Can you believe it’s already April?? Here in South Korea, the flowers have already blossomed and started to fade away, and the weather is quickly heating up. It feels like it’ll be summer before we know it!

Before diving headfirst into Q2, I thought it would be a good idea to go over the goals I set for this year to see how I’m progressing and to make some adjustments. Let’s review Quarter 1!

Earlier this year, I made goals for six different life categories: home, health, self-development, languages, blog & business, and relationships. I already outlined all of my goals in detail earlier this year, so be sure to read my blog post about My Goals for 2022 first! I won’t be rehashing all of that information here–just giving some updates and possibly making some adjustments.

Home

1. Prepare for Baby to arrive – IN PROGRESS! We recently bought newborn clothes and swaddles, a car seat, and a stroller. We still have lots more to buy, my main concern being a bassinet. I’m still trying to clean and organize the house. I also still feel like I have so much to learn about giving birth, breastfeeding, and newborn care. The never-ending to-do list is making my head swim!
2. Hang up our uncle’s painting –  NOT YET! The painting is still collecting dust in the closet! I really want to hang this up soon.
3. Declutter to the “click point” – IN PROGRESS! This is something that Marie Kondo talks about in her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. It means that you’ve decluttered to a point where you feel comfortable and confident in your home and there is nothing left to declutter. I have done some decluttering and organizing while working on my Konmari blog series, but I still have a few categories left to go. No “click” for me yet.
4. Reorganize paper storage – COMPLETED! I successfully decluttered and reorganized my papers last month.
5. Finish organizing the closet – IN PROGRESS! I’ve done some decluttering and reorganizing in this room, but like I said, I’m still working my way through a few categories, so this room is still not quite done.
6. Clear out my emails – NOT YET! I haven’t touched my emails at all yet, but they are irking me more and more as time goes on. I’m starting to get the urge to open up my inbox and cull!
7. Track my spending – NOT YET! I have been tracking my spending off and on this year, but I haven’t stuck with it consistently. I also don’t do anything with this information afterward, so I’m not super motivated. But my husband and I recently had a good talk about our finances, so I’ll work on a plan to track and budget our money in the near future.

Health

1. Maintain good daily habits during my pregnancy – IN PROGRESS! I’ve been really good about taking my vitamins and supplements every day, applying lotion, and keeping my added sugar intake down to manage my weight gain. I’m still struggling with exercise but my doctor recommended prenatal yoga stretching so I’m going to try to incorporate that from now on. Also, now that the weather is so nice, I’m going to try to take walks more often.
2. Go to the dentist after my pregnancy – NOT YET! Baby is due in June, so I obviously have to wait a bit longer to do this one.
3. Go outside at least once a week – IN PROGRESS! I usually make it outside on the weekends with my husband, usually to do grocery shopping or to visit family so I’m feeling okay about this habit, though I’m not formally tracking it.

Self-Development & Self-Care

1. Read 36 books – IN PROGRESS! So far, I’ve read 9 books and I’m working on the 10th. Writing reviews on my blog has really helped me to keep up a regular reading habit. If I keep up this pace, I’ll definitely complete this goal by the end of the year!
2. Keep a reading journal – IN PROGRESS! I have been writing short journal entries and tracking my daily reading habit in my planner, and I’m really pleased with how it’s been going!
3. Make something – NOT YET! I haven’t made anything crafty yet, but I have done quite a bit of baking this year, which has been nice. I still want to make an actual craft, though. Maybe I could make something for Baby before she gets here!
4. Do something good – NOT YET! Gosh, I sound like a bad, selfish person, but this hasn’t been a priority lately. I’m really distracted by pregnancy, preparing for baby, and my hobbies, so I haven’t made any moves on this one yet.
5. Visit one new place in Korea – NOT YET! We took a trip to Gyeongju last month which was really fun, but it wasn’t a new place for us. We might try to go somewhere new for Children’s Day weekend, though, so stay tuned!
6. Eat at a French restaurant – COMPLETED! We managed to get a reservation at a fancy French restaurant for our anniversary last month! I don’t know anything about proper French cuisine so I don’t know if the menu was authentic or not, but everything tasted amazing.

Languages

1. Pass the Spanish A2 level test on Busuu – IN PROGRESS! I’m about halfway through the A2 course right now. I’ve been taking a little break from Busuu so I need to get back into it.
2. Read Harry Potter in Korean – NOT YET! I’ve been focusing on other Korean resources and materials while I work on decluttering my home. Once everything is organized, I’ll feel better about starting this project.
3. Use up the TTMIK 100-day Study Journal – CANCELLED! I decided there was no reason to force myself to do this, so I just decluttered it from my stash and I feel great about it.
4. Make flashcards a binder for 2000 Essential Korean Words Beginner – CHANGED! I’m still planning to finish this book this year, but I’ve switched from making individual paper flashcards to writing words in a binder. I like this streamlined system much more.
5. Finish 4 Korean textbooks – NOT YET! Converting my flashcards to the binder system is taking a bit of time, but once I’m done I’m hoping I can start making some headway on this.
6. Finish the Spanish course on the Speekoo app – NOT YET! I’ve been really into studying Spanish with Duolingo so I haven’t taken much time to use Speekoo this year.
7. Finish all of the content on the Tobo Korean app – IN PROGRESS! I’m on level 55 out of 70 at the moment. I’ve been taking a bit of a break from this app as well but I definitely want to get back to it. If I get back to my language routine I should be able to finish this in a matter of 3 weeks, but I just need to get my mind back into “diligent study mode.”
8. Finally master kana – NOT YET! Again, I’m still trying to get my home organized so this isn’t a big priority at the moment.

Recently I’ve been really, really interested in learning French and Chinese in addition to the languages I already study, but I’m trying to not take on too many extra activities at once. I want to make some progress on a couple of my other home and language goals before I add more to my plate, but I’m really excited to start these languages soon!

Blog & Business

1. Get 10k 2k subscribers on YouTube – CHANGED! Don’t get me wrong, I really want to get to 10k someday, but honestly, I’ve been stuck at 1.9k for sooo long that I just want to close the gap to 2k first. 10k seems so far off at the moment so I’m changing this to a more reasonable number.
2. Get 1k 200 followers on this blog – CHANGED! After reevaluating my YouTube subscriber goal, I realized I had better adjust this one as well. Baby steps! I have been struggling to post regularly for the past couple of weeks, but I’m feeling energized and motivated to get back into gear for April.
3. Get my YouTube channel monetized – NOT YET! We’ll see if my efforts this year will get me closer to the 4,000 watch-hour threshold. Fingers crossed.
4. Register a business in Korea – NOT YET! So many hoops to jump through for this one, but first I need to think long and hard about what to call my business. Once I’m decided on that, I’ll feel better about taking the next steps.
5. Design a planner for 2023 – IN PROGRESS! I have some undated designs that I’m testing out right now. I really like how they look and function! I’m still tweaking them here and there but once the kinks are all worked out, I think I can put them together to make a dated planner for next year, though I’m not sure it’s entirely necessary anymore. I’m still undecided.
6. Make my first sale – NOT YET! Registering the business comes first, of course!

Relationships

1. Renew my visa – COMPLETED! The renewal was a really smooth experience. I got 2 years on my visa this time!
2. Go on a date with my husband once a month – IN PROGRESS! I have to check my planner, but I’m pretty sure we are succeeding so far. This month we don’t have a plan to go out yet, but we did have a really fun at-home movie night last weekend, so I would count that as a date!
3. Make some mommy friends – NEW GOAL! I joined a chat group on Kakao with other expat women who are due around the same time as me and it’s been such a great source of support and camaraderie. I really hope I can meet one or some of these ladies in person, but I know it’s difficult with Covid and our suppressed immune systems. I also want to make mommy friends in my neighborhood. That will be a much larger challenge as I don’t really know how to meet moms around here, Korean or foreign, so I don’t have a plan yet.

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In Quarter 1 I was only able to complete a few small goals, but I’ve made good progress on many others, so I’m feeling good. Reviewing my goals and reevaluating some of them was really helpful, too. I can see now where I need to put more of my energy and focus, and I can also see which goals I’m close to completing, which is really motivating. I’m looking forward to doing my Q2 review and checking off even more goals!

How did your Quarter 1 go? Do you have any new goals for Q2? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading!