This week was the start of the new month and I for one am ready to retake my April. March was hard for me. I was busy prepping for a family trip. We found out we were going to be going back to office in August which made getting a car a lot more important. Remington had a pretty terrible health scare. The constant inundation with news stories has left me a bit depressed. Frankly I start each day dreading the day ahead of me.
April Goals
So April is the month that I get excited about the day ahead of me. When I loosely planned my themes for each of the months of 2025, I wanted April to focus on creativity, specifically, my personal writing and my novel writing. I have been slacking on both of these fronts. So I spent some time thinking through what content I want to publish on Substack and my website. I came up with a plan for Instagram and Pinterest. I am going to bribe myself with the things that make me feel creative because ultimately the goal is really to find things that bring me joy.
Write 15,000 words of my novel
I’ve been working on this idea for a novel for over a year. I often cannot sleep at night because it feels like the only time I can actually think about it. Since I would like to actually sleep at night, it has become clear that I need to find time to put pen to paper–fingers to keyboard may be more accurate. So over the next month, I will be writing 15,000 words. That sounds like so many words, but it is really just 15 days of 1,000 words each day, something that is easily achievable. Morning and evening writing sprints will easily accomplish this.
Post regularly on my website
I have so many book reviews to write. I also have countless ideas of posts that may be helpful for someone like me. Someone who is in her thirties, works full time, travels for work, is trying to stay healthy, rebuilding her relationship with food, productivity and girlboss cultures all while trying to find ways to cope with the onslaught of crappy headlines. Ultimately, I would like to start out slowly, committing each week to a recap identifying all of the stuff I have been wearing, eating and obsessing over, one book review, and one post with helpful information. It isn’t that much but I think it is manageable and it is definitely making me excited!
Publish 1 Substack post per week and an end of the month recap
For me, Substack is where I write longer form essays. It is where I reflect on something that has been on my mind for a while. As such, I think it may be better for me to publish these once per week. These essays are often a bit more on the personal side and often help me work through my thoughts and feelings on the particular topic. They tend to be a bit more vulnerable and require a bit more from me than blog posts. I will also be publishing a monthly round up that includes highlights from my weekly round ups and a few more things thrown in.
More long form journaling
For no real reason, I have been slacking on long form journaling. I think I’ve maybe written two or three entries in 2025. This is not like me and is definitely adding to my scrambled brain. I want to make a concerted effort to write at least every couple of days this month. I also want to make an effort to capture some of the highlights of the year by adding pictures and tokens from my days. I love a journal that gets chonky from all of the memories, trinkets and writing. To me it translates into a well-lived and well-preserved life.
Find joy again
My hope is that all of that creativity gives me the chance to find joy in the small moments again. In order to find that joy, I’m doubling down on some past ideas. I’m engaging with the news for at most one hour per day. I recognize that it is a privilege to disengage from the news, but the doom scrolling and constant discussion of things that are so fluid just has not been good for my mental health. I restarted therapy a few weeks ago and hopefully a regular visit with my therapist will help to recalibrate my systems. Finally, I’m going to lean on Mel Robbins’s morning and evening routines in an attempt to add some structure to my days. I will document as much of this as possible to share here.
