Time for a 2024 Planning Session!

For my 2024 planning session, I sat down with my calendar, a pen, and the kids’ school calendars and roughly planned out the entire year.

Have you ever tried that? It sounds simple, but I tell you. I am not sure I have ever done this before. There is something about the possibility of moving that makes you suddenly go into planning overdrive.

I have had this 2024 planning session sitting in my calendar for a couple of weeks now, and I keep pushing it off. Sure, it is definitely time to plan out 2024, but when it comes to planning, you have to be in the mood for it, you know?

It was extremely enlightening to see all of the dates for long school holidays, spring break, and the beginning and ending of the school years.

It is about impossible to plan anything at all as a family unless you know the school calendar. You about have to memorize the thing.

There was so much I did not realize until I looked the dates in the face. For starters, our kids have an ELEVEN day spring break this year! What? Living here is so much more fun than living in Maryland, where the kids had a half-week for spring break. Bleh. That was the worst.

Once you have your kids’ school dates on your calendar, then you can think about booking vacations. Whoo-hoo!

I got our names on the books for Alan’s granddad’s beach condo.

Of course, we are a military family. That means all of our dates are written in pencil until we die or get out of the military. You know, whichever one comes first.

We still do not actually know if we are moving this summer. I will not be booking any Vrbo type vacations this year for sure. Did you know that if you rent from many places like Vrbo, you cannot truly cancel? You can ask for someone to sub-let your reservation so you get reimbursed, but if no one books it, you are stuck with that bill.

If we go anywhere this summer, it will be booked at the last minute, or we will be staying with family. Many hotels, like the Hampton Inn, will let you cancel at the last minute, so we like those places. Military families have to be extra careful about refundable destinations. Sad, but true.

This is the perfect time to think to have your own 2024 planning session.

Think about and write down your goals. What do you want to accomplish this year?

I love planning and goals, and apparently I always have. Recently, I was going through an old journal from when I was in high school. That was over twenty years ago for me. Even back in my teenage journals, I loved mapping out my plans and breaking my goals into doable steps. It is always a thing with me.

I do not have elaborate goals this year. Instead, I outlined three basic goals for the year, and they do not follow the rules. You can measure them, I guess, but I didn’t exactly.

My main goal for this year is to help our four boys do better in school.

They are okay, but I know they can do better. They could use a little help. School work came easily for me, and I naturally did my homework and turned in everything on time. If there was a test, I always read over my notes the night before.

Our boys are not naturally conscientious students. Their personalities and study habits differ from my own, and I want to teach them how to handle school more efficiently. That is my number one focus for 2024. It may get on their last nerves, but it is necessary.

My secondary goal is to keep my writing business in an upward moving direction.

This is a secondary priority for me. It is not as important.

Last year my number one goal was to make more money blogging than I spent to keep it afloat. I spend too much money on blogging because I use Bluehost for hosting. If I could start over, I would choose a more affordable hosting platform. Many of them have risen up in recent years.

I did accomplish the 2023 goal of making a profit with blogging!

That was a big deal. All year long it grew, and now the Google ads alone are bringing in over $100 per month. This is my second year working consistently on blogging, and I am hoping to make $300 per month by the end of the year.

Everything I read says slow growth is the most sustainable, so that is what I am aiming for. Plus, it will take a lot of effort and success to triple my current earnings. In fact, if I just double it, I will be happy to keep going. I am playing the long game on this.

My most successful avenue of growth in 2023 was Pinterest, by far. I will continue to focus my marketing attention on Pinterest.

My third goal for 2024 is to be a better wife.

You want to talk about an unmeasurable goal? Ha! How do I measure this one? It does not matter. This is something I want to be better about.

The elephant in the room of 2024 is “Will we move? Will we buy a home?”

And I’m going to hope for the best on that question. We should know the answer to the first question in April. The rest will take care of itself. The ball will begin to roll once we have orders.

It cannot be rushed. In 2022, I rushed the move hard. The house I lined up for us fell through, and we ended up renting a last minute house anyway. For now, I am going to do my best to not worry about it.

Our summer vacation will have to be worked around this move that may happen.

I am hoping to spend some time at the beach in Florida and visiting my parents. This will be our last summer before our oldest son begins college. The wheels of time are coming for us!

One extra fun thing I would like to work in to our year:

After all, the kids do have an extra long spring break! I want to take the whole family to Dollywood!! A couple of days is all we need. Wouldn’t that be fun? I have never been there. We have not even been to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge. This is a big item on my bucket list for 2024.

Oh, and yeah, I feel like I should include the obligatory goal of every year, without fail…..

Lose ten pounds. Or twenty. Or thirty. Sigh.

Do I have an action plan on that one? No. I’ll work on it.

In the mean time, my other bit of fun for 2024 does fit into the category of losing weight. I am doing “walk in the park Friday.” Yes, it is very much a thing I made up, and I adore it. My doggie loves it too. She loves nothing more. I say the word, and she runs and jumps in the minivan, all leashed up.

Have you planned any adventures or goals for 2024? I hope that you do. It’s never to late to make some up!

And I’d love to hear about yours in the comments section!

Need some goal planning worksheets? I have you covered there too:

Happy New Year, y’all!

Don’t forget to tell me about your plans and goals for 2024 in the comments.