A few years back, I began writing monthly to-do lists to help me keep track of what’s on my plate. I share these lists here, and report back each month on what I was able to accomplish.
My June list focused on some rest and relaxation goals tied to reading, vacation time, and self-care. Here’s what I was able to get done in the last month:
- Read a bunch of really long books. In June, I was able to finish The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (1,100+ pages) and The Deluge by Stephen Markley (896 pages). They were both great and I would recommend either of them. (You can hear a full debrief of these longer reads on my YouTube channel.)
- Started an extended vacation. I blocked the last week of June into the first week of July to be out of the office and I started to tackle the revisions I need to do for a second edition of one of my books. It felt so good to spend dedicated time on this. (You can hear more about my writing goals and how I’m setting myself up for success on this podcast episode.)
- Logged minutes on my Peloton app. One of my summer goals is to exercise 2,000 minutes each month through walking, biking, strength training, meditation, yoga, and other activities. I was able to log just over 2k minutes in June (it was really down to the wire!), which I’m very pleased with.
- Scheduled a massage. This is one of my summer bucket list items, and I found out where I’d like to schedule the massage, so now I just need to take that next step!
June flew by and I loved getting in some intentional rest time and self-care. Now it’s time to plan for a new month of to-do items! I’m ready to launch into July and see what this next month will bring.
Here are some of the items on my July to-do list:
- Take time off of content creation. If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that each year I pause content on the blog and podcast for the month of July. This gives me a chance to evaluate all of my content channels, see what kinds of things I still like to create, and to brainstorm ideas for the remaining five months of the year from August through December.
- Make progress on my book project. As I mentioned above, I’m working on the second edition of one of my books and I’d love to make significant progress on this project in July. You can hear me chat more about this writing project and how I’m structuring my most recent writing retreat in this podcast episode.)
- Host a Prolific creative retreat. Starting in the summer, I host monthly day-long creative retreats in my online community. We gather for several concentrated working blocks to make progress on writing projects, or other creative endeavors that need some dedicated time. I’ll be using the time to work on more book progress!
- Set intentions for the second half of the year. I recently shared some questions for mid-year reflection on this podcast episode and I want to give myself some additional time to journal on what I want the second half of my year to look like. There will be a lot going on at work starting in the fall, so this is the perfect time to set intentions.
Once again, this next month is looking pretty full! What are you looking forward to in the month of July?