Monday, 4/5/21: Talking about notes from March, a quote and spring cleaning
Happy Monday!
It’s a new week, which means it’s time for your next Monday motivation newsletter. Read on below for some steps to a happier Monday, a short story and a roundup of positive thoughts to get your week started.
Three Steps to a Happier Monday
Each newsletter starts with three prompts to inspire gratitude and simple intention setting. Take a moment and jot down answers to these three questions. To give an example, I share my answers below.
Step 1: What are three things I appreciated from the weekend?
Step 2: What is one thing I can be excited about today?
Step 3: What is my intention for this week?
GRATITUDE: From my weekend, I am thankful for fun times with friends on Friday, spending Easter with friends who feel like family, and for the warm, sunny weather.
TODAY: Today I’m most excited about starting my new book that’s arriving in my April Book of the Month box (more on this below!).
INTENTION: I was telling a friend about this idea last week, but I have a project at work that I’m a bit stressed about right now. So, my intention this week is to actually schedule time to just worry and fret about what needs to happen for the project. I don’t know if this will work, but my hope is that if I have that time scheduled, I’ll be less likely to consistently worry and think about it all throughout the day. We’ll see!
Okay, your turn! And if you want to share your three steps, I am all ears. 🙂
Meaningful Musings: Notes from March
As one of the items on my 21 in 2021 List, I’ve committed to writing a quick recap each month to try and remember all the things that happen (the big, the small, the funny, the serious, etc.) over the span of a few weeks.
This is my third recap this year (you can read previous ones here) and, so far, I’m finding the exercise to be really fun! On the last day of the month, I reference my calendar, scroll through my photos, and jot down a quick list of memories. I love how it helps me reflect on what’s just happened and set the tone for the new month.
If the idea sounds interesting, I’m sharing my notes from March below and if you have a ritual to mark the end of the month or if you try this idea out, I would love to hear about it!
March’s 10 Notes
- This month, I kept a notebook by my bed and started writing thoughts down at night, stream of consciousness style. I found that getting those random to-do’s out of my head before bed made falling asleep a quicker and more enjoyable process because I wasn’t laying awake thinking of all the things.
- Speaking of writing things down, I got back in the habit of writing down three things that are going right at the end of the workday. It’s amazing to me how much this little exercise can shift my mood and perspective.
- I was very generously gifted a subscription to The Atlantic and it’s been SO exciting to get a delivery of the print edition each month. Whenever I find a new copy of the paper in my mailbox, I get giddy!
- I bought two cookbooks this month – Every Day is Saturday and Simply Julia – and highly recommend both. Both cookbooks make it fun and easy to experiment in the kitchen! So far, my favorite recipes I’ve made from each are braised short ribs (Every Day is Saturday) and white pizza kale (Simply Julia).
- Inspired by this article, I started meal planning/ordering groceries and cleaning my apartment on Fridays. And WOW what a difference it makes! Not only is it so nice to wake up in a clean apartment on Saturday morning, but doing these tasks on Friday means that I don’t have to spend weekend-time doing them.
- There’s been a few tastes of summer weather in Chicago and it makes me very excited for the season to come. This past weekend it was in the 60s and sunny, and people were practically dancing in the streets! I always look forward to the months of June, July and August, but this year I (like many, I assume) am especially excited.
- Speaking of Chicago weather, I started tracking sunny days on my calendar. What’s always challenging for me about the months of March and April in Chicago is that it’s not uncommon to go an entire week without seeing the sun. And that can really impact your mood. (personally, I would take freezing temperature & sun over mild temperature & overcast skies). So, inspired by one stretch of uncharacteristically sunny weather, I started adding a little drawing of a sun to my calendar to mark the sunny days. I found I loved doing this for two reasons: 1) if I was feeling a bit off or low one day, I would reference my calendar to clue myself in on the last time I saw the sun. More often than not, my dip in mood was correlated with the sun not being out and 2) before I complained about the weather (do you even live in Chicago if your go-to isn’t complaining the weather?), I would check the calendar and remind myself that it feels like the sun hasn’t been out all month, but in the grand scheme of the month as a whole, there were actually more sunny days than not-sunny days.
- I visited one of Chicago Public Library’s branches for the first time! I’ve had a library card for years, but I’ve always rented e-books or audiobooks. However, there was a book I wanted to rent in March that was only available via a print edition, so I ended up going to the library closest to me to pick it up. So glad there’s so many different options or renting books!
- And on the topic of reading, I recently subscribed to Book of the Month and am loving it. As I wrote about recently, a colleague told me about this subscription and I’m so glad she did! In March, I got the book What’s Mine and Yours and for April, I picked People We Meet on Vacation, which doesn’t even come out to the general public until May!
- My calendar is starting to fill up with a few events and plans, and it feels really great. I can’t wait to safely see some people I haven’t seen since pre-2020. Feeling really hopeful about the progress we are making!
On My Monday Radar
Sometimes we just aren’t ready to jump into our Monday to-do list right away. In case you want some content to procrastinate with, here is a roundup of a few positive things on my radar:
- March’s quote + free phone background! “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.” – Dale Carnegie. I wanted a constant reminder of the quote, so I made a background for my phone and am sharing it here today in case you like it as well. To download it, view this email on your phone, click on the link, click and hold on the photo to save the image and then scale it accordingly to your phone’s wallpaper.
- Loved this podcast episode about the book The Midnight Library. I think it’s really fun that this podcast (“Bad on Paper”) does a monthly book club discussion for listeners. I don’t always read along, but I just so happened to read their March pick this month (The Midnight Library) and I really enjoyed listening to the two hosts discuss the book. I wrote more about The Midnight Library in this newsletter, but it’s definitely one of my favorite books I’ve read this year. So creative and thought-provoking!
- Enjoyed reading how Kelly keeps up with Marie Kondo’s KonMari Method two years later. I totally buy into the whole spring cleaning idea. When the weather starts to change from winter to spring, I get the itch to open the windows, do a deep clean of my apartment, and purge/organize/donate. I know lots of people who love Marie Kondo’s practices, but I thought it was interesting to read about the practices Kelly still has in place two years after she did the full Marie Kondo cleanout.
- I listened to this song on my run yesterday and was reminded of how much I love it. It’s a great running song because it is so long, and with yesterday being Easter Sunday, it seemed like the perfect accompaniment. My favorite part of the song is the notion of a higher power steadying myself and “keeping my eyes above the waves.” It’s such a comforting thought.
- Have any budgeting tips to share? As shared last week, the second installment of the Lighter + Brighter series is all about budgeting. All month I’ll be collecting anonymous tips, tricks or favorite resources on how to bring more lightness and brightness to the topic of budgeting to be shared in the newsletter on the last Monday in April. If you are so inclined to share, feel free to submit anonymously here. Can’t wait to hear from you!
That’s all for today! I hope you found something in today’s newsletter that sparked motivation, made you smile or inspired a positive Monday thought. Don’t underestimate the power of starting small… a fulfilling week starts with just one fulfilling day. You’ve got this!
Let’s make it a great Monday!
Megan
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