Goal of The Week

by Katy on May 28, 2013 · 59 comments

My fifteen-year-old son is obsessed with soccer. Playing soccer, watching soccer, soccer paraphernalia, soccer players, soccer cleats; and yes, soccer talk. Endless fascinating soccer talk. Luckily, my husband has a similar, (luckily not completely obsessive) interest in soccer, so he’s able to soak up the majority of our son’s soccer fascination.

Just yesterday my son was talking about how some Portland Timbers player deserved to win Goal of the Week, and it was as if a lightbulb went off inside my head:

Goal. Of. The. Week.

Not a soccer goal, but a personal goal. A single do-able, not overwhelming goal. A concrete goal. A reachable goal. A realistic goal.

Nothing like:

“Learn a second language” or “Clean out basement” or “Put together a comprehensive budget plan.”

Something more along the lines of:

“Clear that one corner of the bedroom” or “List three things on Craigslist” or “Read this one book.”

And so I present to you a new weekly Non-Consumer Advocate feature:

The Goal of The Week!

This goal can be related to frugality, finances, simple living, (which is my favorite vague and wondrous category) or really, anything you want.

My Goal of The Week is influenced by having to work both tomorrow and Thursday, (hence gone from the house from 6:15 A.M. – 8:30 P.M.) so I’m going to keep it small and proclaim my goal to be:

Clear that one corner of my bedroom.

See? It’s been like this for ages, yet I never seem to get around to dealing with it.

Bedroom corner

I’m giving myself until Sunday to declutter and make sense of this corner of my bedroom , and hopefully by keeping the goal reachable, I can avoid getting overwhelmed and mired in the details.

So . . . what’s your Goal of The Week? Please share yours in the comments section below.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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{ 59 comments… read them below or add one }

Kerry May 28, 2013 at 10:07 am

I like it. I have mine written down already. Sort through my youngest child’s bookcase and make box of books she has grown out of for donation. (Then actually drop box off at Goodwill, which is sometimes the hardest step for me)

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Katy May 28, 2013 at 10:19 am

Perfect! Check back at the end of the week to share whether doing “Goal of The Week” worked as a motivator.

Katy

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Kerry June 5, 2013 at 7:36 pm

OK, I did it. I got the box filled early in the week and then just took it to Goodwill yesterday (which was technically outside of the one week window by a day, but who’s counting?). I feel lighter…
This week, list 10 things on Ebay. The photos have already been taken.

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Lana May 28, 2013 at 10:19 am

I recently help get a goal group started for my friends and me. We each bring our own habits and resources along for sharing. Some people have more businesses minded exercises for goal setting and planning, others have personal perspectives. It’s been great to get together twice a month and discuss our various goals and how we meet them. I like the SMART system of looking at goals. They should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic (or resonant) and Time based. This simple method of looking at goals helps to keep them real.

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AnnDenee May 28, 2013 at 10:20 am

Get all the stuff that isn’t going to Australia boxed and donated.

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Susan May 28, 2013 at 10:23 am

I do have a goal this week and I achieved it, Katy! I started a new blog!!!

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SarahN May 28, 2013 at 1:47 pm

Share the link so we can come and see what you’re about!!

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Susan May 29, 2013 at 11:49 am

It isn’t the same as this one, Sarah. Its about creativity and crafting…more of a response to the UK’s government proposal to reclassify crafts as “non-creative.” I want to promote the arts and crafts in the UK in a more positive light. It is going to include interviews from artists themselves! Its very weak right now as I’m still getting used to the format of this blog…

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Maureen May 28, 2013 at 10:26 am

Find a home for 6 old suitcases and duffle bags. I’ve been cleaning out my daughter’s bedroom for almost a year now and this pile has to go. I’ve contacted Catholic Charities to see if they have a foster children’s program that I could donate them too. If I don’t hear back from them by the end of the week, I will be putting a notice on Criag’s List to see where I can donate these suitcases and duffle bags. I know they don’t resell very well, so I’m hoping some organization needs them.

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Su Mama May 28, 2013 at 12:48 pm

Maureen, if the suitcases are REALLY old, you probably can sell them. I had three bought for next-to-nothing at the Goodwill As-Is, and sold them on Craigslist for $50 to a small shop owner who wanted to use them in her window displays!

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Maureen May 29, 2013 at 5:00 am

Unfortunately, they are not of the really old and vintagey kind. They are just old. I think my mother even bought one or 2 at a supermarket when I was a kid to use on summer trips.

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JaneUlness June 2, 2013 at 7:14 am

Are they the striped kind that are beige and black or brown? A rhetorical question. Those are highly collectible. People stack them as end tables.

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marie May 28, 2013 at 10:34 am

My goal is to finish putting in my vegetable garden. Between the rainy weather, and My stepdaughters pregnancy issues, and My daughters moving problems, I’m way behind.
My daughter needs everything, furniture and kitchen stuff for a new place, So i’ve been haunting thrift stores and craigslist. I’m amazed at the junk people put for sale!!
So I need to get in my green beans, cukes, zucchini, and the heirloom tomato plant that’s languishing on my kitchen window sill.

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WinterLightHomestead May 28, 2013 at 11:16 am

Until Wednesday afternoon, all focus here is on getting my son through his semester exams. It is time to be done with 8th grade! Ugh!

With the last few days I had at work, kiddo’s 8th grade semester exams schedule, and my problematic female stuff, I don’t know if I have the energy for any other goal this week. I’m in hardcore Mom mode right now.

OK. Wait. I’m going to pick a soothing goal. I want to finish 2 small pieces of cross stitch I’ve been working on. Realistic in reach and pleasant for me to accomplish in the midst of unpleasantness. There. All righty, then! 🙂

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J. Pario May 28, 2013 at 11:21 am

I want to finish the reversible wrap-around skirt that I’m making in order to instantly double the number of skirts I’m taking when back-packing.

Thanks for the post, Katy! Love your blog!

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Alison May 28, 2013 at 11:59 am

My goal is to finish reading “How to Sew a Button” so that I can do a book review of it on my blog next week.

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Krystal May 28, 2013 at 12:44 pm

Good to see I have the same focus as you AND your 15-year-old son. Seriously though, I’m a fanatic about saving money, zero-waste, and Premiere League soccer 🙂 In fact, we saved money from our last vacation to see my husband’s favorite club play in San Francisco at the end of July. Priorities 🙂

I love the Goal of the Week idea! I will follow yours, start my own, and of course save time for all the multitudes of soccer highlights I already watch.

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Krystal May 28, 2013 at 8:04 pm

Oh! and my goal: finish all summer budgeting (through September). Weddings, soccer games, and Burning Man!

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Renee May 28, 2013 at 12:46 pm

My goals are to cancel my GoDaddy service for a URL I’ve never used, cancel my Weight Watchers on-line subscription, and cancel our quarterly Terminix service which we allowed ourselves to be roped into when we had an ant infestation.

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Elizabeth May 28, 2013 at 12:51 pm

Finish knitting a baby sweater, sew a shirt for my daughter, and hopefully get the lettuce and beans seeds in the garden if the weather cooperates!

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Elizabeth May 28, 2013 at 12:55 pm

My goal: finish knitting a baby sweater, sew a shirt for my daughter, and hopefully get the lettuce and beans seeds in the garden if the weather cooperates!

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SarahN May 28, 2013 at 1:49 pm

This week, in line with some other people’s goal of the week (which I too love) will be to get the plastic bag of ‘donate items’ off the floor and out the door. They didn’t move on freecycle, so I’ll try my local op shop next. Keep me accountable – it’s been lingering too long!

(I’d also like to finish my book, if only I didn’t leave it at the bf’s!)

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Taylor-Made Ranch May 28, 2013 at 1:52 pm

We’re expecting two families to be staying with us from Thursday through the weekend so my goal date hits a little sooner I guess. I need to lay the irrigation hoses for my raised-bed veggie garden, hook them up to the cistern pump and get the tomatoes trellised. (whispers to self: I can do it, I can do it, I can do it)

~Taylor-Made Ranch~
Wolfe City, Texas

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Kailey May 28, 2013 at 2:14 pm

My goal is to finish unpacking and get the laundry done from our recent camping trip. I HATE unpacking and finding homes for things again.

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Daisy May 28, 2013 at 3:16 pm

I have a corner just like that in my bedroom… it is like a vortex for stuff. I clear it and it fills up again. My short term goal for this week is to clear off my desk of all the receipts, bills and crumbs. I need to find the bee keepers business card I was given as I want to populate the beehive in my yard again.

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AnnW May 28, 2013 at 3:21 pm

Great idea. This is my busiest week ever. Tomorrow the attic cleaners are coming. I spent most of Sunday throwing away junk and empty plastic bins from the attic. While you are in your corner, why don’t you rub a little Olde English Furniture polish on your dresser? It will look like new. My daughter took her grandfather’s childhood secretary that we thought was too banged up to save and used Olde English. It gave it a new life. Ann

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Stephen May 28, 2013 at 4:20 pm

My goal: finish two books I have checked out at the library, “Diet for a Hot Planet” and “Against the Grain: How Agriculture Hijacked Civilization”.

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Amanda May 28, 2013 at 5:03 pm

Your goal seems big to me. I thought you were going to say something like, get rid of two items in the pile.

My goal this week is to start a clean out of the whole house. Sometimes starting is the hardest.

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Paula May 28, 2013 at 5:29 pm

I have one web site I need to figure out why it’s not picking up the blog installation the way it should and I need to get my lime pickles done.

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Shannon May 28, 2013 at 5:38 pm

My goal is a fun one: finish my library book before the kiddos are home for he summer!

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AmyWW May 28, 2013 at 7:08 pm

My goal of the week is to gather up all the camping stuff into one neatly organized pile in preparation for it going back into the storage closet.

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AFS May 28, 2013 at 7:09 pm

For this week my goal is to finish spreading (free) wood chips in my back yard.

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AFS May 28, 2013 at 7:12 pm

My goal for the week is to finish moving and spreading the pile of free wood chips that are now in my driveway. I have finished the front yard. Just have the back yard to finish.

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AFS May 28, 2013 at 7:27 pm

I have a pile of free wood chips in the driveway that need to be carried to the back yard & spread under the trees.

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Leah @ makingsomethingofit.com May 28, 2013 at 8:44 pm

Ha! I rewarded myself today with a visit to your website (reading your blog is the equivalent of what you describe going to Goodwill does for you). I earned my reward by FINALLY finding a home for an empty canister that I’ve been shuffling from counter to counter, closet to shelf, and back again, for what feels like months. I was so happy I even blogged about it (it takes so little to make me happy 🙂

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Katy May 28, 2013 at 11:14 pm

The funny thing is that one of the things in that corner of my bedroom was a Garnet Hill duvet cover that I had listed on eBay. (It’s on the white dresser in the above photo.) It got no bids. But I checked e-mail today to find that someone wanted me to relist it as a “Buy it Now” item. The person payed promptly and it’s already en route!

So my old “crap out of the house, money in” worked perfectly!

I also reorganized my small stash of gift wrapping supplies that also lives in that corner. I still have more I need to do, but I’ve made a good start.

Katy

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Diana B May 29, 2013 at 1:53 am

To get my new in the box Pampered Chef baker listed on Ebay finally. I’m intimidated by shipping it since it’s breakable but it’s worth about $100 so I should just do it.

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dusty May 29, 2013 at 3:02 am

To finish season 1 of mad men that I borrowed from the library and then it’s season 2!! I love this show, especially the fashions and decor.

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dusty May 29, 2013 at 3:05 am

To finish season 1 of Mad Men, return it to the library and then it’s season 2, I love this show!!

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Anne Weber-Falk May 29, 2013 at 5:12 am

Love the goal of the week. My goal of the week is to clear off the two tables in the living room. The coffee table and the side table are clutter catchers. I hate it. So now I have a great goal that will make me feel a great sense of accomplishment and make my husband very happy.

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Diane May 29, 2013 at 5:17 am

Wonderful idea…I had a bad day this week when my outlook was kind of dismal, so I told myself when I woke up the next morning things would be different and they were. Now I’ll add the weekly goal to my list as well. My goal for the next 7 days will be to be gentler with my young adult granddaughter who is currently out of work. More time listening, less time wishing things were different. If I make it work for a week, maybe it will work in the long run.

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Barb @ 1SentenceDiary May 29, 2013 at 6:20 am

Hmm… my goal last week was to finish creating the photo album of pictures from our recent vacation. And I did it! Woot! It’s done and ordered and we should have it next week.

This week’s goal is to make it through the work week without drowning. It’s a crazy week and about all I can hope for. 🙂

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sage May 29, 2013 at 6:20 am

I have a yard sale planned for this weekend, so I was going to say that I’d look for more things to put in the sale. But it’s a multi-family sale so it has to happen no matter what. Instead, my goal is to plant every. single. plant. that I have purchased before any of them die in their nursery pots.
Thanks for the inspiration!

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Christa May 29, 2013 at 6:52 am

I like this idea but I am going to start small. I am going to finish installing the shelf in my daughter’s closet and actually put stuff on it. Goal of the week might actually help me focus. Thanks!

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Elaine in Ark May 29, 2013 at 7:41 am

My goal is to hang the two shelves in the bathroom that have been sitting in the spare room for at least 4 months now. I made a start yesterday by spackling the holes from the previous shelf.

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Michelle May 29, 2013 at 8:27 am

My goal is to deal with the camping gear that is currently taking up my entire living room floor. We’ve only been home three days and they’ve been busy, so it’s not -quite- as bad as it might sound. But the sooner I get it back up to the attic, the better! 🙂

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Judy May 29, 2013 at 9:54 am

A goal of the week= great idea! This weekend we are doing a garage sale for my DD with hoarding tendencies. The goal is to get rid of her stuff. Mail an afghan I made for a wedding present. And send off a collection of items for a friend of my niece’s who lost everything in the OK tornado. Then to move on to de-cluttering and cleaning up my house.
Congrats on selling the duvet!

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tonya May 29, 2013 at 11:45 am

My goal of the week is to figure out if the two duck eggs that my daughter rescued and is incubating are viable.

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Cheri May 29, 2013 at 12:41 pm

I’m going to dig out my favorite reading chair and ottoman from the pile in the family room where I got stuffed 4 years ago after our bunny peed on the cushion, take it outside, vacuum and deep clean the upholstery. I really, really miss my chair – now that I’m retired and its finally acting like summer in Alaska, I’m ready to tackle this job!

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HeatherS May 29, 2013 at 4:43 pm

Love this idea, I need accountability! Since we are leaving on vacation in a few days I wanted to keep it simple so it was to drop off the full bag of stuff I had at Goodwill. Got it done today! Now on to vacation!

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Kandice @The Simple Year May 29, 2013 at 6:57 pm

My goal of the week is to identify and corral all of the items being picked up by a charity truck next Monday. Furniture, clothes, household goods, books, etc.

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Kandice@The Simple Year May 29, 2013 at 7:01 pm

My goal is to corral all of the furniture, books, clothes and household items we’ll be loading on a donation truck next Monday.

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Heidi S May 30, 2013 at 7:05 am

I’m going to clean out my craft drawer.

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WinterLightHomestead May 30, 2013 at 4:20 pm

I know it seems weird to be changing my goal of the week on Thursday, but I realized that the little cross stitch projects I need to finish would be an ideal packable craft for a trip I’m taking week after next. So, I set them back for that.

I changed my goal of the week to marking, cutting, and hemming my son’s too short but still fit in the waist jeans to be shorts for the summer. I have to get them finished before the end of the weekend anyway so they’ll be available to pack in his suitcase for a trip to visit his grandparents. Project currently in progress as I’m just picking it up and working on it bit by bit in available moments.

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Kathy June 1, 2013 at 5:30 am

I love this idea! I’ll have to put some thought into it, though after last week (high school graduation and my divorced parents both coming to stay with us), it might just be “recover from last week.”

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terilyn June 1, 2013 at 4:48 pm

My goal during the next few days is to do up all the laundry, and to cover all the muddy swamp area of the property in straw. We have had constant rain for what seems like months. I haven’t been able to hang out laundry for over a week, and now we are supposed to have 2 clear days. I am doing up laundry. I’m too cheap to dry it, and my goal this year was to not use the dryer until after Nov. But with constant pouring rain inch after inch, foot after foot, it is difficult to hang out laundry. But, it is interesting that we now seem to live in the midst of a rain forest. I’ve never lived in one before, so it has been an interesting experience.

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Jules June 2, 2013 at 3:37 am

Love the simplicity of this idea. It adds up to a huge 52 things accomplished in a year! I’ve a mountain of things to do this week, but my goal is to oil the decking in the garden. Can’t do this on my own though, need some co-operation from this fickle Yorkshire weather,

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Louise June 3, 2013 at 2:26 pm

Although I have a weekly to-do list, my goal list is monthly based and I try for 2-3 things. May saw me trying to sew some curtains (check), organize our utility closet in the kitchen (check), and find a home for my 400 plus music records (fail?). I haven’t picked my June goals, but hope to do so in the next few days. it’s great to get these things done. If I didn’t set a goal I’d forget about them completely! Good luck on your bedroom corner 🙂

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Betty Winslow July 4, 2013 at 8:36 am

July goals:
wk #1 unload bookcases in corner of LR, so hubby can fix them (they lean badly) DONE, sort books and take boxes of rejects to local used bookstore
wk#2 have colonoscopy, recover
wk #3 do repair work on daughter’s gravestone before her friend comes to visit
wk #4 finish up hours at work

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