How come that the time flies by quicker and quicker? Perhaps because I am becoming busier and busier, and because I have cut TV from my daily routine to accomplish more things.
So here goes the March recap, which included a gorgeous Wedding anniversary in Rome.
- Keep the desk tidy and to do lists up to date. Yes, and even more. I threw away at least 10 tons (I am not that good at weights, you see) of old paper; i donated lots of books to friends and the local library and now I have sooo muuuch space in my study. Which makes my thoughts flow like water (so tired today I am becoming a poet).
- 3 posts a week, 1 English, 2 Spanish. The Spanish ones need to be clearly for implementation in work life. Seems like I did it. I’ll keep the routine, because more seems to be impossible for now.
- Research on a suitable ecological food options in Barcelona (those that bring fresh ecological fruits and vegetables to your home every other week) and start to make weekly plans for dinner. This should take lots of stress out of the daily “so what is it for dinner today?”. Done!!! I am getting 5 kg of fresh fruits and vegetables to the office every day and I am LOVING it. Furthermore our local food guy went out of business so now I am cooking ecological food for my entire team at work, which in exchange finances my Cello lessons. Good for moral and the Cello.
- Do regular exercises for my Catalan language course instead of stressing out the night before the next class. Epic fail. As I missed two lessons due to traveling, I really have to start going this weekend. Next saturday I have an oral examination and I am so NOT ready for it yet.
- Cultivate a positive attitude especially when faced with difficult situations at work (especially difficult people at work). Check. Reading “The Prince” by Macchiavelli again helped to see the world with a little bit less sarcasm.
So, next station: April coming. April is one of my favorite months, a mix between can’t-wait-for-summer-to-start, happiness-about-the-first- warm-sunrays, and longer days because of the summer schedule. So just like the trees around Barcelona I am bursting with energy. Never had so little problems getting up at 5:30 together with the husband.
- Finish the translation of “The Art of Being Minimalist” from Everett Bogue at Far Beyond The Stars into Spanish, including the adaptation of links and numbers for the Spanish reality. A good friend is doing the copy editor part so hopefully we can launch the version in the next two to three weeks.
- Start working on my first own book on how to organize your studies efficiently to still be able to enjoy life, even after Bologna (Note for the not-European readers: the Bologna process restructured higher education in most European countries by making courses shorter but with the same content: which means more hours in class, more projects to accomplish, and less encouragement to just explore your own interests.) I already have the outline so this month I want to write at least 2 chapters per week.
- Go through all kitchen cupboards and donate everything that I haven’t used since I stored it away last year when we moved in.
- Get the dog to his hairdresser for summer cut.
- Take the annual “handsome couple” picture for our wedding album (we have 53 pages for the next 50 years to put in a photo of the two of us every year). We are already 2 weeks late, so we can’t leave it for much longer.
- And then there is the personal quest I have with the husband: one month without spending money on anything which is not absolutely necessary (so this excludes food and meeting for tapas with friends. Because without the latter we would renounce our social live).
Rereading it I feel I am getting a little bit too ambitious… but that’s spring time kicking in!
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How it works:
Post a list of your career/life related goals for the current month, along with your checked off goals from the previous month if you’d like, on your own blog.
Visit the Goal Meet-Up post at Brazen Careerist and leave a link to your post in the comments (*If you don’t have your own blog, feel free to share your list of goals in the comments section of the post to join in!)
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Minimalist Musings in Mataró 
I love how you have “write a book” and “get the dog’s hair cut” in the same list. I’m also really really excited about Spring, especially the spring thunderstorms. Love it!
Good luck on the book, it sounds like an interesting topic. I’m also writing some articles about education in the US so it would be neat to compare notes.
You will laugh, but writing a book seems easier to me than getting the dog’s hair cut. The first I can do whenever I have my computer (or any computer for that matter) nearby, while the haircut… well I have to coincide with the dog and the hairdresser for a period of 3 straight hours. Which reduces the eligible days to Saturdays, and only if my Catalan course finishes on time.
On comparing note: I have some notes in Spanish, if you are interested.
I’m not even dating anyone but I LOVE the idea of taking pictures of yourselves each year! And it will be a fantastic memory. I know I found some photos of my parents that they had put away when we were little. I put them in a new album for them, and they were so shocked to have those pictures again. Life gets busy, but it sounds like you’re on track to make sure you don’t miss it.
Actually you can do it without any partner as well 😉 I used to safe one photo each time I sent my CV to a company (in Germany it used to be mandatory to attach a photo), so I have a bunch of small photos of myself during different stages in my live (and getting ready for different jobs). It’s a nice reminder and those passport-sized photos do not really need space to be stored.