Wellness Plan Spring 2023
Areas of Improvement
Before designing a wellness plan, I need to assess all areas of my life and see what I can improve. Below is a list of areas that are important to me:
Mental
Emotional
Social
Spiritual
Physical
Environmental
Financial
Career
While there are many other aspects of my life that I would like to improve on, this is a good starting point for this semester.
Goals
Looking at the areas that I want to focus on, I want to create realistic goals. Additionally, each goal can satisfy multiple aspects of my life. I will use SMART goals to ensure SMART goals to make sure I create achievable goals. The period for all the goals is the Spring semester.
I want to increase my research productivity for my own career goals. Additionally, working on this will help me through my tenure process.
This goal has the potential to serve three aspects of my life: Physical, Environmental, and Financial. Learning how to create new tea drinks will allow me to save money instead of buying them from different coffee shops. Additionally, I will know what ingredients are used in the drinks. Therefore, I will be able to improve the physical aspect of my life. Lastly, this will help the environmental part of my life by reducing my environmental impact and using less plastic.
One of my main goals is to travel more globally and locally. I especially want to get to know small communities located in Southern California. For that reason, I want to make an effort to explore more of Southern CA. This goal has the potential to affect four aspects of my life: mental, social, spiritual, and physical.
When I was planning to move to Camarillo, I wanted to start something new for my physical health. Therefore, I decided to start swimming.
Similar to swimming, I want to develop new habits and exercise more. Developing this habit and going to the gym more will help my physical health.
Plan
Since I am struggling to keep my research productivity up, I will try new strategies. To get more research done, I plan to work on research as the very first thing I do when I get into my office. If I complete this task at the beginning of my day, I will get it out of the way and focus on things that are easier for me. The idea is to do the things I struggle with at the very beginning of my day.
Additionally, I plan to use the Forest App to maintain my focus. I will do a 20 minute session of writing1 and then do a 10 minute break. I will repeat this process until I complete an hour of writing.
Right now, I am working on learning how to make a chai latte at home. So far, I have learned how to make oat milk how I like it. Next, I want to make chai concentrate using raw ingredients. I have bought many of the tools and feel ready to start experimenting with making the concentrate.
Other types of teas that I want to learn are hibiscus and Thai.
I first plan to visit Ojai in February. Depending on the weather, I want to visit Twentynine Palms for the super bloom; otherwise, I will visit Carpinteria. Lastly, I want to visit Idyllwild. I want to visit a special event/festival for each location if possible.
Because I set this goal for two 30 minute sessions, I believe I can complete this task. It is easier to spend a quick 30 minute session than a full hour.
Similar to my research goals, I plan to go to the gym in the morning and get them done early so I can focus on other things I am interested in. I plan to go to the gym early every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This task will be before my writing sessions.
Accountability
There are two ways that I will try told hold myself accountable. First, I will share my wellness plan with friends and family members. Second, I will create an incentive plan for each goal I complete. I will reassess my goals before spring break (3/17/23) and adjust accordingly. Overall, I want to create consistency with these goals. Any positive gain will be a win. At the end of the semester, I plan to reflect on the process and see what worked and what did not.
Footnotes
writing means any task related to research↩︎