February 2020 Powersheets Goals and January Accomplishments

Inside peek at my February 2020 Powersheets goals and what Powersheets 2020 goal planner inspired me to achieve in January for our finances.

The goal setting experts tell you that in order to truly achieve your goals, you have to be accountable for them. Whether you have an individual accountability partner, a small tribe of like minded people or broadcast it to the world on your blog, reporting your results to someone else really does make a difference between finishing your to do list and just wavering and waffling.

So I’m putting my goals out there for you to see, both to hold myself accountable so I can achieve these goals we’ve had on our list for a long time or have dared to dream about AND to show you just what is possible with the 2020 Powersheets in your corner.

I truly believe that planners are only effective if you use them. And if you don’t know about the Powersheets goal planner, you can get everything you need to know about Powersheets right here. I sincerely think that the Powersheets goal planner is the best goal planner for helping you pinpoint and follow through on your most important goals. But only if you do the work… every day, every week, every month.

Truth be told, there were months last year where I was too busy and overwhelmed with life that I didn’t work on my Powersheets. But I know that if I had done the goalsetting and celebrated my victories, even the small ones, I might have felt better about the month.

So this year I decided to do the Powersheets every month and write about it on my blog, so I make sure I use it to it’s potential even during the hard seasons, because honestly, that’s when I need it most.

As I talked about in my setting my Powersheets 2020 goals for the year post, I struggled with setting too many goals (I always want to do all the things) and making progress but not finishing anything. I learned that I tend to obsess over something until I get it working the way I want and then move on to the next thing. This tells me that I need to set fewer big goals and once those are done, I can shoot for more.

So my big 2020 goals are to:

1. Payoff our mortgage (through simplifying and fine tuning our financial routines so we can save every penny we can to make extra mortgage payments).

2. Declutter our home (through taking it one area at a time)

3. Double my blog income (through growing my email list to 10k subscribers). If you want to help me reach this goal, or stay tuned with me on my goal journey, subscribe to my newsletter here.

I love that the Powersheets helps me break down those huge goals into action steps that make sense. It helps me think through one time projects to complete during the month, weekly steps and daily steps (on the left) so you can get them on your action plan/tending list (on the right). Here’s how that goal breakdown and tending list looked at the end of January:

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Another quick note: The 2020 Dated Powersheets like I show in my pictures are sold out as of 2/4/20 and won’t be restocked, but you can still get a 6 month undated Powersheets. The 6 month Powersheets have all the same prep work and tending list pages, the only thing they are missing are the specific seasonal pages. Grab the 6 month undated Powersheets here so you can see how the Powersheets can inspire you to lead your best life fulfilling your most important goals!

How to use the 2020 Powersheets Monthly Calendar: January Schedule

I don’t typically use my monthly calendar in my planners for keeping my appointments since they are all in Google Calendar for easy access by the entire family. I’ll be toying with different methods for the monthly calendar spread in case an idea helps you utilize it to it’s full potential.

In last year’s Powersheets, they had a page where you could list in an “On My Calendar” column all your commitments for the month. In retrospect, it helped you see what has to be done (big and small) so you don’t overcommit or overwhelm yourself by selecting too many goals.

This year, they removed the On My Calendar list and replaced it with a full monthly calendar! I realized how important taking into account what you already have to do and seeing it on paper is essential to goal setting and planning. If you have a lot going on, select fewer goals or ones that encourage you to have more fun and make some time for what’s important.

So for January, I actually put down our commitments on the monthly calendar. I didn’t include times since that is in Google Calendar. I used the color coding dots from the Goal Setting Sticker Book to note the priorities of the day and then it’s easier to schedule in the goal work around it in my life planner (currently an Erin Condren Daily Petite Planner). I put a checkmark in the dot when the appointment was completed and added in some stickers and memories from the weekends where we had nothing scheduled (that will change as soccer season starts!).

In the side margin, I wrote in which of my goals was my focus each week for my blog and our home. I really loved how it turned out!

My Powersheets 2020 monthly goals: January accomplishments

Goal 1: Dec 2019 spending report

Last year, I had trouble keeping up with my monthly spending reports, but I went ahead and got Dec done and will probably go backwards and do the others.

But not only did I compete this report, I found a system after a lot of trial and error to make this report easier for me to get done. Part of the reason I wasn’t getting my financial reports done was it was time consuming and a total bore to do (and I’m a former accountant). I needed to find a way that would make it more fun and manageable on a daily basis so it wasn’t as hard at month end.

Status: completed!

Goal 2: Dec 2019 net worth report

Once the spending report was done, the net worth report was easy to do. We even reached our net worth goal which was an amazing surprise! Let’s hope paying off the mortgage will just make that net worth even better!

Status: completed!

A lot of my monthly Powersheets goals have to do with setting up my Budget By Paycheck (BBP) workbook from The Budget Mom (in the blue binder) and using cash envelopes. I really enjoy this method because it’s a paper and highlighter method (which automatically makes it more fun for me) and physically writing transactions down helps me both remember and realize what we spent so I’m not tempted to spend more! It really is an easy tip to save money!

Goal 3: BBP: Setup Bill Tracker

I got all our recurring bills, one-time big bills (like property taxes, maintenance agreement payments and sports fees) and automatic savings onto a bill tracker so I know the date it’s due, the estimated amount and what months I have to pay it. This helps to make sure you’ve got all your bills covered in your budget and bills calendar.

Status: Completed!

Goal 4: BBP: Yearly Financial Goals

Mortgage payoff is our big goal but we have some other smaller financial goals to continue paying our oldest son’s college tuition in cash, we got news we’ll need a new car, and some travel plans too!

I completed our financial goals for this year, 5 years out and beyond (when our 2 younger sons will be starting college!).

Status: completed!

Goal 5: BBP: January budget and bills calendar

I developed the January budget and bills calendar so I know exactly what’s coming in and out of our bank account each day. I first had it on paper but started a Google calendar just for our finances so I get a notification two days before a bill is due or is set to autopay out of our account.

Since the goal of the Budget by Paycheck method is to allocate every dollar to bills, savings or debt, theoretically, your checking account would be $0 at the end of the pay period. I am not quite comfortable with having $0 in my account, so I make sure we have a cushion for unforeseen bills and for when a bill is more than what I thought it would be. Still, when I get a Google calendar notification about a bill, I go online and make sure there is sufficient funds to cover it. This has really been helping me see how and when the money flows out of our account so I can better plan for it.

Status: Completed!

Goal 6. BBP: paycheck budgets (3)

Superhubby is paid bi-weekly so there were 3 paychecks to budget this month. Budgeting includes bills, cash envelopes for our variable spending and figuring out what’s left to allocate to savings and extra mortgage payments.

Small Victories:

• We paid an extra $1,000 towards our mortgage this month!
• Using cash envelopes helped me STICK to a $100 per week grocery budget for the 4 of us at home

Status: completed!

I kinda squeezed a goal on the tending list about our savings challenges. I signed up for The Budget Mom’s Savings Challenges course where she gives you 2 fun savings challenges a month and the cash envelopes and downloads/trackers to print.

I did 2 of her savings challenges in January and that gave us $125 for our extra mortgage payment. You can get her other savings challenge ideas for free too. The blue binder in the corner of the photo above is my Budget by Paycheck workbook. The mint blue A6 ring binder is a really simple, lovely and inexpensive pocket planner that I use as a wallet for my cards, license and cash envelopes that I hole punched.

Goal 7: Renew passports

Didn’t even start this but they are expiring in March so I gotta get on it!

Status: not started.

Goal 8: Blog: ultimate productivity bundle promo

My newest ebook the 30 Day Plan to Organize the Chaos in Your Mind and Life was part of the Ultimate Productivity Bundle. I did promotions as required by the contributor agreement but I didn’t promote too heavily.

Small Victories:

• Sold 1 bundle
• Gained 50+ new email subscribers <<–that’s the real gold here, because I love making real connections and providing real value with readers in my emails!

Status: Completed

Goal 9: Blog: Launch shop

I had split this project up into 10 minute tasks to do daily until complete. I was hoping that breaking them down into smaller tasks would allow me to just take the baby steps out of my comfort zone to get this shop live.

Small Victories:

• The shop is setup, I’m still adding product pages!

Status: made progress, but clearly baby steps weren’t effective.

Lesson Learned:

Daily habits are really hard for me to stick with, probably because I have 3 boys and probably because I have an autoimmune illness that changes with the weather, my hormones and stress levels. That’s a whole lot of unpredictability in there!

So I’m better off setting this up as a monthly project/weekly focus so I can knock it out and get it launched! I tend to look more at the monthly goals when planning out my weeks, seems like I think the Powersheets tending list is laid out in priority order. I look at monthly first when planning out my weeks, then weekly, then add in daily tasks.

Goal 10. Order TurboTax

I wanted to get our taxes done in February so in January all I needed to do was order and install Turbotax (I have the Home and Business edition).

Status: completed!

Goal 11: Earn $1,200 in blog income

My 2020 goal was to double my blog income which would mean earning $14,400 in 2020. I divided that total by 12 months to come up with $1,200 per month. This is not what I was paid. Since affiliate income is my major revenue stream, I get paid either a month or two behind when I actually earn the money. That lag in payment depends on the affiliate company.

So I track when income is earned because it shows me better what my readers are looking for and buying at the time. For example, I won’t earn commissions on the planners that readers bought in January until March. So I want to track when they bought it, since people aren’t buying as many planners in March. I didn’t do any VA work in January so I didn’t meet this goal.

What I realized after an Influencer Society video is that my blogging income, like most bloggers, is not a constant amount per month. Income and traffic spikes and plummets depending on your blog’s topics and what’s trending. So it can be difficult to earn consistent income.

In order to set more realistic and achievable goals, I will be revising my monthly blog goal going forward to be double what it was in the same month for 2019. So my February 2020 blog income goal will be to double what my blog income was in February 2019.

Status: made progress

2020 Powersheets: January month in review and wildcard page

On the back of my Tending List, I like to jot down anything unexpected that came up during the month that might have slowed down or deterred goal progress. It helps me keep things in perspective when I see uncompleted items at the end of the month. Whether good or bad, they are unexpected events and unforeseeable….this month, needing a new washing machine (which we bought) and a new car (which we haven’t yet, holding out as long as we can on that one).

I also like to document our happy memories and small victories to celebrate for the month. The January month in review helps me reflect on gratitude, what worked, what didn’t and lessons learned. I like the month in review but I like the page on the left with the unexpected, happy memories and small victories better!

how to use the 2020 powersheets monthly calendar: February goal progress

I like to try out different layouts for my monthly calendar to help you (and me) think outside the box on how to use them to benefit you. For the February 2020 Powersheets monthly calendar, I used my Zebra Mildliner highlighters to color code:

• the recurring appointments with dots (my sons’ sports practices in yellow and blue dots, my blog tribe meetings in magenta),
• pink dots for one time appointments and
• pink bars for all day events.

Of course, I used extra hearts and the “little by little” sticker from the Goal Setting Sticker Book to remind me this month is all about love and the little by little progress I’m making on my goals!

For each day, I plan to write down something about my goal work done that day and maybe even hours I worked on it so I can see at the end of the month how little by little progress really does add up! I can’t wait to see how this turns out at the end of the month, don’t worry, I’ll show you!

My 2020 Powersheets February Goals

For February, it’s going to be more of staying on track and fine tuning the Budget by Paycheck method and filing those taxes. Really hoping we get a refund still so I can make another extra mortgage payment! Here’s the lowdown on my 2020 Powersheets February goals.

Goal 1: January 2020 Spending Report

I really want to stay on top of closing out the month and these financial reports so the top of my list for my February goals is January’s spending report.

Goal 2: January 2020 Net Worth Report

Yep, gotta do that net worth report. It’s a quick snapshot of all our accounts and mortgage and easy to do. We may have met our net worth goal in January but we still want to keep work on growing our assets and reducing our one debt!

Goal 3: File Taxes

I really want to get our taxes done sooner rather than later. I want to color in some more payment pieces on our Debtris mortgage tracker as we get closer to paying off our mortgage!

Goal 4: Budget Paychecks

There are 2 paychecks to budget in February using the Budget by Paycheck Workbook. I’m really liking this method to make sure our paychecks cover our bills each pay period.

Goal 5: Sell Kids’ Stuff/Prep for Kids’ Consignment Sale

There is a local kids consignment sale in March and I have a ton of kids clothes and toys to sell. Consignment sales are my favorite way to sell kids’ items because once I’ve tagged everything and drop it off, it’s out of my house and they do the rest of the work or prepping and managing the sale and donation of things that don’t sell.

The one near me closed a year ago so I have been collecting stuff to sell. I will post items first in a local Facebook yard sale group first and if they don’t sell, tag it for the sale next month.

Goal 6: Renew Passports

Still on the list from last month, really need to get this done and renewed before they expire! Shouldn’t be hard!

Goal 7: Simple and Meaningful Celebrations for February

Ever since the Celebrations Binder came out, I’ve been focused on having simple and meaningful celebrations. I have a history of blowing parties out of proportion and exhausting myself (and our budget) in the process.

So I’ve really been trying to pare it down to make our celebrations more simple and meaningful. To me this means, finding ways to make friends and family feel more special. Cooking their favorite meals and desserts during their birthday month, simple decorations for birthdays, a thoughtful gift, a day/time together, my time and focused attention.

We have 2 birthdays, the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day to celebrate this month, so I’ve divided the goal progress bar up into 4 boxes.

Goal 8: Double Blog Income from February 2019 ($1,388)

As I mentioned above, I want to double my blog income from February 2019. There was a flash sale for Elite Blog Academy last year, so I earned an affiliate commission for that. I can’t control or know when flash sales happen or if they will have one this month, so it might be tough to double my income but I’m gonna try.

Goal 9: Elite Blog Academy (EBA) Sale Promo

EBA goes on sale to the public once a year in March usually so I’ve got to start getting ready and updating my posts and promotion schedule.

Goal 10: Launch Shop

I am going to launch my printables shop this month!!! It’s been on my list for so long and one of those things that the Powersheets has uncovered, there’s a lot of irrational fears about this shop holding me back. I have published products in bundles and I have people asking me to sell them individually and I. just. haven’t. done. it.

My primary goal is to help overcome their biggest obstacles and I know my products can help them. Why there are irrational hangups, i don’t know. I’m going to take some time after this post is finished to hit this goal hard and be my primary blog focus until it’s done!

Goal 11: Extra Mortgage Payments

I forgot to write it in before taking the picture but extra mortgage payments is why I’m on this hyperfocused budgeting journey. I’m not going to assign a dollar amount to this goal, all I know is I want to use all available funds to make extra mortgage payments. I’m doing the 2020 Savings Challenges from the Budget Mom so I know all that cash saved and our tax refund (hopefully) will be applied to our mortgage payoff goal.

2020 Powersheets 2020: February Weekly and Daily Action Items

I won’t be talking too much about my weekly and daily action items in this post as I’m focused on the big goals here. But I will say that my weekly action items and daily items are designed to help me stay on track. Last year, my goal was simplifying my home, life, planning and blog/work routines and so this is carrying forward those important routines I need to do each week and day in order to feel my best and get the most done. I love turning important tasks into weekly and daily routines to simplify getting them done. It really helps me when I can stick to a good routine.

That’s it for my 2020 Powersheets February goals and January accomplishment. I really loved keeping my goals list detailed and broken down into manageable steps. Being able to color in so many of those progress bars for January shows how hard I worked and a full life achieved of both work and fun, despite my chronic illness and the harshness of winter. We are not just surviving, but thriving, with chronic illness over here!