Nuggets for the New Year: 10,000 Steps

I'm back today with another installment of Nuggets for the New Year with The Blended Blog.  For this series, our contributors have been dishing-out advice on everything from budgeting to meal planning.  You may remember that, about a month ago, I posted a planner review for this very series.

Today we are talking fitness!  If you are popping over from Christy's post, welcome!  And don't forget to head to Sarah's next for information about her work-out routine.

Over here, we're discussing ways to achieve the daily recommendation of 10,000 steps per day!  So many of us are wearing fitness trackers these days but it can still be so hard to fit in all of those steps! For Christmas, my dad purchased a Fitbit Charge 2 for each member of my family so that we can hold each other accountable to being a bit healthier.  My competitive streak and my goal to be fitter in 2017 has me constantly up and on my feet!  Here are a few habits that I've inserted into my daily life to help me achieve that 10,000 step goal!

Set Mini Goals Each Day
10,000 is an awfully lofty goal!  In order to get there, it helps me to set littler goals throughout the day.  You definitely have to do this based on your own life and daily activities.  I'm a traveling teacher, so I teach for two hours at a high school first thing in the morning and then I travel to the junior high to finish-out my day.  After school, I head to a two-hour cheerleading practice (I coach) before heading home.  I make it my goal to get to 3,000 steps by the time I leave the high school, 6,000 by the end of the school day and 7,000 by the end of cheerleading practice.  Breaking my day into chunks ensures that I don't get too far behind to reach my ultimate goal!

Schedule-In Walking Time
I also look at my daily activities and schedule in little moments for walking.  For example, each time I find myself alone in my classroom (during my planning/traveling hour, during lunch and after school) I do five minutes of walking around the room.  Yep!  I do laps around my own classroom.  You'd be amazed how many steps you can get in five minutes!  And if you schedule this several times a day, you will be that much closer to your goal!

Walk Before Rewards
This one is kind of goofy because my "rewards" are things I would do anyways, like eat dinner.  After I'm done with lesson planning and grading, I make myself do another five minutes of walking around my apartment before I fix dinner.  And before I sit down to watch my latest episode of Once Upon a Time on Netflix, I'll do another five minutes.  Again, anything helps!

There you have it!  My tips for your step goal success!  And while you're here, I would love to hear your tips!

If you are a fitness tracker wearer, you might be interested in one of my previous posts about how to wear a Fitbit stylishly.  Since I've upgraded to the Fitbit Charge 2 since that post, maybe I should do another one?  What do you think?

And now, don't forget to hop over to Sarah's fitness post!
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Nuggets for the New Year: Planner Love

Ever since I was in middle school, I've loved planners.  I started with the school-assigned versions and have progressed to and tried many other formats since.  Since I've used so many, I'm pretty picky about my planner lay-out and have my method of organization down to a science.

Over at The Blended Blog we are starting a new Monday series called Nuggets for the New Year, featuring tips on organizing all aspects of your life.  Our very first post of the series is all about planners so I knew I had to jump in on this one!  If you are hopping over here from Lisa's blog, welcome!

My current planner of choice is the Day Designer by Whitney English.  It comes for quite the hefty sum but for me, it's totally worth it!  For this post, I thought I would show you the features of the planner and a couple of the ways that I personalize mine.

By far, my favorite aspect of this planner is that there is one whole page for each week day.  The left hand column features a schedule by the hour and the whole right side is a to-do list.  The to-do list is ultimately the selling point for me.  I have pretty extensive lists every day and haven't found another planner that will accommodate them without running over into other space.  I also like that the planner gives me a spot for a "Top 3" to-do.  This helps me prioritize my massive list!  There are also spots to remind you of due dates, help you to track money spent, plan dinners and even express a daily gratitude!

One way that I organize this page a little further is by breaking the to-do list down into categories for "at school" and "at home."  This helps me to better focus my energies during different parts of my day.  For the most part, I write in my planner in pencil just in case something changes.  However, if I have something super important to remember (like my formal evaluation of the year), I'll write it in pen so it jumps out at me.

For each month, there is a calendar spread.  Here is where I keep track of my blog posts.  It is easy to glance at and know what's coming up, what I still need to photograph and what needs writing.  I like having my blog plan in my day-to-day planner because I always have it with me for when inspiration strikes!

Another really cool feature of this planner is a space to lay out your vision and goals for the year.  You start by globally stating your vision for five aspects of your life: yourself, everyone else, academics (I changed this to blogging), finances and career.  From there you list what needs to happen for you to achieve these visions.  After that, the planner guides you to make goals for 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and one year out.  And finally you change these goals into actionable steps.  I try to refer back to my actionable steps page once every few weeks to ensure that I'm on track to achieving my goals!

Like I said, I know that this planner is pricey but the peace of mind that comes with being organized is worth it to me!  I totally recommend this planner!

For more planner nuggets, head on over to Christy's blog where she'll tell you about her organization techniques!