It’s that time of the year again where I do my yearly review. I started doing yearly review in 2014 but I am only able to share it here in my blog in 2018.
2020 ended so fast but the events were unexpectedly saddening — the pandemic, volcano eruptions, earthquakes and floods. It happened one after the other that it really takes time for us to recover.
Looking back, this year has brought a lot of changes in our lives starting from how we go about our day to day routine, how we communicate, to how we choose to enjoy life. The change was never easy and we were not ready for it. But we learn and grow more than ever.
Imagine, I am only able do things, see the mall and visit places (other than our house and workplace) from January to March. April to August were a roller coaster ride and the ‘BER’ months were a time for healing.
2020, you may have messed up my plans and budgeting for the year but you have opened me to new possibilities and opportunities. And with that… ‘thank you!’
A Glimpse of my 2020 in Photos…
Here’s my 2020 Life Review:
💰FINANCE. Ever since the pandemic started, my budgeting became messy like I wasn’t able to track my expenses weekly like I usually do and all my money became expenses. It was for the reason that I am the only person in the family who can do online purchases since we weren’t allowed to go out yet so I shoulder the groceries, bills, and food deliveries. Good thing, I have enough emergency fund and salary to cover our monthly expenses. It’s amazing how God always guides and provides me and my family. I am truly grateful.
To be honest, I was only able to check where am I with my finances as I write this blog. The good news was, I have Php 10,000 or $208 savings on my bank account to which I can start with as a base savings for the new year. It’s not actually bad considering the expenses I have incurred this year. I actually thought that I don’t have savings for this year but I did. So it was still a win win.
Also, since I have somehow adjusted with the ‘new normal’, I think I am able to do my budgeting again and do a quarterly review. Do let me know if you want me to share an in depth budgeting here on my blog, but to give you an overview this was how I do it before. I just tweak and improve it overtime as needed.
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👜CAREER. I am so lucky and grateful to have a job especially in these times of pandemic. I don’t know how I am able to survive this year if I don’t have one. It was my realization as I look over the past months.
The pandemic thought us a lot of things in terms of efficiency and trust at work. As for us, we operate on a skeletal work force with a 14 day interval — 14 days on-site work and 14 days work from home (as my company’s safety precaution to the spread of corona virus) and with that, we have to trust ourselves and plan our time well to be able to complete each task.
Though, I will not lie, the work-from-home set up was a challenge for me at first since we don’t operate on a project management system (PMS) unlike my previous work. PMS was a tool where our team task (regardless of what department you were in) were listed on a Kanban Board so we can see the progress of all the teams involved on a specific task. With my current work now, it’s very flexible, each of us create our own process as to what will transpire on our on-site and work from home so long as the task will get finished. I’m the type of person who likes systems and boundaries so flexibility and uncertainties were a bit hard for me. But as time goes by, I learned to get used to it and worked on what I can improve to make it easy for me.
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🩺HEALTH. This year’s events have brought ups and downs on my mental health and it really took a lot of time for me to be able to recover. The first week when the Philippines was put on a lockdown, I was still in normal phase like I thought of it as a vacation. I even created a blog post about Home Quarantine Productive Ideas like as if it was a normal thing to do. I didn’t understand the gravity of the situation we were all in (well at first…) – All I know was that there’s a virus and people were not allowed to go out to prevent its spread, but I didn’t foresee how powerful it was until I watched the news and totally focus on the numbers being recorded every hour and it just keep on increasing.
Realizing the situation we were in, I started feeling different emotions like anxiety, helplessness, worry, sadness all at the same time. I am anxious on what’s to come, I am worried about my health and my senior citizen parents health, I am feeling helpless that I cannot do anything about it, I am sad that we were not be able to meet our family. I don’t know but it was a lot to take in. I am glad that I have family, friends and coaches to confide in and they remind me that I am not alone in this, some people also experience it and it was okay to feel this way, and I will be okay and I did.
Me and my family was doing good physically and mentally now. Thank God. I hope that everyone of us will be safe and healthy. Follow the health protocols – wear a mask and face shield when going out, bring a sanitizer and alcohol with you always, wash your hands, take a bath, and eat healthy.
Let’s continue to look out for each other and stay healthy and safe.
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👨👩👧FAMILY. As you might have notice on all my family related blog posts, my family’s relationship were good. We have a closer family bond and we love each other. This pandemic has brought us even closer (not physically though) and stronger than ever.
We still continue to celebrate family events virtually and at home (for my family who lives next door) and help each other out when one needs it. Though, I miss spending time with them. You know, it’s still different when you see and talk to them physically but it can’t be helped now.
I hope that one day this pandemic ends so that we were able to do things together and go to the places we want to visit soon.
Big Wins and Next Steps
The year was tough but there were still good things (no matter how small it was) that we need to be grateful for…
| Big Wins in 2020. |
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| Next Steps |
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That’s it for my year-end review. I am happy to see an overall picture of what have transpired on my year and where I am right now. It will help me to realign my focus for 2021.
I also hope that by reading my 2020 life review will inspire you to create one too and if you do please let me know in the comment section. I would love to read it.
Let’s hope that 2021 will be good to us!
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