how my 2020 goals have been affected due to the pandemic.

I started off this year writing out my goals and things I wanted to accomplish. I made my list and sat back, ready to take on 2020.

Six months later, and I can’t even begin to remember what I was thinking or doing in January.

The first half of 2020 has been a roller coaster and who knows when it will stop. It’s so tempting to just throw out my planner and cancel all my goals this year.

But I’m not quitting on my goals, I just need to revamp them a bit.

Here are my original 2020 goals

1. Read 1 book I own for every book I borrow from the library.
2. If I’m not into a book by page 75, stop reading (except if it is a book club book).
3. Post a book review for every book I read.
4. Post 100 blog posts this year.
5. Pay off the rest of my credit card debt.
6. Increase my emergency fund.
7. Max out my 401k contribution.
8. Run 15 5ks.
9. Try to average 70,000 steps per week.
10. Take a fitness class, like barre or yoga or pilates.
11. Work on my sleep by averaging 7 hours of sleep a night.
12. Adopt a skin-care routine.

And here is how I’m going to tackle them over the next 6 months:

Reading/writing goals

One of my goals was, for every book I check out from the library, I would read 1 book I already owned. This is because I have so many books on my bookshelves that I haven’t read. Well, I’m not doing so well with this goal. I managed to read 4 books from my bookshelf and then all the bookstores closed. I really wanted to support bookstores so I’ve been buying a lot of books from them which means my bookshelves are just getting more cluttered.

Maybe I should update this goal to read at least all the books I’ve bought this year?

I have managed to stop reading 2 books this year because I wasn’t into them which I think is a big improvement. I was able to recognize that I was not enjoying these books so I stopped reading.

I’ve posted 45 blog posts this year so I am just a little off track of making my goal of 100 posts. I’ve been in a bit of a reading and writing slump lately; I think staying in and social distancing may be getting me down. But I’m not going to change this goal – I’m still aiming for posting 100 posts this year and I can catch up with a little work.

Financial goals

I’m doing pretty good with my financial goals. I’m one of the lucky ones who has been allowed to work from home so I’ve just continued with my money goals as I’ve been doing since the beginning of the year. I’ve managed to pay off all my credit card debt (yay!) and I recently increased my 401k contribution.

However, the pandemic and seeing how a lot of our society’s jobs have been affected as a result, has made me realize that I do not have enough money saved in an emergency fund. So over the next months, I’m going to concentrate on increasing my savings and emergency fund. I know the rule of thumb is to have 3 to 6 months of expenses saved, but I think I’m going to aim for twice that. I know it will take a while but it will be a relief once I have accomplished it.

Fitness goals

I managed to complete one 5k before all of the other races I had signed up for were canceled. I know there’s a lot of virtual 5k runs that you can sign up and I don’t want to sound ungrateful but it’s not the same. For me, part of the 5k is the experience of pinning on my bib and lining up with everyone else and crossing that finish line.

I have been averaging at least 70,000 steps per week though. I have been walking so much in the past few months. I had to slow down a little bit in March and April because I had an injury but after that, I was back to walking lots of miles.

I was unable to sign up for a fitness class before everything shut down. I know that many places have their classes online now but, the same as with the 5ks, it’s just not the same. Part of my reasoning for signing up for a class was to get out and be in a room with other people who were also taking the class. I have fitness DVDs and videos that I’ve streamed, but it just doesn’t have that same energy.

So what am I going to do instead of in-person 5ks and fitness classes? I’m going to continue my long walks. Right now I am walking over 3 miles a day so I am basically completing a daily 5k. My goal has slowly morphed to walking at least 3 miles a day during the week and, on the weekend, walking at least 6-7 miles on one of the days. I’m still trying to figure out the fitness class. I’ve tried to make my own schedule and do either a video on youtube or a streaming class but I am just not consistent enough.

Other goals

Well, I still have not implemented a skin-care routine. That has nothing to do with the pandemic and everything to do with me being too lazy to figure stuff out. This is still on my list of goals so hopefully, I can work something out in the next 6 months.

Sleep – you would think I would be getting more sleep considering that my commute is now the 10 steps to my desk in my apartment but this is not the case. I think that because I don’t have to wake up as early as before, I am not going to sleep as early. I do have a feeling I am not averaging 7 hours of sleep, even though my Fitbit app tries to tell me that I am. I just don’t feel it. I don’t want to increase my goal and try to average 8 hours of sleep because I’m sure this just will not happen and will make me feel worse when I fail. I am thinking that I might try to implement some time of bedtime rule? I’ll let you know how that works out.

I’m going to make something good come out of the next 6 months.