Hi. I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist, and speaker.
And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer, and course creator. We are two working parents who love our careers and our families.
Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about how real women manage work, family, and time for fun, from figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals. We want you to get the most out of life. Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura. This is our annual goals episode, Goals twenty twenty five. We have been doing annual Goals episode for low these many years, setting a lot of goals in the course of running best of both worlds.
We enjoy it.
We enjoy listening to other people's goals episodes. So, Sarah, are you doing a twenty five for twenty twenty five or a word of the year variation along those lines.
I'm just going to do a word of the year this year. No fancy long list unless I come up with something after this errs. But I am kind of excited about my word of the year, which is finite. So listeners may have seen that coming. I was really into like the mortality theme last year, with Jodi Wellman's You Only Die Once being like my favorite nonfiction book of the year, just because Laura didn't release any by the way, of course, and with Oliver Berkman's Meditation for
Mortals just kind of adding on to that. I just I don't know, I'm like thinking about and maybe probably just like hitting the middle of my life statistically. So yeah, that's my word, and I feel like it has multiple applications, like finite number of activities you can fit into each day, as a reminder not to overload myself, and then just of course, like the remembrance the time in our lives in general is finite, which makes me want to plan
really well but also savor things while they're happening. I think from a parenting perspective, also, I came to the realization that when I replaced my five year journal my next one, which I'll start in twenty twenty six, the last year will be Annabel going to college. I'm like, like, that was I mean, that's wild, Like the rest of her schooling fits in another five year journal. Like anyway, parenting is a finite journey. Life is a finite journey,
and so I'm excited about this word of the year. Okay, what about you?
Yeah, I usually don't set words to the ear other. I was considered doing influence as my word of the year for twenty twenty five, although than when I said influence, Sarah thought that I was going to become one of these social media influencers, which I am not. So maybe we need a different but similar word, such as impact.
But I don't know.
I influence is different than impact and subtle semantic ways, so maybe one of those. It's not really something I do all that much. But as we've been thinking about goals for the year, one of the ways we set goals like life goals. Both of us have done lists of one hundred dreams. Have you updated yours recently?
Sarah? I updated it at Best Laid Plans Lives. So one of the sessions was led by Laura and she talked about the hundred dreams, and because it was led by her and not led by me, I was actually able to be pretty present and do my own list making. So that is the last time I've put together a I usually start from scratch, like I don't I do have some of the old lists because I've like blogged them and stuff, but I usually like to just kind of start from scratch with a new list when I
feel like making one. So that's the most recent one, and yeah, it was fun to do. I'm not totally done, Like I did not get to one hundred, but I think I got to like forty or something.
Yeah, I mean while I was leading that session, So I'm not sure that I really did a lot of updating in the course of it. I mean, the last time I did a full list was right before turning forty. Did that on my blog in late twenty eighteen, and I am now older than that, so maybe it's time for an update. I don't necessarily consult the list when I'm making annual goals list. I mean, I guess that
might be something to do. I did look at my twenty ten list and my twenty fifteen list a while ago in the course of creating some content this year, and the upside is I actually have done a reasonable number of the things that I put on it, not all of them. I've still not been to New Zealand, but I may be singing the b Minor Mass the bach B minor mass and this comes out. So some things are happening and some just through the course of
the kids getting older or are moving. In twenty ten, we were not out in the urbs yet, so there's certain things of just like moving out into the verbs that happened as a result of that.
But it's an idea.
If people are looking for sources of inspiration for annual goal lists, creating this long list of a hundred dreams might be wise as a way to just sort of get the creative juices going.
I love it. Yeah, I kind of think I've yon my share of annual planning seminars at this point. And the problem is I can't really tell people to go and whip up there are one hundred dreams lists because most people don't have it. But I can see how looking at a global list could be just one of those nice triggers as you then sit down to make your annual goals. So I need to think about that. Well, maybe you.
Could strongly encourage people to do it as like their pretty homework homework, right, like, try to get at least fifty on there, and then that will get people started and they can keep adding to it.
Over time. But yeah, so.
We started working on our goals recently. I mean, you know, Sarah, we a little bit of a philosophical thing here. We'll tell you that when we were starting to do these notes, Sarah was a little bit reluctant to send specific goals. Now why was that, Sarah?
Because we're recording this and it's not even halfway through December yet, and I'm just not quite feeling ready to commit because I don't feel like I've done my full process justice and I know what a good annual planning process looks like. And I, as I said I during Live, I was kind of an active participant when Laura was leading it, but all the goal part I was leading it, so I wasn't really there to like do my own stuff. And I life has been very full, and I just
haven't done my own, like full big picture stuff. So I still want to consider these like draft mode. I think I'm close. I think I want to iron out a few specifics as we'll talk about, because some of them it's like, Okay, I have the idea, but I don't have the mechanics entirely nailed down. But yeah, I think it's just the time of year, and the fact that I don't feel like I've done my official goal setting yet, that I wasn't totally ready to be like this is it on the stone tablet?
Yeah, because when we cycles, we actually do intend to keep them. I mean that's the thing, like we won't set one that we don't actually really want to do.
Oh for the most part, I think that's part.
Of taking one's goals seriously. I always think of November and December as resolutions preseason that this is a good time to you know, this is airing close to the start of the new year, but for us, since we were recording this in mid December, I think of this time as like a football team in the weeks before the season starts. I mean, you're practicing, you're doing some
games even, but they don't count for your standings. So if you have some sort of goal you are thinking of committing to instead of just saying like, oh, well, maybe i'll start on January first, and then you're trying to figure it out and you don't know how it'll fit in your life. It's not very specific. You can spend the weeks before the start of the new year ironing all those things out, saying, well, what is appealing about this goal? Well, how can I make it specific?
What's something that would fit into my regular life and that I am excited about? And then you test drive it for a while. Right, If there's something we want to do, you try it out, because there's nothing magical happens January first. You're not going to be a different person. So if you absolutely cannot make it fit on December seventeen, there's no reason to think that you will on January second, so it's worth trying it out totally.
And I made a slight face when you said, oh, when we set goals, we want to do them all or something. And I guess my only thing is, like I have an attitude of like in an ideal world, but I don't like expect to get all my goals done, if that makes sense, Like I will consider it a very successful year if I bat like sixty or seventy percent. And I think that helps me not get like to like upset or rigid about setting them to begin with, or too frustrated with myself when inevitably I don't get
some of them done and we'll talk about it. But like, there's many goals I set so many times and failed and then ultimately succeeded. So I know for my own story that that's possible, and it doesn't mean that just because you couldn't do something one year doesn't mean you can never do it. Yeah.
All right, Well, with that in mind, I guess we can go ahead and get it started. So Sarah Personal goals for twenty twenty five.
Yay, all right. Well, I'm going to be like Captain boring and obvious and start with some fitness stuff and I want to strength train at least one hundred times, so that would be an average of about two times a week, so that should be a doable number. I have to put strength kind of on my goals list. It's not automatically going to happen. I know I'm going to run, but I do not know that I will do strength. But I think it's so incredibly important for many,
many reasons. So one hundred strength training sessions. I'm going to leave it open as to what those will look like, whether they will be following an online thing, working with a trainer, doing a class. That part I'm gonna explore, and I'm fine if it's a mix of all those things, like it doesn't have to be one thing all year, but one hundred sessions I'm committed to. And then this
one's a little difficult. But I would like to run Boston Marathon in April of twenty twenty six, and I do not know whether twenty twenty five whether I will need to try to run a good, safe Boston qualifying time, because as this airs, I haven't run my Discember marathon yet and I don't know how that's going to go.
So I guess I will just have like this contingent if I do not run a great race, if I do not run sub three p forty on my December race, then my goal will be to do so in somewhere in the spring.
All right.
I would like to work on my wardrobe this year. I wanted to do that. Last year I didn't do it, And this time I got a little bit more specific about the items I wish to buy, because I think that will help me just be more concrete about things I need. Jeans. My jeans are like literally falling apart. Like I've had multiple people ask me with a skeptical look on their face, is that hole? Did you put it there? Was it? Like fashion and I was like, it's my own hole. It's time to like on facele. Yeah.
So I have one pair of presentable jeans and I need like two more so because that's kind of what I wear on my non work days a lot of the time. That and beery joggers, which is not great. So yeah, two pairs of jeans. I want to get two presentable tops that are not T shirts. I want one professional outfit for speaking and globally. I would like to invest more in my clothing, not counting super shoes, than I did in twenty twenty four, which should not be hard because I did not invest much at all
twenty twenty four. Then I played around with I really want to read more again. I mean I generally read a lot, but I just I don't know. I had a bad slump towards the end of twenty twenty four that I haven't fully recovered from, and I was like, what would be the most kind of easy, like no pressure type of goal. And I think for me, I came up with read ten minutes of nonfiction a day and ten minutes of fiction to day. Now I can read more than that, certainly, and I'm sure I will
many days. But if I'm like, eh, it's just ten minutes, Like who cares? Like that will add up to a lot of books, because I probably will end up reading far more than ten minutes when I get into a book. And this is a sub goal that I didn't write down. But I need to be quicker at abandoning books that I don't like. I mean, really, if I have like a week where I'm barely making any headway, I just need to move on. It means the book is not good. It's not me, it's the book. And then this is
not like a goal goal. But I really enjoy the practice of like tracking my media. I do it every day in my hope nichi, and I am just excited to like make that a consistent practice in twenty twenty five.
Awesome, Well we'll take a quick ad break and then I'll be back talking about my personal goals. Well we are back. This is our annual Goals episode, setting our goals for twenty twenty five. And I'm with Sarah that because we're recording this in mid December, maybe these are still sort of draft goals. So my personal goals for the year, you know, in twenty twenty four, I listen to all the works of Bach, and so sort of a logical continuation of that would be to listen to
all the works of Beethoven. In twenty twenty five. There are a couple people who we're listening to BAC who are doing this. The crew that listened to Bak is going to be listening to Beethoven, so obviously, you know, if I want to keep up with.
Them, we could do that.
There we found a calendar, so I don't even have to create one, which is an added bonus since I created the back catalog and it was a ton of work, so I'm pretty sure that will.
Wind up being my goal.
I thought it might also or in place that read Ana Karinya, the other Tolstoi book. I read Warren Piece in twenty twenty one a chapter a day, and a Karnina is you know, there's some debate on how we say that, but anyway, it's about two hundred and sixty two hundred and seventy chapters. So that would also lend itself to at least a couple months, you know, nine months of the year reading a chapter a day.
But I could do that as well.
I don't know, but those are kind of the two that I was weighing with that another personal goal, I am going to eat produce for breakfast.
And so is that vegetables fruit or booth fruit, vegetables, fruit, avensibals?
Okay, and this is with the goal of eating more fruits and vegetables in general.
But I figure that's kind of vague.
So one way to make this doable is to eat a serving with breakfast, because that tends to be a meal that I'm probably not usually eating fruits or vegetables, So if I add that in there, that will most likely be in addition to what I am eating, and I think it will also nudge me to have more in the house, to have more that I like in the house, to experiment with different things that I might enjoy eating, So.
Produce for breakfast.
I am going to strength train twice a week, so I'm working out once a week with my trainer, So similar with Sarah, I'm I guess one hundred sessions would be a good thing to commit to, and probably do about fifty with my trainer, and then we'll probably do fifty on my own. It doesn't have to be long on my own, could just be you know, ten to fifteen minutes. But yeah, those are my personal goals for the year.
Awesome. Ooh, I was like really excited to find out what like listening or reading. So I'll be interested to see if you end up pursuing both the Beethoven and the Enna Karenina.
Yeah, I know, how do we say her last name?
People rave about that book though, so.
Well, I've read it before. I read it twenty years ago. It was good, but yeah, it's been a long time since I've read it, and I've been told you read it differently as a middle aged person than you probably do in your twenties.
So yeah, it would be really fun to revisit like books that you thought were super cool when you were young and see how you feel about them, Like I should reread The Bell Jar, and I think maybe you shouldn't. I'll let you know. Okay, not on my goals list, all right, anyway, Moving to work, all right, work, My work goals are pretty much all in my creative work.
Not to say I don't have a gold be like an excellent physician in my other work, but I just feel like I'm more I don't want to say autopilot, but I'm more settled there and there's more growth on the other side. So my big one is that I need to finish and launch my book into the world. This will be my first experience I what a book
launch looks like. I'm scared. I do think this is going to be like a ton of activity in January and February, not a lot of stuff for a bunch of months, and then like a frenzy towards the end of the year. We'll see if I'm right. I do want to put myself out there more in terms of like pitch more than two podcasts like I did last year, and maybe like see if I can expand speaking opportunities
things like that. I already have a couple on the calendar that I'm excited about, but I don't know I enjoy doing it, So maybe explore doing more of that. We'll have a book coming out. Maybe they'll be like those things will tie together. I want to improve if I have one routine that I want to work on, and I'm big on like just picking like one routine. My like shutdown ritual is terrible. I mean, I talk about it and I think it's very valuable, but I can't seem to be like I am done. I've cleaned
up my loose ends. I'm not going to open my work e mail up again. And it's annoying. It's annoying to me. I want to shut down. So I'm gonna work on that one specifically. And then this is real vague, but because of the book work I think being very beginning of the year, end of the year, and because like I don't really have anything else work wise planned, I feel like I just need some kind of fun summer project to be determined to be.
Okay, well, that is a vague goal. I guess we will find out next year what that was. That's what you're reviewing.
Sorry, yeah, I'm gonna be like really but no, I mean, maybe we'll check in, maybe we'll know what. But then I'll definitely be able to unveil whatever it is. Maybe I'll do like a Nano Orimo, but like in the summer, like something like that. It's just something different, something different. Okay, all right, sounds good.
All right, So my work goals for the year for twenty twenty five, I'm going to finish the book that is currently being called Big Time and then lay the groundwork for getting that out into the world, so very similar to Sarah. My book deadline is April of this year, and then it will likely come out in the first quarter or so of twenty twenty six, so similar flory to get it written first part of the year, a little bit of time off, and then starting up the
promotion machine towards the end of the year. I want to write a novel draft, so that might be my summer project. Is I'm getting the itch to do some more fiction, but I don't even have an idea yet, So in order to make that happen, I really need to spend some time thinking about it. I am going to re up for one more year on sonnets. I'm going to write fifty two more sonnets at the pace
of two lines a day. So you know, I've been doing this for the past two years, have one hundred and four sonnets by the time this airs, So I guess I will have one hundred fifty six, or I guess one hundred and fifty seven based on the number
of how the weeks go with a year. But yeah, I really enjoyed doing this, and the discipline of doing it over and over again means that you're constantly thinking about it and then, like I said I've said before, most are bad, sum are okay, a few I really like, But it's by continuing to keep doing it that you get more of the ones that you really like, and
so over the years that will add up. And then finally, the last work goal I have is to grow vander Hacks into somewhere between eight hundred and one thousand paid subscribers by the end of twenty twenty five. So we're currently at about four hundred, so that would just mean doubling what happened in twenty twenty four, which theoretically sounds like it should be doable. The issues, of course, your biggest fans are the ones who sign up first, so
I have to find some more new big fans. So somewhere between eight hundred and one thousand is where I hope to end the year, and that would be a good rate of growth and would make me feel like this was a profitable project.
And reminder listeners where they can sign up for that. Oh yeah, well if you would like to sign up.
I mean, if everyone listening to this sign up, we'd have way more than a thousand paid subscribers. So if you're listening to this, if you enjoy this content, you're thinking, how can I get more of Laura? So I do a short every weekday tip over at vander Hacks, which is a substack newsletter. So if you go to substack dot com and search for vander Hacks, you will find me and you can sign up for a free subscription
to see if you like it. There are five posts a week, three or free two or behind the paywall, so hopefully you will like what you are getting in your inbox every morning or if you check in the substack app. But I really enjoyed doing that and would love to have some more people join me there.
And I think they would be a lovely like morning ritual for someone. Yeah, if they're looking for different things they want to start the day with, that would be a nice, lie motivating.
Yeah. And I know some people listen to Before Breakfast, which has sort of a similar theme of a weekday morning tip, but I know not everyone likes to listen to their tips, And so if you're more of a reading person, this is a way to get at something similar and just in an entirely different format.
Love it all?
Right?
Well, that was work. We are now at relationships and I'm going to set in Gold. That was as vague as last year. I need to make this less vague. Well there's some specificity, Okay, So that's a goal, Sarah. I still feel like the best thing I can do for my family and my parenting is to have nice one on one experiences with each of the members of my immediate family, and so I want to curate those and seek those out as much as possible. With Annabel,
I want to make her gymnastics meets quality time. I mean, it won't be just me going to all of them, but for some of them. For Cameron, I want to do some kind of solo excursion or day with him. And then for Genevieve, I want to take her on a seven year old trip. I did that with Annabel, Josh took Cameron skiing, and then so Genevieve has some ideas for what she wants to do. So I guess
that's kind of specific. But I also just globally want to keep working on ways to get my kids one on one, and I want to repeat my monthly date idea, except this time, I think I'm gonna sit down with Josh and we're gonna make a list of twelve restaurants we want to try because we do love trying like new and exciting cuisines, like either in Miami or Fort Lauderdale. And I think it'd be really fun to have that list to feel like we were going to go through.
We kind of did that last year where we didn't formalize it or put it into one list, so I think that will be fun, and I want to do two short couples trips again. I also want to throw a casual neighborhood hang. I've done this a couple of years ago, but I didn't do it last year and it was great, and we've had some new neighbors move in, so I feel like I need to do it again. And then I want to connect with my far flung
friends in person. So I'm hoping for, probably in addition to seeing you, Laura, probably like two friend trips over the course of the year, plus connecting with endocolleagues at Pediatric Endocrine Society, So that would be a lot of like meeting up with old friends, and I think that would be great. Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun.
Well, I certainly love to have you come visit Philly and I will make it to Fort Lauderdale in the course of the year, probably at least twice. That seems to be the regular rhythm of what we do. So yeah, my relationship goals, I guess this could be sort of personal or relationship. I want to go to three professional sports events in the course of the year, and obviously I'm probably going to go with someone. Maybe Michael could be an older kid, I guess. But I want to
go to a Sixers game. I want to go to a Phillies game, and I want to go to an Eagles game. So that will take me through multiple seasons
of Philadelphia sports. Sadly, these Sixers are not doing all that well, so that might be slightly less excite, which was you know, as we're looking at dates, so that we're like, well, do we choose like when they're playing a really good team, like knowing they're gonna lose, but at least we'll see a really good team play, or you know, do we see a team they're more likely to win, but then maybe the basketball won't be as great. I don't know, tough choices, but the Phillies and the Eagles,
so you know, we'll go see them. I want to host a holiday party, and I'm not specifying which holiday, so it could be it could be the Arbor Day party, but it will I mean most likely would be in November in December. But you know, as we get more and more festive decorations in this house, I think it might be fun to share the joy of that, which would be fun to do. But I'm not limiting myself
to only that. So if I decide to host a different kind of party at some other point of the year, maybe I'll just tie it to some holiday that is occurring around then. I am going to be launching my first kid out of the nest. Over the of the next year. Think of this project as enjoying our last eight months together. I know, Jasper and I actually have a trip planned as part of our choir We're going on to acchoir tour together this summer, which will be
a lot of fun. But also think about, you know, what does he need to know, Like, what are sort of life skills that one needs to succeed in a new environment and you thinking about that, and then the last three months or so of twenty twenty five, he will be most likely starting school somewhere and so kind of thinking about how it can be supportive during that transition. So, yeah,
that'll be a big thing. And then my last one is kind of thinking of ourself as a musical family, and I want all the kids to be in some sort of music by the end of twenty twenty five. And everyone is now except Henry. So I will start Henry probably as he starts kindergarten. That's a good time to Yeah, he could join the church children's choir. He could start doing piano lessons. I think it would be
good to get him started on that. And then about with that, you know, practicing myself modeling what it means to be a working musician. I'm practicing frequently, both piano and voice and how one makes that part of one's life.
I love that. If my husband heard this, he'd be so jealous. I think he wants us to be a musical family. We stabvil, but that's awesome. I'm very impressed that all of your kids and then soon Henry as well, will be doing some kind of music. That's amazing. All right, Well, we have one more category because I again, again I like it for myself. All right, so I dragged Laura along. Okay, Well, what's the category, Sarah, the categories household? No, I said it, okay,
it's household, and I have two things. One I forgot to write here, but I want to try again with my reading goal. I really think my kids actually need to develop the ability or work on the ability to sit there and read for thirty minutes, and not everybody seems to do that very easily, So that is my goal. Genevieve still isn't totally independent with her reading, but I think there are some great solutions to that, like maybe audiobooks would be kind of her surrogate for a little
while as she follows along. But Josh is also very interested in this, so I think that will help, just kind of having both family members on board, just like as I wanted to do it before. I don't care what they read. It could be a graphic novel, it could be like I will supply them with whatever book. I just want this to be ideally a weekly, regular
habit that we all just start to establish together. And we can still all enjoy screens absolutely, but I need to preserve their ability to focus and read.
So you think you want to have a regular family reading time?
Yes, yes, Okay, even if it's everyone thirty minutes thirty minutes okay, low bar oh, And someone had the idea of like making like a baked good like as part or like having like a fun snack to go with that. So if it takes that to make the family excited
about it, I will try that. But yeah, family reading, and then I did give myself a break from wanting to organize my house in twenty twenty four, but I'm back to wanting to organize my house in twenty twenty five, and this time I'm planning on possibly outsourcing some of this to either our nanny and or possibly a professional. I don't have my plan in place of how I want to do this, but I kind of just want to go like category by category over the course of
the year. I don't see it as a one and done thing, but like we're not doing the basic maintenance of clearing stuff out, Like my kids have clothing in their drawers that does not fit them. It's just the bar is not that high for what I mean by organized, but we're not reaching it.
So so yeah, I was gonna say, like, what's the actual goal here, Like how will we know when we record at the end of twenty twenty five that Sarah has met this goal.
I want to have like gone through every room and mostly just decluttered stuff that really doesn't belong there. That's the main thing. It doesn't have to be arranged artfully, but our draws can't be crammed with like random stuff. I mean, it's not like dire dire, but I don't want it to get there. And I mean to some extent, we have a decent sized house and I just feel
like we've just like let ourselves fill the space. But then sometimes it really you know, it's like where are the keys while the key bin has like forty different items in there that like don't need to be there, like things like that. Like I just it's time and if I'm not able to do this on my own, which I may not be, then it's time to bring in the troops of some kind.
Understn't know what understood well, you know, and you've pointed out that you can not fail, but like I mean, you could not reach sort of your oh yeah, ar of a goal multiple years and then keep putting it on there and then eventually do it. It's not that it's going to move forward forever. That you know, might six years but then happen.
Yes, And I'm comfortable with that. I mean, I had flossing was a goal for me like in my thirty or twenties and thirties, like for like years, and like that's something I do regularly without even thinking about strength training. I did fall off the wagon this year, but generally
have been pretty good about it in recent years. And that was something I used to fail at, like every year, book writing, state planning, like there have been so many things that I have just put on there and it just takes the right like set of conditions and sometimes reframing it or getting help. And actually it's kind of interesting to think about what helps you move forward on a goal that you get stuck on, and that could
be a whole other episode. But I have no shame in putting something on there that's been on there before, and I hope this will be the year. Yeah. No, I mean there's nothing wrong with trying a goal again.
I mean I'd put you know, write a collection of seasonal sonnets on my list of one hundred dreams year many many times and had not done it, and then finally found a way that I could do it, which is riding the two lines a day over the course of the year, and that made me stick with it. Or goals like singing the B Minor Mass. I didn't pull that off as an annual goal without knowing that there was going to be a way to do it.
But you can try things again. That's definitely true. I would say my household goal, I'm going to expand my miniature scenes. This is a fun goal because it means I get to buy things and I get to put them in my office. And I have a number of little room vignettes. I have a kitchen, I have a living room, I have a laundry room, I have a bedroom. I may be getting for Christmas a bathroom.
How was that fun?
Like, you know, get a little uh, but it has to ship from Australia so it hasn't gotten here yet. But it was bathtub, toilet, cabinet, various sink.
Can you turn the water on?
No, there was no plumbing in my miniature scene. That would be a little bit. You can put lights in fairly easy. Plumbing would be harder to pull off. You need like a little bucket of water under it. That'd be cool though, But I've also enjoyed getting the accessories, Like, so Ruth got me a bunch of little kitchen accessories for my birthday, Like there were little cereal boxes and a fruit bowl and it's endless, Like.
You could do this forever.
And I was stymied on this for years because I didn't have a dollhouse.
And I was like, well, I gotta make my dollhouse, you know.
I got to buy the dollhouse kit, and I bought a dollhouse kit, but then I didn't build because, like, woodworking is not on my goals, Like I don't really want to like build this thing. That's not the part of it I like. And a lot of the prefab ones are just not very good. So I was either going to have to hire somebody to make me a dollhouse,
which I could, but that's its separate project. But then I was like, well, I like the rooms, like when I go to see like when I'm at the Chicago Art Institute of Chicago, I go see the miniature rooms, like the rooms in the wall. They don't have a dollhouse. They have the rooms in the wall. Or the Indianapolis Children Museum also has a bunch of rooms in the wall.
I'll do that. You know. That's good. So, yeah, I can't wait to see them. I've seen the ones you have now, so it's going to expand. It's exciting. Yeah, it is, all right.
So moving to our question section, how often would you review these goal lists? So we've made this goal list.
So I, with my nested goal system, kind of have the practice of pulling it out every season. And I have to say doing this formally with others via planning by season in twenty twenty four was helpful because I got my list out every time too, and I'm like, this is actually great, like a planned opportunity that I'm forced to look at this and figure out like what actually fits for the season. So I think season works really really well for this, whether it's quarterly or quintiles
or however you like to organize the year. I guess I will mention that I am doing planning by season twenty twenty five, so if you want to review your annual goals with me and plan your seasons with me next year, you can, But doing it on your own absolutely works too. Or maybe some people might benefit from monthly, but I don't know, four or five times a year, I feel like keeps the novelty and like it isn't too much pressure but also will remind you of what
you planned and you won't forget about it. Yeah.
I mean the daily stuff is pretty easy because it is in fact daily, so unless I got really off of it, I think I would remember things like you know, listening to the music, writing the sonnets. Some of them will be a little bit trickier to remember. But I guess we do our check in in June, our mid year check in, so that's always a good chance to do it. I would probably do season as well. Probably I should do one in mid spring, one for June for our check in at kind of the beginning of
the fall. I think those would all be good times to check in and see that I've staying on track.
I've also seen other people do really interesting things with their list, like if they really want to be reminded, they'll like make it their screensaver, or like print out a copy and put it above their desk or stuff like that. Yeah. I generally like it more intermittent, but hey, I think whatever you.
Can note on the bathroom mirror, hey, you know every morning you're looking at it, am I achieving my goals yet if not, why not, Well, you know it would be good to remind ourselves of that at least somewhat. All right, So, Sarah, love of the week, What is your love of the week?
This time a blog reader turned me onto year end lists dot Com. So you guys know, I love my best music of twenty twenty four and best books and best whatever from various sources. But then sometimes it's Paywalt or whatever, and like this is a site that like aggregates all of them, and it's so fun to just read through and like get ideas for movies you might want to see your books read or music to listen to it. I think even at a podcast category, I
didn't click on that. I'm sure we're number one, like obviously, but yeah, super fun resource. Year end lists dot.
Com, Year end Lists dot Com. Yeah that sounds like a website made precisely for you, Sarah. They're like, who is our target audience? It is Sarah, it is me. Well probably a lot of other people too. Yeah. I mean I would say I like the idea of very specific goals, and partly I think it is that sort of resolutions preseason noodling on it where you come up with how to make a goal specific. So something like eating produce for breakfast is very specific, and I know,
well I have I done it, have I not. It's something that I can think about every morning. But just the idea of turning a vaguer goal like I want to eat more fruits and vegetables into something that is truly doable, like I want to listen to more classical music and became listening to thirty minutes of Bach last
year and I guess this year. Yeah, but the idea of being very specific in the goals helps make them feel more exciting, I think, even because it's not like, oh, well, I guess I got to figure out how to fit this into life, and even to remind myself of it frequently, it's just like, no, this is something that's concrete that I can do.
Yes. Yeah, you feel more of a sense of achievement when you checked it off, when you know it was exactly what you like sit out to do exactly.
All right, Well, this has been best of both worlds. We've done our annual goals episode. We'll check back in over the course of the year. If we have done these things, we'll definitely be talking about it at probably the end of June, certainly at the end of twenty twenty five. It's funny to think about twenty twenty five, Laura and Sarah sitting here discussing the year. But I'm sure it will have been a year one way or another. The time is going to pass, and hopefully it will
be filled with many wonderful things. We hope it is filled with many wonderful things for our listeners as well. So thank you for listening to us in twenty twenty four. Here's another great year together.
Yes, Happy New Year, Happy twenty twenty five in advance.
Yeah, this has been best of both worlds. We'll be back next week in twenty twenty five with more on making work and life fit together.
Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram, and you can.
Find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has been the best of both worlds podcasts.
Please join us next time for more on making work and life work together.