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Spring has officially arrived and I'm looking forward to warmer weather on the horizon! With the exception of a few extremely cold days (polar vortex, anyone?) winter where I live wasn't as terrible this year. I will say, though, now that the weather has warmed up, I've found myself leaving the house a lot more often. The cold is definitely the biggest downside of living in Minnesota!

March was another busy, but good, month. I had a lot to do and I surpassed my income goal for the month again, which was awesome!

Despite a successful month, I had a lot of trouble with productivity and staying focused throughout March. Being able to recognize that has been a big help though! Now that I know the signs, I can employ tricks to help me overcome my lack of motivation.

Anyway, let's get to it, shall we?! Here's a look back at what March was like and what I've got on tap for April.

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March Goal Review

Despite feeling unmotivated and distracted, I managed to complete almost all of my goals for March.

TOP PRIORITY

Finish my business website ✅ – As usual, this kept getting pushed off but I finally tackled it the last week of March and I'm happy to report it's done! I may make a few tweaks here and there but for the most part, it's good to go.

MONTHLY ACTION ITEMS

Read 10 books ✅ – I somehow managed to read 14!
Collect testimonials from current clients ✅
Create a content calendar for Facebook pages (House to Home & K. Jenison Writes) ❌

WEEKLY ACTION ITEMS

Publish at least 1 new blog post each week ✅
Input new interviews in WordPress and schedule to post on appointed days ✅
Invite 2 people to participate in Creatives in the Spotlight series ✅

DAILY ACTION ITEMS

Approve and reply to blog comments ✅- Holy spam, Batman! I think for every one legitimate comment, there were at least thirty spam comments! I'm glad I started to weed through them daily. Otherwise, it would take me forever to get through them!
Daily gratitude list ✅
Read from a personal development/nonfiction/business book ❌ – I didn't do this EVERY day, but I made an effort to read from one for 15 minutes most weekdays. The book I focused on this month was Calm the F*ck Down by Sarah Knight, which I really enjoyed! This month, my chosen book is Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis.

Have you read either of these yet? What did you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts, so let me know in the comments!

BLOG POST I PUBLISHED IN March

My new interview series, Creatives in the Spotlight, is off to such a great start! I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from the participants and readers. I published a total of nine blog posts in March, which include a whopping FOUR interviews!

FREE TOOLS I’VE BEEN LOVING

SEMrush SEO Writing Assistant – This is an add-on feature you can get for Google Docs and works similarly to the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress. I've been using for about three months now and it's been great!

Grammarly – Grammarly still continues to be one of my top tools. It saves me so much time with editing and I really love the built-in thesaurus feature! If you haven’t checked it out yet, you definitely should! Right now, Grammarly is having a super sale for the 10 year anniversary and you can get a year of Grammarly Premium for just $49.50! The regular price is $139.95, so you're definitely getting a great deal!

MY FAVORITE BLOG POSTS FROM March

Ultimate Guide: 7 Successful Digital Product Ideas (Your First 1k)
Your Pinterest Analytics Explained (Haskins Creatives)
What to Post on Instagram When You're a Creative Entrepreneur (The Coffee Date)
A Look Inside My Client Welcome Packet (Mints & Numbers)

BOOKS I LOVED IN March

While I read 14 books in March, I've narrowed down my top three to:

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang*
Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen McManus
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides*

*These were my Book of the Month choices for March. Interested in getting a FREE book? Use my link to sign up for a Book of the Month membership and you’ll receive a free new release hardcover book of your choice! I always look forward to the first of the month when the new selections are released for Book of the Month. Check it out here!

MAGIC MOMENT OF March

March was a great month! I did a lot of outside of working like spending time with friends and exploring the city. Here are a couple of my favorite things that happened in March.

My boyfriend and I completed some more work on our house, which is coming along slowly! We're hoping to be done with all of our remodeling by the end of summer, so fingers crossed. We finally bought and hung our first piece of artwork for our house, which was really exciting for us because we do not have the same art tastes at all.
I got my passport and my friend, who's a flight attendant, put me on her buddy pass list so I can go on trips with her and join her on cool layovers. We're already planning some pretty cool trips!
I received another client referral, which was amazing! The client was really great to work with and I hope to continue to do so going forward.

April Goals

One thing I've noticed in the last few months is that I tend to plan to do too much each month. There's always so much I want to achieve but life and client projects often get in the way. So, I'm trying to be better about picking out 2 or 3 specific goals. (Which is easier said than done, sometimes!) Anyways, here’s what I’ve got planned for April and how I’ve structured my Powersheets planner.