Month-in-Review Highlights: November 2024

Planty in his flowery autumn finery gets pride of place because I have never had a plant put up with me for so long. After several fallow years, he miraculously flowered again. Lausanne, Switzerland. November 1, 2024.

I postmortem each month shortly after it ends. Previously, I used these posts to hold myself accountable on progress toward my annual goals. Starting in January 2023, I broadened these posts to address more generally my observations and experiences for the month. (To read previous months’ reviews, click here.)

As I sit down to write these notes on my goal progress for November 2024, I have a different window open with my draft goals document for 2025.

My, how the years pass.

Meeting the deadlines I set last month for my two fiction projects didn’t mean I didn’t set new aggressive deadlines this month. I had a couple of moments toward the end of the month where I felt my energy flagging from the sprint, but the uplift I felt when I hit my targets by the deadline made all the stress worthwhile. A good thing, because I’ll need that positive momentum to hit the new deadlines I’ve set for myself in December. Got to finish out the year on an upswing, after all.

The good news is that, unlike last month, I managed to carve out a little more social time amid all the writing work and the other work. Not having travel truly helped; otherwise, I just wouldn’t have had the wiggle room. As much as I love travel, its pleasures have their limits. After so much geographical dislocation, I’d been looking forward to several months of hibernation at home during the cozy season, writing and catching up on neglected projects and seeing friends.

While I managed a few of my lingering home projects, I got nowhere on the more intensive efforts I had planned for this year around cleaning out the storage in the basement (ugh), getting some of the wood furniture refinished, or deep cleaning the couches, chairs, and rugs. Now that it’s the cold, wet, and dark season, I’m not sure any of that will happen until next year.

But we shall see what December brings.