November is the grimmest month.

My hatred of November is well known but this year I’m trying to remind myself that it isn’t all bad, some of my favourite people were born in November!

But before I start to wax lyrical about how I’d like to spend next month in hibernation, I need to talk about October…

In October I wanted to carry on with the good things so put an emphasis on sleep and maintaining the golden hour.

I also wanted to set good habits through unemployment, so aimed to get up by 8am and go for an hour’s walk each morning and I committed to three solid hours of properly looking for work Monday to Friday. 

Lastly I really wanted to turn my focus away from myself a bit and remember to practice gratitude for the life I do have and remember to help other people.

I didn’t set any plot goals but in the house I had a list.

• Defrost freezer
• Clean oven
• Deep clean bathroom, bedroom and kitchen
• Launder bedroom rugs
• Sort/Rearrange the cupboard of doom

Honestly folks, it didn’t go well. I did sort out the cupboard of doom, I applied for 2 jobs and interviewed at an agency, I also helped at the Foodbank and volunteered at the Pumpkin Walk. I did yoga every morning for about two weeks until I lost the motivation, I haven’t even read that much.

I realised part of the way through the month that I was in shock. I’m not really unhappy about redundancy but it was a shock and the way I left was to put it mildly, brutal. Basically, I couldn’t say what was going on and I didn’t get to say goodbye to anyone. My manager didn’t even say thank you for the five years and 10 months that I’d been there. So I was in shock and while I’m ok about it, I needed October to hibernate (always my autumn go to) and recover my mojo a bit, you can measure how bad it was because there was much Netflix and not much reading!  Overall, I’m happy with October I did some of what I set out to do and I took time to adjust but November is time for action because it will make me feel better and the money won’t last forever!

November Goals

So November needs to be about focus and making sure that I’m occupied and active. First thing is the exercise, I have bought a new fitbit, they are not the most accurate measure but they do make sure that I move more. So 10,000 steps a day at least, no excuses and 30 days of yoga every day. I also really want to finish the cross-stitch that I’ve been doing forever and I have an idea of where, or more to the point, who it’s going to!

In the house, most of last month things and tidy out the chest of drawers in the living room and under the bed. This month I am doing something about my bed, it might be a new bed, it’ll definitely be a new mattress and it’ll be significantly less hassle if under the bed is clean! The rest of the house is in good shape but I want to get to the one off jobs before Christmas.

I need to reach out and start really looking for work, contacting agencies and applying for jobs so that will be a focus, I have this month and then I will sign on, I would like to avoid that, it’s a soul destroying experience but needs must…

Other things to think about, while I’m not working, I’m going to help at the foodbank on Monday afternoon and think about how else I could use my time well and for more than just lazing about…

The allotment is will wind down this month so, I’d like to paint the shed and cover the beds that aren’t being used, I also really need to get the garlic and broad beans in and burn some rubbish and cut back and dig up the raspberries. I’d also like to frame in a bed or two but we’ll see how that goes.