This is my third and final instalment in my series on 2025 goals - this first focused on word of the year and personal goals, the second on health/fitness and home goals, and this post will report my family/relationships and work-related goals. So here goes...
Photo by Wix
Family/relationships
Al and I have a monthly date. I think we should aim to alternate a day-date (could be lunchtime on a weekday when I'm working from home, for example), and an evening date where we ask my parents to look after the kids. I think last year we probably managed 3-4 dates across the whole year, so one a month feels like it would be a big step up. But by being creative with the type of date, we could include a few more without needing childcare, or imposing on others.
Reach out to friends monthly. Because I spent most of my life living in other places, I have a large number of old, close friends who I don't get to see often (sometimes only every few years). Keeping in touch with these friends is important to me, but challenging. I'd like to reach out, either via message or video-call, to one friend (or friend group) per month, to have a meaningful interaction. And preferably have a couple of in person catch ups this year by making an effort to travel to them.
Schedule a "mummy outing" with each E and O individually each quarter. As the kids get older, it is becoming more important and special to me to spend time with each kid one-on-one from time to time. The dynamic is different, the behaviour is often better, and I know we both enjoy the attention and quality time. I think 3-4 hours is enough to make it feel special, and not making it a whole day makes it more do-able. I think 1 per quarter (school term) for each kid is a do-able goal. I December I took O to a shopping centre and he helped me with Christmas shopping (and stopped for a play in a play area), and I took E to see Moana 2 another day. It was so lovely, and definitely motivated to make this kind of outing happen with each kid on a regular basis.
Work goals (this includes my main academic role, and my side-hustle):
Lean into my new teaching role. At my university job, I now have a permanent position (Australia's version of tenure) - hooray! For the last decade, I was mostly research focused in my role, but this new position has some teaching responsibility. There is an opportunity to take a course about principles of university teaching which I would like to undertake, and setting aside some time each week to learn a new skill, system, get advice on handling situations etc.
Write and submit two peer-reviewed scientific journal articles for publication. These days I mostly supervise other students and academics to write research articles, but its important that I continue to write a few articles myself. I have two I would like to write and submit this year.
Submit two competitive grant applications for research funding. Last year I submitted 5 or 6, and many were due in the same month, which made for a VERY stressful June/July. This year, given my new teaching responsibilities, I don't want to take on quite that much, but important to keep my research progressing. So 2 seems like a reasonable goal.
Launch my new side business website, and two new product offerings. Last year I started a small side business, which did well, and ended up bringing in some steady additional income each month. I really enjoy it and have some ideas of how to grow the business this year, without increasing the hours I'm working. This is important because I have a full-time job and young children - so I don't have A LOT of spare time! I can, however, spend about 5-6 hours per week on this endeavour, and look forward to the challenge of seeing how much I can grow it by developing new products that provide at least somewhat passive income. I can't really talk more about this yet, but hope to share more during the year. My plan is to spend about 2-3 weekday mornings (early 5.30-6.30am) on this, and then 3-4 hours on the weekend, working on this project.
So that is all my goals for 2025. They are written in my planner, and they are either habits I'm building in everyday life and tracking using my planner, or for the bigger goals, each quarter/month/week I plan to pull from this list using SHU's nested goal system. I will report back each month on my progress. I also have a 2025 bucket list in my planner with some fun things (travel, activities, purchases I want to do/make) so I might share that next week, if everyone is not yet completely "goaled out" haha.
Anyone else set goals for 2025? Or a 2025 bucket/fun list. I love hearing other people's plans.
I’d love to know the topics of the papers you will write. And congrats on getting the equivalent of tenure! I know that is a big deal!
It is really nice to have your family close by to help on those date nights. I bet they love watching the kids and giving you and Al time together. I really wanted to try to do day dates when Phil and I both WFH but it just never happens since our work days can be quite intense with client calls and trading and such. I would like to take a day off together this summer for a day date though. We have our first date of the year today and it’s a…
I'm not "goaled" out- I want to see the bucket list! Glad to hear that your side business is launched and going well. And again, you've given me some ideas for my own list- I also need some work-related goals.