OK, made it to the end of January! I didn’t quite post every single day, but I only skipped a couple, and I got a lot accomplished.

As I look back through my sketchbook/journal this month, I see projects and ideas, but I also see that I was thinking more about how I spend my time. I journaled a lot about what is most important and what is not, and it’s made the days seem richer – less filler, more substance. I’ve had some successes, but I’ve had some misses, too.

Like reading. I’ve been reading much more with the kids since I’ve set aside a specific time to do it. It’s been great. They love it for many reasons – books, obviously, but also, squeezing both of them in the rocking chair with me is conducive to silly play between them, good-natured swats and head rubs and hugs, which fills my heart. (We need those moments to remember when the days aren’t so Norman-Rockwell-perfect.)

But reading just for me has been almost nil, mostly because I spend my evenings typing away on blog posts. But I love that too, so I don’t feel like I’m really missing out. I do hope to have a little more time for fun just-for-me reading. (And, no, I’m  not going to finish my book club pick this month. But I’m going to finish it sometime.)

And meditation. Oy. I just keep forgetting. I’ve remembered a handful of times, and I loved it, but it’s not happening every day yet. And when I sketched out a calendar of posts for this month, one of my topics was purposeful exercise. Didn’t see that post? Ahem, moving on.

And cleaning out my workspace by the end of January? That didn’t happen either. When I post a project almost every day, the workspace gets more and more disheveled. (I just walked out to the garage and took this photo. It’s rough, I know! I don’t candy coat it.) I need to think about how I really want to use the space and plan it out thoughfully.

But there have been some successes. Like keeping the countertop clear. It’s vastly improved this month. I see something on it, and I quickly file it away or find its “home”. Keeping that space clear helps my mind stay clearer, too.

Meal planning has been very successful, which has caused me to use my glorified to-do list daily, which has caused an overall better structure to my days.

And working on my leftover “to-do” projects from last year clears out more of my workspace and my brain. It just feels so good to get things finished. (Don’t worry, there are more of these projects to come. I’ll never be truly finished.)

So, I haven’t completely made-over my life. But what has changed is my attitude about it. I keep coming back to “practice“. I look at my list of “misses”, and I really don’t see them as fails but, as a friend commented to me, opportunities to “practice for a better outcome”, to work toward becoming a little more excellent. There’s so much grace in it – it’s so freeing to me.

OK, so, I’m going to take a few days off. Tomorrow is the big Bunco fundraiser, so it’s going to be a busy, wild, fun, busy, crazy, busy day. Then I think the weekend will include squeezing in a nap (maybe TWO!) and just relaxing. (Or maybe I’ll win big at Bunco and spend a day at a spa!)

See you next week!

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This post is part of a 31 Day series about improving my days by being more PURPOSEFUL.

You can read more about it here. You can find all the posts in this series here.