Functional Plan With Me [November 2021]

What are you most looking forward to this month? Are you ready to close out the year yet? Hello November! Come and plan for it with me.

Planner Essentials

Large Monthly Calendar (like this one) on our fridge – all trips and appointments for home and family members.
Dot Grid Moleskine – For work (decided not to also use it for personal last month).
NEW – Blue Sky Good Vibes Planner – for personal (mainly finance and to-do lists)
Pilot G2 0.38 Ultra Fine Pen – been using this forever
Midliner markers – I use the grey one primarily for every title in my Moleskine, and the other colors as accents occasionally
Ruler (7 inch) – I’ve had this one laying around forever – otherwise I would use a 6 inch since it would fit more easily in my pen case.

November Appointments, Holidays & Events

Youngest son’s 18th birthday & Thanksgiving.

Going Places:

For work – each week for the first 3 weeks of the month (California, New Orleans & Oregon)
Son’s collegiate swim meets 2nd and 3rd weekends.

To do: Schedule COVID booster shots for myself, my husband and my dad. Also – restock on toiletries before travels start – I’m out of a lot of things!

All travel arrangements for the trips have been made – I use the airline, hotel and car rental apps to make it easier to see confirmations. I group them together in one folder on my phone (along with Google Maps) called … travel. Everything in one place.

There’s a lot of stickers at the bottom of the calendar page in my work planner because I started tracking our credit card payments and then decided I wanted to move that to a personal planner … so the stickers cover everything up. It’s the only page with stickers.

HOME

The home is whats going to be getting most of my attention this month. Between fixing some needed things before my family gets here in December and prepping for the holidays.

First thing this month is to take down the Halloween decorations from outside. I went with the “Campfire BB” theme that I mentioned in September’s Plan With Me which was essentially the same as the year before, just with a few more additions – so it was easy to put together.

November is all about planning the setup for Christmas around the house.

outside lights go up by the 2nd week of the month (no waiting until the temperatures stay low). Of course, check lights and buy any additional needed.
Make Christmas gift lists for everyone – my parents, brother & sister in law, niece and nephew will be with us (plus my husband and 2 sons). Get the gifts and have them wrapped by the end of the month! Last year I was ON IT! I want to be like that again – plus with heavy travel schedule (including the first 2 weeks in December) – time is limited!
Choose wrapping paper. I like a theme! I like all the wrapping paper to be the same 2 or 3 coordinated. Last year, it was black and gold and there’s quite a bit left, so I think I’ll just add another color (ordering this one) … I take the Christmas season very seriously!

Other things for the home need to be done as well – we need the guest bathroom tile re-grouted and the mirror replaced + the boys rooms need some attention/cleanup too.

Blog Planning

I have been absolutely rubbish at blogging this year, and although in September’s Plan With Me, I said I was fighting to make my way back, I still haven’t. I’m going to wait until December to jump back in properly with #AMonthofFaves. So for November, TBD – plan out the blog topics.

Prep for 2022 reading challenges that we host.
And as usual, Read through our GXO Goodreads Reading Challenges Group and update it with books I finished for recent challenges … well, I haven’t finished any so I’ll just enjoy everyone’s posts.
Updated the 2021 Book Awards Calendar with links to award winners over the past months.
Put together a post for November with winners like 2020 Major Book Awards Winners Recap

November Reading Plans

It’s all about #NovNov (Novellas in November). I’m going to be selecting speculative fiction books to read that were nominated for awards – so World Fantasy Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, Nebula Awards, Locus Awards, and the Shirley Jackson Awards.

Exercise | Workouts | Fitness

TBD – Sign up for a Turkey Trot 5K for Thanksgivibg morning. I’ve been running consistently since the Spring – albeit very slowly! I’m actually doing a Garmin 10K plan which ends on Dec. 31st … but I have no planned race or run – just doing it for motivation. Also doing Zwift Academy Run.

And that’s it for planning for November. See more of this type in our Plan with Me section.