Living with JHS

April is a really busy month for me, and so I thought it would be a great idea to share some insight into my plans and goals for this month. I’ve already been fairly quiet on the blog in the past few weeks: as I explained, I’ve been concentrating on my dissertation and other university assignments. I have been wanting to share my monthly goals with you all for a while, as I believe that monthly goals are something that is helpful for those with chronic illness, especially when they have small & achievable steps.

At the start of March, I posted on my social media platforms (if you don’t follow them, you can find the links here) about that fact I would be quiet on my accounts due to concentrating on my dissertation. The main reason for that was due to the deadline being this Friday, buuuut the module supervisor recently changed the deadline to the 28th (WOOHOO!). I have mixed feelings about this though. Why? I’m happy because it gives me more time to proof-read and edit once it’s written up, however it’s longer before it’s done and out the way, although I will be handing it in as soon as I’m 100% happy with it (if that’s ever going to happen).

The best thing about it all? I’m now on my Easter “holidays” from uni, which means for the next 3 weeks I don’t have my twice-weekly commute to York. So, without further ado… my April plans.

Plans

Well, where do I begin?

If you’re a regular follower of mine, then you’ll know that my part-time job dedicates a Thursday and Fridays of my weeks. However, as you can see from the schedule, I’ve had to do a lot of changing around of my hours to try to fit everything in.

On Friday, my family (two sets of Auntie’s and Uncle’s, my cousin and my Nan) are coming up, which means a full house on Friday night before we head on up to Haggerston Castle in Berwick, Scotland on Saturday. There we’ll be meeting my sister, my brother and his family, and my other sister and her family. Over the full course of the week, there will be 22 of us in total. I’m so looking forward to it! The reason? Well this holiday forms the beginning on my 21st celebrations, plus it would have been Nan and Grandad’s 60th Anniversary at the end of the month and 10 years in September since we lost Grandad, so we’ve decided to all get together. It should be a very good week, I love family time!

When we get back from that, I have another hectic week. The weekend we get back is Easter weekend, and then I have a spa day and Ed Sheeran with my two best friends during the week – again something to look forward to!

Trying to fit around all of this, is the work I have to do for all of my deadlines. As you can see, I have two deadlines at the end of April which means that every spare minute, my head will be buried in books, journals and my laptop.

So, as you can see, a very busy month… especially for someone who has a chronic illness. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the break with my family and the couple of days with my girls will do me some good and help me get through the month. It’s going to be stressful, but it’s going to be fun.

Goals

Looking at my schedule, I’m sure you can already guess what some of my goals might be, but here we go:

• Try and get my assignments, especially dissertation, completed as soon as possible.
• Pace myself when I’m away, so I don’t overdo it and miss spending valuable time with my family.
• Write up the month’s planned posts to schedule, so you don’t miss out while I’m away.
• Ensure that I get some great photos while I’m away, especially family photos.
• Participate in stress-relieving and mindfulness activities to keep stress levels down around deadline time.

This is something I’m hoping to keep doing in the future, with a monthly round-up included of the previous month. There’s no point writing these posts if I don’t then report my progress.

I’m glad I finally got around to starting my monthly goals, and I hope you enjoy them too. Do you set monthly goals? If so, how do you track your progress?

Talk to you soon, lovelies.