My Powersheets 2020 Goals and How Powersheets Changed My Life in 2019
Sharing my powersheets 2020 goals and how the powersheets goal planner changed my life in 2019
Goal planners are great, they make promises and claims about how they can change your life but can a planner really do that? Well, no. YOU have to do the work. But an effective goal planner CAN inspire you to get moving, take consistent action and make powerful and impactful changes in your life.
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2020 is my third year using the Powersheets goal planner and I think the best thing about it is seeing how my life has changed (for the better) each year I use it. If it continues to make a positive impact in my life, I will continue to use it. My other life planners come and go depending on what is going on, but the Powersheets have become a staple that I use consistently to pinpoint my most important goals and keep me on track to attain them.
These words are all good but I realized in 2019 that what truly makes a difference in my life is holding myself accountable. I share my monthly Powersheets tending lists on Instagram but I thought taking it to the next level and sharing my monthly progress on my blog for all to see will hold me even more accountable to sticking to my goals and plans. So here we go…
how the powersheets goal planner changed my life in 2019
Before we talk about where we are going, let’s talk about where we have been.
My word of the year was SIMPLIFY (I’m not yelling at you, any time I write my word of the year, I capitalize it to emphasize and remind myself that it’s my goal for this year). I wanted to break down my tendency to overcomplicate things and my systems for getting things done.
My Powersheets prep work helped me realize that I tend to get this grand scheme of how to do something perfectly but then it takes too long to get done, and my motivation/stamina fizzles out somewhere along the way. So I have a bunch of half finished blog post drafts, half finished blog plans, half finished scrapbook from our Disney trip when my oldest son was 4 (he’s in college now), half read books, half decluttered spaces in my house, even a box of Tanya’s unfinished projects in a box in the garage that my husband packed up when we moved in 2004 (clearly I never missed what’s in it)! Ok, that was TMI, but you get my problem.
All that said, I was determined to change my overcomplicated ways and simplify the various areas of my life. The Powersheets prep work also helps you evaluate your life in 8 key color-coded areas:
- Health (lime green)
- Friends – I changed mine to Home (teal)
- Spouse/Significant Other (lavender)
- Family – I changed mine to Family and Friends (dark green)
- Finances (light orange)
- Spiritual/Personal Growth (red)
- Work – my Blog (mustard yellow)
- Recreation (light blue)
My 2019 Powersheets goals
Here were my Powersheets goals for the beginning of 2019. I had a goal for each area of my life (the flag colors don’t necessarily match the life areas this year). I did color code everything last year but in 2019 my goals seemed to overlap categories or I had more than one for home so I just picked a color for each.
Goal 1 To Simplify our Home: Declutter our home so that our home becomes the peaceful sanctuary and fun playspace we dream of
Small Victories:
- Read Decluttering at the Speed of Life and am making an effort to get rid of things so they fit in the space we have. We tend to go out and buy new bins and now our closets and cabinets are filled to the brim. I’m working on decluttering to the space our stuff needs to fit into.
- Decluttered kids bathroom and kids closets when our oldest moved to the dorm
- Decluttered pantry and some kitchen cabinets
- Got rid of things as I saw them
- Took lots of stuff to donate
- Posted my first 10 items for sale on a neighborhood yard sale Facebook group (they didn’t sell but I got over my irrational fear of selling and took that first step).
Status:
Goal still in process, it will be for awhile!
Goal 2 for My Blog: Earn $2,500 per month from my blog so that I can contribute to paying for college, saving for retirement and travel more while doing something I love.
This is a lofty goal since $2,500 would be my ideal income I’d earn from this blog so that I could save for another year of college tuition for my son and then tackle the other savings goals.
Small Victories:
- 75 % increase in revenue% (both cash and product received for review and services)
- 243% increase in net income after expenses (I did a better job not buying all the courses, I have everything I need to succeed at this business!) – you can see my updated blog income and expense report here
- 29% increase in blog sessions
- 28% increase in blog pageviews
- 177% increase in time on page (this tells me readers are staying on my page longer and enjoying my content!)
- Started working as a Virtual Assistant (VA) writing content, doing keyword research for blog posts, organizing data into spreadsheets and creating pin images. I love helping other bloggers achieve their goals too and was surprised by how much I would enjoy being a VA.
- Reached out of my comfort zone and served as a table leader at Cultivate Your Year Live!
- Wrote a new e-book, The 30 Day Plan to Organize the Chaos in Your Mind and Life: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Develop the Ideal Planning and Productivity System so that You Can Get More Done and Have More Fun
Status:
My income is still very volatile, highest in the 4th quarter and 1st quarter and a big slump in the summer. I’m 30% to my goal overall but the VA services in the last 3 months had me at 73% of my goal if I can just keep that up! Goal still in process.
Goal 3 for our Home: Fix and decorate our home so that we can be proud of it and be good stewards of our home
Our home is 20 years old and starting to show wear and tear. Things are needing repairing and replacing all the time. We want to stay on top of the repairs and renovations so we can take better care of our home.
Small Victories:
- Had the trim repaired and our house powerwashed and painted. It needed it!
- Worked hard on improving the lawn (weeding, so much weeding, and watering, hubby did the aerating and seeding)….we’ll see in the spring how we did!
- Replaced our broken dishwasher and microwave! They’d been broken for months!
- Hubby did a lot of things that needed fixing so I can’t take credit for those!
Status:
Only thing still needing fixing is our indoor and outdoor fridges. I had called for a repair, but they couldn’t figure it out. I need to call them back. Decorating is on hold until I declutter so this goal is complete for now!
Goal 4 for our Finances: Save more so that we can give generously to our kids, family and others
Our biggest goals are to save so we can pay our sons’ college tuition in cash. In Q4, Superhubby and I decided we wanted to payoff the mortgage too. I also wanted to simplify my financial expense and report prep process so that I stayed on top of our budget and expenses.
Small Victories:
- Paid off an extra 24% of our mortgage in Q4, $99k left to go!
- Paid our oldest son’s 1st year college tuition in cash. We don’t want to be in debt and we don’t want our kids to start their careers and independent lives in debt either!
- I have figured out a way to simplify our finances using the Budget by Paycheck method which actually has me excited to work on my finances and save more to get rid of that nagging mortgage! I started that in December so I am still working on figuring out how to make it work for us but I think it will! The former accountant in me had trouble letting go of the way I would do things for work, but this method makes sense to me and I can just tweak it for our needs. Using cash envelopes has definitely helped me stick to budgets for our variable expenses (like groceries, eating out, and fun…if there’s no money in the envelope, I can’t spend anymore!)
- We spoil family and friends when they come to visit…see Goal 5 about celebrations.
Status:
We made great strides in this goal by using our savings to accomplish our financial goals. It’s what we were saving for in the first place! I’d say this goal is complete for this year and will continue next year as well.
Goal 5 for our Family and Friends: Celebrate our lives so we can share joy and love with family and friends
One of my biggest non-tangible goals was to make our loved ones feel special with simple yet meaningful celebrations. Everyone loves to eat which usually means anytime someone comes over, I cook and take care of the feast and my husband takes care of the entertainment (we have sing alongs with our talented guitar players and singers, we take family walks and bike rides, we watch movies, we do puzzles together and just party till we drop, he’s the creative and fun one in the family).
We really focus on being present and making time for anyone who comes to visit. I always say, if we are home, visitors are welcome! This is where many of our happy memories for the year come from!
Small Victories:
- Lots of party hosting and visits!
- coffee dates, dinner dates and puzzle dates with my friends
- They didn’t know that making people feel special and loved when they visit is one of my goals but both my sister in law and friend said on separate occasions that our home is so welcoming and they feel so special whenever they come over to visit. Goal achieved!
Status:
Goal is complete! And I love it so much it will go back on my Powersheets for 2020!
Goal 6 to Simplify My Life for my Personal Growth and Mental Health: Develop systems and routines to work smarter, not harder and be more efficient so I can get more done and have more fun!
To deal with overwhelm, I feel like developing systems and routines helps me simplify my day and my life because it helps me put tasks and processes on auto pilot. It helps me get rid of unnecessary steps and focus on the most impactful steps to get something done.
Small Victories:
- Developed a cleaning and laundry routine that works for us and what feels best for our home and needs.
- Incorporate a daily routine that includes waking up at 5 am so I can blog before the kids and hubby wake up. This is my “me time” and I need it to both be productive with my blog and when I write and feel like I’m helping my readers with my words, it fires me up and sets me up to have a great day!
- Maintained a menu planning routine to make sure I have a plan for food for these hungry boys. It saves us sooo much money to eat in and we eat healthier with better ingredients too.
- Completed a Getting Things Done capture to get all my lists and to dos organized into a manageable system so I always know what needs to be done and the status of any project or task. It helps get things out of my head and onto paper for complete “stress-free productivity”.
- Maintained a planning routine to make sure I keep up with my to do lists, both the unexpected and my goals!
- Used the Erin Condren Checklist Journal to change my routine easily as my schedule changed (especially transitions between school days and summer days with the kids home). used it to track daily, weekly, quarterly, and annual routines for home and blog. Checking things off a list is a great motivator for me so this little journal works really well for me.
- Working on my finances routine as I mentioned in goal 4 to simplify our financial processes for budgeting and tracking expenses.
- Working on a decluttering routine. I tried (and failed) to do some decluttering a few minutes everyday. I realize that i like to be able to just tackle an area till it’s done or I get tired, rather than starting and stopping/context switching and storing a bag of stuff to donate in our laundry room till it gets filled up. Once I get in a groove I want to keep going. So decluttering is going to be a one-time focus project for me in 2020 instead of something I work on daily.
Status:
Goal is mostly complete, I just have my finances routine to work on and that is in process and almost complete in January!
Goal 7 to Improve My Physical, Spiritual and Emotional Health
The title for this goal is pretty self explanatory but i’ve neglected my physical health for a long time and I just can’t get in the swing to make my physical health a priority. My Rheumatoid Arthritis does better when I stick to an autoimmune type diet (no dairy, no gluten, no sugar) and I walk daily but I just can’t stick with it.
I made good strides in 2018 with my spiritual health but I still have trouble sticking with the spiritual routine that makes me feel best (daily Bible devotions and weekly Mass).
Emotionally, I really pay attention and am self-aware of how things impact me emotionally. It’s really easy for me to slip into depression or anxiety so it’s a constant battle to make sure I stop my downward spiral when I feel it coming on.
Small Victories:
- The Powersheets daily tracker is where I put my water and medicine tracker so I actually remember to do it. I did much better with drinking 60 oz of water.
- Planning helps with my emotional health. I write not only my to do lists, but also small victories and happy memories in my Powersheets and planners so that it helps me stay focused on the positive/things I get done rather than what didn’t.
Status:
Goal still in process and ongoing. I really need to work on my physical and spiritua health. I think my emotional health is as good as it can be as I’ve really worked on staying positive, happy and grateful this year!
Goal 8: Be a CEO (Chief Encouragement Officer) for Family and Friends and Others Who Need Support
As a SAHM and WAHM, I realized my most rewarding role and favorite job title is being CEO of our family. And by CEO I mean Chief Encouragement Officer. I know how impactful Powersheets and goal setting has been in my life, that I also want to use that energy and knowledge to help my Superhubby and kids achieve THEIR goals too.
Small Victories:
- I identified goals for each of them. What they need for physical end emotional health and what they need to do their best at work and school.
- I provided the tools and opportunities they need to be able to succeed to reach THEIR goals.
- Their victories are my victories too because they represent some of the heart and effort I put in to help them achieve their goals.
- My Superhubby indicated his biggest worry is losing his job since we are a one income household and not being able to pay the mortgage to provide a roof over our family’s head. So we are sinking our savings and effort to pay off the house mortgage because it’s the only debt we have and being completely debt free would lift a huge burden off our shoulders. We made a big extra mortgage payment in 2019 to get our mortgage down to less than $99k!
- My oldest son graduated magna cum laude from high school and is attending a university where he’s thriving, adjusting well to college life while keeping his head on straight despite his new independence and taking advantage of leadership opportunities on campus. He made Dean’s List first semester.
- My middle son has always been gifted in school but struggled to find the sport he was passionate about for his physical health. He seems to love jiu jitsu and I never would have guessed the mild mannered bookworm was so good at the strategy, strength and fiestiness you need for this martial art.
- My youngest son is a speed demon and excels at soccer but he struggles with his self-confidence in his abilities. He earned a spot on a team that is a perfect fit for him and they went undefeated in the regular season. He loves to write but dislikes reading. We’ve worked together to find books he truly enjoys. They are out there, and I have to go with it and get him all the books in the series when he finds one he wants to read.
Status:
Goal completed! I’ve supported my boys (that includes Superhubby) in their goals and aspirations and we’ve made great strides this year! Of course, this will still be a goal and ongoing for 2020 whether I write it on my goal list or not.
Powersheets 2020 Review and FAQ
If you don’t know much about the 2020 Powersheets already and the changes they made, you might want to head to:
- my Powersheets review and/or
- the Everything You Need to Know About Powersheets 2020 Before You Buy page for my answers to frequently asked questions.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM MY 2019 POWERSHEETS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- When I’m excited about a goal, I obsess over it until I can get it done
- I don’t work well with a long list of things I have to do in a daily routine, it leaves me no time for the bigger projects I want to get done
- Checking off the bigger projects is more motivating to me than checking off a chain of daily items
- I don’t work well with 15 minutes a day (on decluttering for example). It’s hard for me to be consistent
- I don’t like a lot of context switching, i want to be able to work on something until it’s done to my satisfaction
- I have to have the time to work through something to be able to find how to simplify it to suit my needs. I can’t be rushed, speed is not my thing.
My Powersheets 2020 word of the year
Powersheets are great for helping me find my word of the year, the theme and intention I am going to live my life by. It’s great in helping me uncover what that word is, what it truly means and finding new ways to incorporate that word into my way of life.
For the last 2 years, the word I chose was SIMPLIFY. But others i have considered are:
- LIGHT
- LIGHTEN
- GROW
- IMPROVE
- PROACTIVE
- INTENTIONAL
- SYSTEMATIZE
- ACHIEVE
- FOCUS
- INSPIRE
- ENCOURAGE
- FREE
And drum roll, my 2020 Word of the Year is SAVE. It has obvious financial implications but for me these are ways SAVE is going to inspire me this year in various aspects of my life:
- SAVE OUR MONEY to achieve our financial goals
- SAVE MY SANITY by using my goalsetting, planners and capture journals to keep my overwhelm and stress to a minimum
- SAVE MY TIME by systemizing and simplifying processes and maintaining the systems
- SAVE OUR SPACE for things we truly love
- SAVE OUR PRECIOUS MEMORIES by journaling, taking photos and getting them into albums
- SAVE MY SOUL by making my faith more of a priority
- SAVE MY BODY by making my physical health and self care more of a priority
- SAVE OUR LEGACY by being mindful of how our actions impact our future lives, our health and our environment
- SAVE OUR ENVIRONMENT by finding ways to reduce waste, use what we have and recycle
That’s a long list but now we are going to narrow that down into actionable goals…
The Powersheets 2020 helps you work through setting your goals by…
Inspiring you to find the courage to make a change…
Guiding you through HOW to choose your best goals…
Helping you simplify your year and the goals to pursue right now (don’t worry you’re allowed to change them and you will reassess your goals each quarter)…
and ta da…writing your goals down…
plus tips for breaking those goals down into action steps on the action plan worksheets!
And you can plan out your action steps on the yearly overview. As you can see, I’m just focusing on one month at a time. If I plan too far ahead and don’t accomplish all goals then I get overwhelmed and give up. When all filled in, this yearly overview will provide a nice summary of what I attempted and accomplished in 2020.
My Powersheets 2020 Goals
I had a lot of goals in 2019 and while I accomplished a lot, there was more left still in process than I would have liked. So for my Powersheets 2020 goals I am keeping things simple. I only have 3 defined goals to start and I will be working on one goal for my home and one goal for my blog and get it as far as I can before moving on to the next.
They are big goals so I’ve included some of the action steps from my Powersheets action plans to take so I can mark progress and will know when the goal is complete.
Goal 1: Payoff Our Mortgage!
This is the year we want to become debt free! We have $99k left on our mortgage as of January 1 and it’s huge goal to be able to pay that off.
Our Why:
- So that we have financial freedom!
- So we can save for our kids’ savings funds to pay for 4 years of public university tuition
- So we can lighten the load and pressure the mortgage puts on us!
- So we can save for travel and doing the things we love!
Action Steps:
- Implement Budget by Paycheck Method so that I budget and reduce our variable spending (and everything left can go into extra mortgage payments)
- Use cash envelopes
- Maintain automatic savings
- Make extra mortgage payments (it will take $8,250 extra per month to pay it off by December!)
- Make extra income
- blog income and VA work
- sell items
- tax refund?
- Decluttering and getting organized will help us use what we already have!
- Use debtris tracker for mortgage payoff
- Get kids involved so they appreciate why we are doing this and what it means to/for them
Goal 2: Declutter Our Home
I had made some progress in the kitchen and kids bath but of course, clutter comes back quickly and seems to regenerate. So we’ll be tackling the whole house again.
Our Why:
Save our space for the things we truly love and that truly matter. We want to be free of the overwhelm that clutter is causing.
Action Steps:
- go through One Year to an Organized Life, it’s my favorite decluttering/organizing resource because it includes journaling to envision your space and premade checklists room by room!
- laundry room
- master bedroom closet and bathroom
- kitchen
- dining room and hall bath
- downstairs closets
- garage
- office
- kids rooms
- papers, photos, books
Goal 3: Double Blog Income and Grow Email List to 10K subscribers
Doubling my income is my goal but there are so many ways to go do that. I want to focus on growing my email list to 10K subscribers because I feel like I do well with connecting with my readers on a more personal level in my newsletters than I can do on a public blog post. I value cultivating that relationship because we can get real with our struggles and our dreams in private. You can help me out and get exclusive content and free printables by subscribing to my newsletter here, just saying. 🙂
My Why:
I want my blog income to help payoff mortgage and achieve our financial goals by earning money doing something I truly love, can be home for my kids and make a real difference in helping other overwhelmed moms and chronic illness patients overcome their obstacles so they can live their dream lives too!
Action Steps:
- Focus on content through keyword plans
- Setup 30 days to an organized life email challenge (the book is already done!)
- Open shop and sell products which are already done!
- The 30 Day Plan to Organize Your Mind and Life
- Thrive with Chronic Illness Planner + Journal
- Free Your Mind Blog Planner
- affiliate products
Well there you have it. The Powersheets goal planner has made such a huge impact in my life for the past 2 years and I look forward to how the Powersheets 2020 will help us accomplish some of the biggest goals we have gone after this year so we can live our best life! If you are interested in Powersheets, you better hurry, the one year planner is almost sold out and they don’t restock it so you’ll have to wait until October 2020 for the next launch. They will be releasing undated 6 month versions but it does not include the seasonal pages.
Stay tuned as I will be bringing you my monthly Powersheets 2020 goals and progress reports to help me stay accountable and on track to crush these goals in 2020!
What do you want to accomplish in 2020? What did you learn from your goalsetting and accomplishments in 2019? Feel free to leave a comment and continue the discussion or email me at tanya{at}momssmallvictories{dot}com.
Wow, Tanya, that is some impressive planning and accomplishments!
I use a similar process that I developed myself that works for me, with Lifetime Goals, annually updated objectives & targets (specific and measurable) & then weekly planning. I tried monthly planning last year but didn’t get much out of it, but i did just re-start writing my daily list on a colored index card – it keeps my daily goals achievable (limited space to write!) and I can carry it with me. It helps me stay focused. And FOCUS was my word for last year!
I recently did a similar post to this about my goals process, though it focuses mainly on my health goals, since it was on my chronic illness blog (not much in the summary about my writing goals, for instance). But it gives you an idea of what I do and how I did – lots of similarities to you!
https://livewithcfs.blogspot.com/2020/01/weekly-inspiration-2019-progress-and.html
I am still in awe of your getting up at 5 am (and keeping that up!). It sounds amazing, and I’d love to have the extra time, but I have been struggling with mornings lately. I barely drag myself out of bed at 8 am (and that’s with a 10:30 pm bedtime). I’ve done really well at building a healthy morning routine with daily yoga stretches (helps SO much with aches & pain), a weight work-out 4 times a week, and cooking a healthy breakfast … but by the time I finish all that, it’s usually 10 am! So, I’m a bit frustrated right now. Doing well with taking care of my physical health by cutting into my writing time.
I am also newly in awe of your financial goals and progress. Wow, paying off the mortgage – what a dream! Medical expenses are just killing us right now, even more than usual. I had hoped to make an extra mortgage payment, but we’re going to have to take out a temporary loan to help pay the regular bills, until my husband’s bonus comes in late February. With my son’s downturn last year, our medical bills soared even higher than usual – and it’s all out-of-network (typical for ME/CFS and Lyme, unfortunately). Our #1 priority is getting him well again, but financially, it’s a huge struggle. So, congratulations!!! You are making amazing strides, and I am so happy for you! You deserve it 🙂
I read every word of this post & enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing so much.
Sue
Thanks Sue for taking the time to write and share your journey. I’m so sorry to hear of your son’s downturn and out of pocket costs! As soon as I say we want to pay off the mortgage, we got hit with needing a new washer and van repairs that cost more than it’s worth, so a new car will take a chunk of that savings and delay our mortgage payoff date I’m sure. I do like waking up at 5, it’s not always perfectly productive, but I do what I can given how I feel. I admire your self-care and health accomplishments! I will have to dedicate a month to establishing a good routine in 2020. I love to walk outside which has taken a hit this winter, I just haven’t made time for it and it’s so hard when it’s cold. off to read your post!
I hear you on the financial pressures!! Our old SUV finally gave out last year (230,000 miles!!) & we had to replace it within a week, before an upcoming trip. Not happy to have a car payment again – usually, our only debt is the mortgage. And just after I wrote that comment above last week, we got the news that another car needed $800 in repairs – urgently and for safety reasons (our son “hadn’t noticed” the brakes were down to metal-on-metal!). And our heating service came out for its annual visit for our furnace – I figured it was going to be the usual routine – looks good – sign up for the service plan for next year, but nope – our heat pump needs to be replaced 🙁 Luckily, we are OK until about May since we have back-up heat to use in the winter (it occasionally gets too cold here to rely on heat pumps). sigh…so, yeah, I get it! We’ll keep working and moving forward, right?
It was a blessing to be at your table in December! Looking forward to reading about your progress this year. Small steps bring big results! 😊
Thanks so much Kimberley! I’m so glad to have met you and for your support! I agree and wish you the best for 2020. What are some of the goals you will be working on?
Fabulous post. I really appreciate the detail and your openness.
Hi TW, thanks so much! I’m so glad you found it helpful.
I love the idea of a goal planner and this one sounds excellent, but $60 seems like A LOT to shell out for this type of product. I made my own goal sheets on Google Docs, but I admit that I’m already having trouble remembering to track my progress. Is the planner really worth $60?
I always tell people it is worth it if you use it and I really do use mine so it is definitely worth it for me and my lifestyle.
The prep work is pretty eye opening and if you’re unsure of which goals you want to pursue or have too many and need to narrow it down to the ones you really want/need to pursue, then Powersheets are worth it. My Powersheets and my daily planner stay out with me on my desk everyday. I make sure to keep them in my line of sight so that I do them. It does help me focused to have lists and such written down on paper because if it’s online, it’s easy to forget that it’s there. I also love to hand write, and have always loved papers and pens so a paper planner for me is a no-brainer. I enjoy it so to me it is worth it. It also helps that on Instagram, Cultivate what Matters has a #tendinglisttuesday live video and people share their tending lists. So at least on Tuesday when I’m scrolling Instagram, I remember to update my list too.
I don’t know if you have that same love for paper and pen as I do but I’d say if you set an alarm or Google calendar reminder on your phone to checkin with your goal sheets on Google docs, then maybe you would use it more. Once you get in the habit and find the way that works best for you, you’ll start remembering on your own to track your progress. I become kind of numb to my phone notifications and I don’t like to drop whatever I’m doing to work on the task when the alarm rings so again paper works better for me.
You could totally use a physical notebook and get workable results. If you subscribe to their newsletter, you can see flip throughs of the Powersheets in their prep work series from December and use your own notebook to answer the prompts. The paper and stickers in the Powersheets are beautiful.
I hope that helps you decide. Feel free to ask more questions! You might want to check out my review because at the bottom i have pros and cons and a list of if it’s really worth it and some bullet points to show you when it’s worth it and when it’s not.