sale. This mostly entailed a LOT of packing. To stage our house, we moved about 70% of our belongings into the garage. It was a pretty big project, but I’m glad that phase of our packing is completed.
- Finding a buyer for our Kansas house. We are now under contract with a buyer for our Kansas house, which was a huge relief for our speedy moving timeline.
- Taking a trip to Denver to house hunt. By the end of the first week of July, we were under contract with a house in Denver, so our house hunting trip was a success! Given the challenges of the pandemic housing market, we were pleasantly surprised that we could secure a new home this quickly.
Now it’s time to plan for a new month of to-do items. I’m ready to welcome August and begin to transition into the next phase of my career adventure.
Here are some of the items on my August to-do list:
- Prep the Denver house. We have some tasks related to the new house including installing some new carpet, updating the thermostat systems, and completing some items noted on the inspection report. We’re hoping to get a lot of these things completed early in the month.
- Move to Denver! We’ll be moving in early August so that I can get settled before starting my new job on August 16.
- Wrap up summer programs. In August, I’ll be wrapping up the summer writing group program and one of the coach training courses that I’m currently facilitating. It’s nice to close these out as we close out the summer months and transition toward the fall.
- Start a new job! Halfway through August, I’ll be launching into a new job and I can’t wait. I’m looking forward to meeting the other leaders that I’ll be working with, networking with faculty, and getting my feet wet with a deeper dive into data, policy, and strategic planning. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
- Finish my summer reading goal. I knew that reading 100 books this year by the end of the summer would be ambitious, so I worked ahead in July and got as far as I could. I think that I can still complete this goal, even with all the transitions this coming month.
Calling this a full month is a bit of an understatement! What are you looking forward to in the month of August?