setting goals in the snow.

Lets talk about our 2025 Goals and... Notion.

Jan 09, 2025

I wrote this week’s newsletter prior to the fires happening in my home state of California, and I must say I am pretty heartbroken for everyone who has been impacted. I made a list of resources that I found here if you are impacted and/or know anyone who may be. You can view that here in a Google Doc. Let me know if you have trouble accessing the file.

I am writing this week's newsletter while watching the snow fall in front of the window. As a Maryland transplant, I am always overly enamored by the snow, but not enough to wander outside. I appreciate how pretty it is and how it makes the cold front we have been experiencing make sense because I hate it when it's just cold for the sake of being cold.

Anywho, this is my first newsletter of the New Year, and I am excited about the possibilities that lie ahead. While I anticipate that we will be facing some challenges in the coming weeks (and over the next four years) am focused on the things that I can control. Therefore, I am very excited to talk about 2025 goal-setting today.

Over the weekend, I went to Philly to meet with two of my girlfriends to discuss our goals for the year. This is our annual gathering, and it is always a great time to chit-chat, think through, and discuss the thought process behind our goals. For this year, we are all adapting a word of the Year, Consistency, and doing the 12-Week Year based on the book of the same title by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. A quick synopsis of the book and the concept is as follows:

The 12-Week Year is a productivity and goal-setting book that challenges the tradition of annual planning. Brian and Michael advocate for a system where people treat every 12 weeks as a standalone year, which helps to emphasize focus, urgency, and accountability, leading to improved execution and results.
In practice, it is focused around these ideas:
Shortened Time: This is a quarter, allowing you to focus on achieving goals within 12 weeks with a limited timeframe, creating a sense of urgency.
Clarity and Focus: This approach helps people identify a few key goals every 12 weeks, and daily and weekly actions are needed to help keep them on track.
Execution over Planning: Success is driven by effective execution rather than extensive planning, which breaks goals into actionable and measurable goals.
Measurable: Use weekly scorecards to track progress.
Accountability: Review progress regularly, hold yourself accountable, and help ensure you hold others accountable.
An Opportunity to Celebrate Wins: Recognize accomplishments and recalibrate for the next 12-week Cycle.

I like how it keeps you laser-focused on your goals for a shorter window and the fact that it is actionable. In the words of Myleik Teele, if your goals aren't measurable they will fail.

For the year, I set five primary goals and then broke them down into smaller goals for the first cycle, which is basically January- March. My goals were to prioritize a healthy lifestyle (e.g., eating and working out), read 44 books for the Year, prioritize my faith, focus on my finances, and prioritize my relationships. To show how I broke it up, I'll use my 12-week example of reading 44 books; see below.

Overarching Goal #1: Read 44 Books
12-Week Goal (Jan-Mar): Read 11 Books
Last year was a mellow reading year for me. I had a small goal of 30 books, which I surpassed but this year I want to 44 book at least, which means 11 books per cycle. Additionally, for the first cycle, I am also adopting a No-Buy Paper Goods thing where I don’t buy books, planners or notebooks. So this is how I broke down the quarter:
Input my reading goal into Goodreads. Sorry, I will not be leaving Goodreads. I tried to use Storygraph but truthfully, it’s ugly and I am not motivated to use ugly boring things. 🤷🏾‍♀️
Get a second library card: I live in Montgomery County, Maryland, and DC allows you a free library card. I used this for Libby and can also use it to go in person if I decide to.
Update my account on NetGalley for free books.
Listen to at least one audiobook every month on Spotify.
Ask people to buy me books (lol, I did this for Intermezzo by Sally Rooney)
Look on my shelf to pull out the books I haven't read yet.

I'm curious about whether you set goals, how you place them, and what some of the goals you are tracking for the New Year are.

A Few Notes on Notion

In other news, I wanted to discuss Notion. If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you know that I have a love-hate relationship with Notion. I appreciate how powerful the tool is and how it allows for endless possibilities. However, that very versatility can also be overwhelming at times, which is why it can be frustrating for me. With that, I am currently experimenting with it again, trying to start small before diving deeper.

Keeping on the topic of Notion, there have been two things that have always fascinated me about Notion; the cult-like following, and the marketing by the company. In the early days of Notion, I remember being at the airport back home in California, and walking through the terminal at SFO and seeing major advertising. The terminal had ton of collateral on the walls, plus, there were screens with testimonials and use cases for companies and individuals. This was around 2019 or sometime before pandemic (what a time) and since that time, the company has exploded. Perhaps it’s because I’m always in productivity space, but I am always seeing tons of template and best practice templates, updates and more, and earlier this week, more came with the release of the Notion Face Generator.

Within hours of getting an email about the launch, it seemed to flood the internet, especially on LinkedIn. On my feed, I saw so many people change their profile pictures prompting me to actually review many profiles to see if they actually worked at Notion. I even spotted everyone’s favorite celeb bestie, Snoop Dogg, posting about it on LinkedIn.

While I know he didn't actually write the post and that it was a paid endorsement, it was still exciting/interesting to see. The image generator was impressively diverse, even though it was only a sketch. I created a profile with box braids and baby hair (better than I do my own), an immaculate high bun, and a center part for that baddie energy I aim to exude, see below:

All of this highlights how impressive their marketing is and it's fascinating to see how Notion continues to evolve. They are consistently making improvements to the platform. Last year, they introduced the Notion Calendar, and this year they are set to release Notion Mail. I'm curious to know whether Notion Mail will integrate with Gmail or if it will operate like Hey, providing users with a @notion.com email address. It will be interesting to find out. In the meantime, you can find me experimenting with Notion, Todoist, and Google Docs.

Philly Recommendations:

For this week's recommendations, I am doing something different. Every time I go to Philly, I am impressed by the food scene—it's much better than the DMV food scene. So, I made a list of some of my favorite things I have done, eaten, or visited in Philly. I also made a Google Map that you can save here. Since I am no longer a Yelp Elite (currently) after so many years, I am now a Google Girl.

Sabrina's Sabrina's Cafe - Art Museum
Go for the Stuffed Brioche French Toast because honey it was delicious.
Love & Honey Fried Chicken
I'm basic, and chicken strips are my favorite food, but the chicken strips here were delish. I got chicken strips with honey drizzle and a side of honey mustard with tater tots. My friend got the chicken and waffles and said it was good.
One Shot Coffee
If you're a Matcha lover, they have pretty good matcha. We tried a pistachio rose that was pretty interesting and strong.
ReAnimator Coffee
I got a Toasted Vanilla Bean milk latte, which was delicious. They also have a lot of seating, which is nice.
Elixr Coffee Roasters
I'm not a warm coffee girl, but here I had the Caramel Black Salt Latte with honey. Again, it was delicious. It was frothy and sweet but not overly sweet.
Mission Taqueria
This is such a cute place. I had a virgin Margarita (I'm trying not to drive liquor ever), spicy Shrimp Empanadas, and Wild Shrimp Tacos. We also shared chips and salsa; their verde salsa was a chef's kiss.
SOUTH Restaurant & Jazz Club
SOUTH is such a cute place. I went here on one of my visits with my parents, and I loved it. We listened to Jazz and had fried Green Tomatoes, among other things, but that was my favorite.
Liberty Kitchen PHL
I tried the viral Kale Chicken Caesar sandwich, which was pretty good. It would be better with red onion and more garlic or anchovies to give it a saltier taste, but I recommend it. The sandwich was huge. I gave my friend some and still had it in two different settings, but ultimately, the show's star was the Brown Butter Chocolate Chip cookie.
Booker's Booker's Restaurant
My parents' friend and her husband own this restaurant, and the food was delicious. It's upscale soul food with lots of flavor and options. I loved the vibe inside and was also proud to see her move from the Bay Area and open this restaurant in her new home.

I'll catch you next week. In the meantime, you can find me on my social media: Instagram, Threads (for now), or Bluesky (although I'm rarely here).

Notes from Erin

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