Three Months Later—Where I Am With My New Year's Resolutions (ed. 2017)

I feel like I always start these posts with OMG it’s already ____ (fill in with the name of the month) I cannot believe the time is going by so quickly blah blah blah. On one hand, yeah, it’s hard to believe it’s actually April (and I’m still in my home country, as my plan was to move some time ago and it still isn’t happening), but on the other hand, it means three months have passed since NYE and, yeah, this time it feels like three months. Maybe because I’m unemployed a freelancer? I feel like days are passing by faster when they’re filled, and now I’m kind of responsible for filling them, and it’s not really going the way I had wanted.

Anyway… it’s time for my quarterly check-in to see how I’ve managed to stay on track with my yearly resolutions, and if I have in the first place. With some of those I’m super happy, with others… not so much. But there’s still room for change, and time, obviously, since I’ve got almost ¾ of the year left!


Be more dedicated to my gym practice than I am now

I think at the time I wrote this I was making a huge break, because I was sick at the end of December and then just continued not going. Because I am responsible like that. I’m happy to report that after a lazy January, February was okay, and March was brilliant in terms of how many times I actually showed up and did as I was supposed to. So I’ll just continue! 


Walk more on days I don't go to the gym

Eh. This means three or four days a week. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t. That’s when I just feel super unmotivated and I just stay at home. I know, super glamorous, right…

The good side of this might be that I always feel a sting of guilt after such days. Come on, it is the good side! 

Not grabbing my phone first thing in the morning and last thing before bed

Never. I’m awful with this. I’m just awful and guilty of all the things we have read we shouldn’t do, like checking social media last thing before closing our eyes in the night and first thing in the morning.

But I’ll admit I will actually re-evaluate this goal. I mean, I don’t think it’s a major bad habit in the first place. Three months ago I wrote there was no big meaningful reason behind the resolution anyway: I just often end up in the realms of Instagram I didn't even know existed; I'd prefer taking some time to read a book instead, just like I'd love to wake up and greet the day ahead of me (yes I know how this sounds) before I am buried in a pile of notifications.

Yes, I’d love to read more. My mom says I’ve been devouring books when I was little (true) but now I don’t read and just watch series. (Also true, and a bit embarrassing.)

On the same page: get up at reasonable hour and set up a morning routine


If “morning routine” means going to the bathroom and then downstairs in my pajamas in search for something to eat, then, yeah, I’ve got this. But both you and me know this is not what I meant. :)

Same goes for the evening routine. 

Eh. Same again. Does brushing my teeth and taking out my lenses count?

Declutter, declutter, declutter

This is actually work in progress and it’s going so well! It turned out my parents and I are (almost) on the same page in terms of getting rid of stuff we don’t need anymore. Actually, I’m the one to toss much more, but with some convincing here and there, they side with me. I’ve taken five bags of clothes to the Red Cross and have boxes of paper for recycling.

(Fun fact: I actually need to take them to the recycling center outside of the city because there’s no one single paper container in the city! Remembering glorious paper bins in Germany that every building is required to have <3)

I’ve also set up my profile on a second hand clothes website but it’s not going very well so another three boxes of clothes will probably end up donated. All is well—at least they won’t be clogging my wardrobe!

If you want to declutter your house and, well, life, but feel overwhelmed and don't know where to start, I wholeheartedly recommend doing the January Cure by the Apartment Therapy. Obviously it's not January, but you can start it anytime nevertheless. The idea behind this is that you do something every day during a month and thus end up with a clean, clutter-free home, and a system to have it stay that way. It's great, really!

Declutter my digital life

One of the main aspects of decluttering I needed to, I wrote back in January, was precisely this. I was getting on top of my bookmarks game (quote: at some point I just started bookmarking EVERYTHING that seemed even remotely interesting. Still true sometimes!)

But then one day sometime in February or March something curious happened. All of a sudden I had some OLD bookmarks that I knew I had deleted beforehand. Along with the new ones! It was a huge hodge-podge and I was almost desperate because I couldn’t exactly remember all of them (I mean, do you know dozens or even hundreds of websites by heart?) and I had invested a good chunk of time to make some order there. I managed somehow but was left uninspired. I think it would be best if I did this like once a month or so. Otherwise I just bookmark zillion of things to see or read later and if I later forget about them, I never go back. 

Buy the 5 things I need


A camera battery, a cellphone memory card, a battery for my beloved Kindle, a wrist watch bracelet and a pair of glasses.

I replaced my camera battery and had the camera repaired but it ended up almost the same as it had been before—talk about throwing money away! I hope to sort it out soon and/or have my money back. A cellphone memory card was a used one that my sister didn’t even know she had, so she handed it willingly. The Kindle battery and the bracelet are hopefully on their way from China, and a pair of glasses is waiting for a better financial situation. :)

Practice gratitude


I did the whole gratitude journal once or twice. I’m obviously super ungrateful.

Write a book


My book is still at the exact same state it was three months ago. 🙈 

Write every day


Do text messages count?! 🙈 

Read books


I’m already behind my own schedule. My mom would obviously blame series. I don’t know, but I still wished I read more and I hope I will.

Watch movies


Not so many—at the expense of the series. Hey, if you knew I was watching Gilmore Girls for the first time, you wouldn’t mind, would you?! Still, it’s an unearthly amount of material—talk seven seasons times 22 episodes times 40 minutes. I could have definitely written a book. 

Become more mindful with money

Three months ago I said: 
I'm not buying things I don't need; but still, money is nowhere to be found. I want to find good ways to make money and treat it right.

I had a great translating gig this past February that was probably one of the most paid things I have ever done. But… (and here’s something I recently read women would say, and not men!) I guess I got lucky. A friend of mine, whose wife needed the translation, thought of me. Theoretically, he could have thought of someone else! But I guess what counts is that he didn’t…

...anyway, I’m still on the lookout for part-time jobs and freelancer gigs, so if you need someone to edit what you write or translate it into Serbian for whatever reason or you write in Serbian and need to have it in English… I’m your gal! Seriously. I’m your girl. (The why I’m looking for part-time jobs I could do at home instead of a full grownup job is a whole different story, but that’s the story at the moment.) 

Am I bad or am I worse? What do you think? I can always be better, that’s for sure. How are your goals coming, any you might want to reevaluate? I'd love to hear! Cheers for another round of days and months! ;)

Love,

Tihana