November Goals & Intentions

Happy November!! I feel like I write this every year, but how is it already November?! Madness.

While I can’t quite believe we’re already into the last two months of 2026, I am so excited for what’s ahead. What a fun stretch of time we’re entering!

I love the holiday season. There are so many things I look forward to this time of year, and I want to make sure I actually make time to enjoy them instead of getting so caught up in the busyness of the season that it all passes by in a blur.

And I’ve realized that, at least for me, making the most of this time of year requires a little planning ahead. Maybe that sounds backward, but I find that the more intentional I am about what I want to do and how I want to spend my time, the more I can relax and enjoy it when the time comes.

That’s one of the reasons I love this monthly planning practice! It’s an opportunity to look back at the last month, think ahead to the month to come and set a few goals and intentions. It’s less about perfectly crossing things off a list and more about making sure I’m making room for the things that matter to me.

First, let’s look back at October’s goals & intentions!

Looking back at October goals

+ Celebrate Ben and enjoy his birthday party. The highlight of the month was definitely Ben turning 1! I felt great about all the different ways we celebrated him and had so much fun planning his party and then enjoying it with family and friends. It was wonderful all around!

+ Go to a pumpkin patch. We didn’t make it to a traditional pumpkin patch, but Ben and I did walk around a beautiful outdoor area filled with pumpkins, and Matt, Ben and I picked out a pumpkin for our house together. I’m looking forward to doing the more traditional pumpkin patch experience next year when Ben is walking!

+ Start planning Christmas and November birthday gifts. Eek, not really! But that’s okay. I still have time!

+ Catch up on photo organization. I completed Ben’s photo albums (one for 0–6 months and another for 6–12 months!), so that’s a win! I still need to catch up on photo organization more generally, but I’m thinking that might be a good December or January project.

Other highlights from October

+ Ben’s first haircut! He now looks like a little boy instead of a baby, and I can’t take it!

+ A weekend in Chicago. I went to Chicago by myself for a weekend, and it was so nice to be back in a city I love and spend time with friends! I’m proud of myself for making the trip happen. Not because it wasn’t something I wanted to do, but because leaving Ben is hard! I’m so glad I went.

+ Halloween! This was Ben’s second Halloween, and while he doesn’t quite understand trick-or-treating yet, he really loved wearing his lion costume! He would laugh every time he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. So cute. We had a great night with grandparents, aunts, uncles and Ben’s cousin!

Looking ahead to November

What’s happening this month?

+ A visit from my mom! She’s coming for a quick weekend trip, which is always fun.

+ Lots of family birthdays! We have a ton of November birthdays in our family, which is always a fun addition to the month.

+ Thanksgiving! We’re not traveling this year, and I secretly love staying put and having a low-key Thanksgiving. Especially because we’ll be traveling for Christmas, I’m looking forward to a more relaxed holiday at home. And one of my favorite days of the entire year is the day after Thanksgiving, when I go into full Christmas mode: decorating the house, watching a Christmas movie and officially kicking off the season. I can’t wait!

November goals & intentions 

+ Meal plan for the entire month. I realize this might sound crazy, but hear me out! 

Reflecting on the busyness I’ve been feeling lately, I realized that one of the things contributing to it is the never-ending cycle of meal planning, grocery shopping, meal prepping and then doing it all over again. And for whatever reason, the meal planning itself is the hardest part for me! I’ll be ready to go grocery shopping but won’t have a meal plan or list together. Then figuring out what to make feels like too much work, so I put it off, and the vicious cycle continues.

So, I had an idea: What if I meal planned for the entire month of November at once?

I brainstormed some lunch and dinner options for this time of year (breakfast is almost always overnight oats for me!), put everything into ChatGPT along with the dates I needed meals for and asked it to create a meal plan. And it did! Now, each week, I will just consult the plan, make my grocery list and go.

I’m already loving this approach and am excited to see how it works in practice. I think it helps that Matt and I (and Ben!) are pretty routine eaters and don’t mind following a meal plan. And of course, I can always change things up based on what sounds good or what we have going on.

But already, it feels like I’ve eliminated a whole lot of mental load!

+ No social media. As I think about how I want to spend November and December, two of my favorite months of the year, I’ve been thinking about some of the habits I want to bring into this season – and a few I want to leave behind. One of those is mindlessly scrolling on my phone. Lately, I’ve noticed myself reaching for my phone whenever I have a free moment or am waiting for time to pass, and I don’t love how it’s making me feel.

Important to note: Taking a break from social media isn’t about trying to be more productive. I don’t want to replace every minute I spend scrolling with another task or something I should be doing.

In fact, it’s almost the opposite! At least for me, there’s SUCH a big difference in how I feel after scrolling on my phone versus simply staring off into the distance and daydreaming for a few minutes.

When I give myself those few minutes to just be, time feels more expansive, and I feel more relaxed. When I scroll, I inevitably end up finding things I want to buy, comparing myself to others or adding more things to my mental to-do list. Especially this time of year, when there’s so much content about holiday shopping, decorating and all the things we supposedly need to be doing! I want to break that habit and spend less time on things I don’t really care about.

I’ll still read Substack, keep up with podcasts and watch some YouTube videos because I’ve found that longer-form content doesn’t have the same effect on me. But for now, goodbye Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts!

+ Use my day off work for some closet clean outs. I have Veterans Day off work, but it’s a Wednesday, and Ben will still be at daycare. So I’m planning to use the day to tackle a few projects around the house!

Cleaning out my office and our dining room closets has been languishing on my to-do list for months, and this feels like the perfect opportunity to finally get it done. Add in a great audiobook and a fun coffee, and I think it’ll actually be a pretty enjoyable day!

+ Get organized for the holiday season. As much as I love the holidays, I know I’ll enjoy them more if I’m not scrambling to get everything done at the last minute.

So, this month I want to get ahead on a few things: mapping out our holiday calendar (and making any reservations we need!), making a plan for Christmas gifts and figuring out holiday outfits for Ben (and for me).

My hope is that by the time December arrives, I’ll have a lot of the logistics taken care of and can focus more on enjoying the fun stuff!

+ Savor the slower moments of November. With a busy December ahead, including traveling for Christmas, I want to appreciate the quieter moments this month has to offer. Cozy evenings at home, reading a good book (Mad Mabel, Love Hypothesis and Kin are all on my TBR this month!), spending time with family and enjoying a low-key Thanksgiving. I don’t want to spend all of November preparing for December and forget to enjoy November itself!

Here’s to a wonderful November!