Every 90 days I review the goals that I’ve set for myself, and update the goals I have for the following quarter. We are now due for a review of Q2! I already covered some of this in my self-evaluation “performance review” but I also wanted to go through this whole list a little more formally.
Q2 Goals Completed
Of the list of Q2 goals I outlined three months ago, here’s what got done:
- Burnout book manuscript done and delivered
- Money is in a good place – emergency fund set up, business is cashflow positive
- Most of the fire safety work got done, though I still need to take down some dead trees
- The garden is in!
- I taught four classes and offered a free webinar this quarter
- I did some email marketing for coaching, Patreon and classes. It actually worked in terms of spikes in visits and sign-ups (but hasn’t moved the needle for coaching clients)
- Self-published a book!
- I submitted fiction once per month toward publications
- Just a few days ago, I hit my preliminary Patreon goals for subscribers and monthly income. I’m not sure what my next goals there will be. I might shift attention to YouTube?
Things that Surprised Me
- In Q1 I did a Persephone podcasts with Alicia, in Q2, we also recorded Hera and Cassandra
- I visited Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu and the Georgia O’Keefe museum. It was a beautiful rest, as well as a lesson learned in seeing from my own perspective.
- I started a sourdough starter “project” – the sixth loaf actually turned out almost okay! (I also experimented with jerky, kombucha, sauerkraut, crackers, etc.)
- A huge hailstorm did some damage to the house, so insurance, contractors, skylights – thanks for the homework, universe.
I called it when I said my body would slow me down. I have lost a day per week most of this quarter going to doctor’s appointments 60-90 minutes away from home. Mostly allergy shots, but there’s a lot of things going on.
Goals I Set That Did Not Get Done
The peer review on Advanced Unicorn Theory took much longer than expected, then between hailstorms, medical visits, and life in general, I did not get to work on it even after it came in. This will be top of the list for Q3.
I also didn’t get my proposal package done for the book that will come out of my dissertation. I think, to a certain extent, this keeps getting deprioritized because I need more ideas or insights around it — there’s a lightbulb moment that hasn’t happened yet. It doesn’t have the spark of excitement right now, and I’m okay with that.
The content I planned to create in Q2 has decreased in quantity and rate from Q1. I wanted to do a lot more videos and blogs and simply never did. In Q1, I completed 90% of the content I planned to create. In Q2, I only completed 80%. To some extent, it lacked energy, like the dissertation book. But I also had to do a lot of reprioritization with fewer working days and less time. This was what necessarily fell off.
What’s Working? What’s Not Working?
One of the things I’m really evaluating right now is where to spend my energy and time. I’m looking at what is working and what’s not, to see where I should be doing things. This also helps me figure out how to set goals for Q3.
- The project to write a poem each day this year has been very interesting and fruitful. I have started to see how it might take shape into a chapbook. I’ve also written a lot of very bad poems.
- Requesting endorsement blurbs for the Burnout book is hard. I make myself ask, but it’s still hard.
- I like having a themed month for my Patreon, that worked well for me, and kept me inspired. (This month is Arthurian Legend)
- Avoiding social media and the news is good for me
- Though I’ve been in and out of doc offices all dang quarter, I really am trending in the right direction. My bloodwork is overwhelmingly positive, including decreases in inflammation markers
My Q3 2025 goals:
- Getting the peer review edits into Advanced Unicorn Theory is at the very top of the list
- The Burnout book has been copyedited, so I need to respond to those edits by 7/15, and keep asking for more endorsements
- My Morbid Anatomy classes have been submitted through January 2026. I’m waiting for 2 more pages to go live, and I’ll have the whole set ready to post.
- I’m going to be learning how to market and sell Magic, Murder, and Machines, and then also applying those lessons learned to a third self-publishing project in September.
- I’ve got at least one more podcast planned for this month, but I’d love to do even more of them. I have a lot of podcasting friends, so I want to get on their schedules.
- I’d love to have the art done for the oracle deck I’ve been working on
- Maybe, if the inspiration is there, the dissertation proposal should be out and querying by the end of this quarter (we’ll see)
- I’d also like to have the Greek Myth retelling novel back into edits and rewrites.
- The hailstorm house repair needs to be complete by the end of this quarter or I shall lose my marbles.
- I tried to get my shingles vaccine last quarter, but they said I had to wait til I turned 50. So this quarter I’ll be getting shingles, flu, covid, and pneumonia vaccines.
- As I go through my craft room and organize it, I have decided I’d like to organize a community craft supply swap. A lot of us in the area are artsy, and we could probably destash and declutter to trade with one another. It could be a fun way to connect with my neighbors!
- Financially, though my business itself is cashflow positive, it doesn’t yet pay a living wage. I’d like to be able to pay my bills without tapping into savings, even a little bit.
- I’m looking forward to the garden, and the canning, preserving, pickling and ridiculousness that that entails. I’m also getting better at sourdough.
Things that Might Get in the Way?
Just like last quarter, it’s always a good idea to also anticipate what might cause roadblocks in the intended path. That makes it easier to be agile and reprioritize if and when that happens, and it often informs what does and doesn’t make it onto the list.
The biggest thing again this quarter is my physical body. It’s monsoon season, which means I don’t sleep as much or as well, and I have lower energy due to pain. While the doctor’s appointments have slowed down to local allergy shots, I’m still going to have to take care of myself.
I may have some travel happening, as well as potential house guests, so that requires planning ahead and adjusting workloads as well so I can relax during those times.