The start of a new month means new goals, new opportunities, new challenges and a whole lot of monthly planning!
In this post, I’m walking you through my exact monthly planning routine. Everything I do at the beginning of a new month to plan, prepare and organize my life! This planning system has been life-changing for me.
If you’re someone who struggles with planning, organization and productivity throughout the week, creating a structured monthly planning schedule may be what you need! I’m spilling all my must-know daily, weekly and monthly planning tips in my monthly planning guide below!
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Reflecting on Last Month
Reflecting on the previous month is the first step to monthly planning! At the start of each month, it’s important to take some time to review your goals, budget, challenges, obstacles, achievements and routines from last month.
1. Review last month’s goals: Look back on the goals you set. Did you achieve all of them? If you did, think about what helped you accomplish them. Were your goals clear and measurable? Did you create new habits to reach them? Write down all the steps you took to achieve that goal. This will help you structure your future goals!
If you didn’t reach some of your goals, think about what obstacles stood in your way. Was your goal unrealistic? Did you need more time? Did you track your progress? Clearly outline the reasons you didn’t hit your goals and how you could re-structure the goal to achieve them next month!
2. Review last month’s budget: Take some time to look over your monthly budgeting document. Did you stick to your budget this month? Review your income, expenses and debts and ask yourself – Is my budget realistic? Am I hitting my monthly financial goals? Where can I cut back on expenses? How can I save more money?
Download your Free Budgeting Template Here!
3. Reflect on the challenges you encountered: At the end of the month, think about what difficulties you faced. Were you able to overcome your challenges and how? What things can you improve on for next month?
4. List out all your monthly achievements: Think about both your personal life and your career and what you accomplished. Did you learn a new skill? Reach your goals? Dedicate more time to self care? Reflect on everything you did well on this month. Think about why it worked and how you can bring that into next month.
5. Review your current routines and habits: Look at your every day morning routine, evening routine, exercise routine, planning routine, your eating habits, etc. How are things going? Are your current habits and routines helping support the lifestyle you want? Do your habits allow you to reach your goals easier or are their areas that could be improved?
The start of a new month is the perfect time to change habits or develop new ones! To stay consistent, make sure to track your habits!
Planning for a new month
Ready to plan for the upcoming month!? After you review and reflect on last month, it’s time to start planning and getting things organized for a new month!
1. Brain dump everything on your mind: Before you set your monthly goals, create a budget or make a monthly calendar, sit down with a pen and paper and brain dump everything that’s going through your head. Get everything down on paper. Are there events you need to attend for the month? Birthdays, travel plans or items you need to buy? Write it all down!
2. Set new monthly goals: Monthly goal-setting – my favorite part of the monthly planning process! Setting goals is so important. Goals help you organize and prioritize your time, they motivate you, they help you narrow in on what’s important and goals help you achieve your dream life!
I personally break my goals into three categories: Financial Goals, Personal Goals and Business Goals. Then, I set 2-3 goals for each category! Here are my goals for this month:
- Financial Goals: Pay off student loans + Open a high-interest savings account.
- Personal Goals: Wake up at 6:30am every morning + No phone in morning for first 30 min.
- Business (Blogging) Goals: Hit 4,000 pageviews + Re-vamp SEO on 4 old blog posts.
Remember, as you’re setting new monthly goals, think about how they will help you reach your yearly goals!
Want to know the secret to achieving all your goals? Click here!
3. Make your budget for the month: After I set my monthly goals, I plan my new monthly budget. I start by filling out my budgeting sheet with my planned expenses and income. Then, I evaluate my debt and make sure I’m on track to pay it off. I made it a goal to pay off all my debt by the age of 25 and I’m so close to doing it!
4. Check in with your health + fitness routine: Finding an exercise routine that you love and can stay consistent with is EVERYTHING! I’ve found that I love doing barre and Pilates inspired workouts. If you need ideas, here are a few of my favorites!
5. Meal Planning: This will be more of a weekly planning task, but you can start planning your grocery shopping list now. What meals do you plan on making this month? What ingredients or foods will you need to buy for those meals? I like to keep a running grocery list in my planner!
6. Fill in your planner + calendar: Now that you’ve done all your monthly planning prep work, it’s time to fill in your planner + calendar! I use Google Calendar for a snapshot of my month and for a big picture view of important tasks, deadlines and dates. For every day planning, I use a daily planner to organize my schedule. That’s what I’ve found works best for me, but if you prefer a weekly planner, that works too!
Create Your Monthly To Do List
Now, it’s time to look back at the piece of paper you did your brain dump on. Pull out the activities and tasks you need/want to get done this month. Write them down in a list form making note of top priority items.
I like to pin my monthly task list to the side of my Google calendar and add it to the monthly notes section of my planner. This way, I’m constantly reminded of the monthly tasks I need to complete.
Here are a few things I have on my monthly to do list at the moment!
- Clean Out Refrigerator
- Delete photos on my phone
- Organize my email inbox
- Deep clean our apartment
- Get rid of clothes and organize closet
- Create content calendar for blog + Instagram
Monthly Planning: Organizing Your Calendar + Planner
I wanted to walk you through how I set up my Google Calendar and daily planner each month to set myself up for a productive month! Taking the time to prep, plan and organize my entire life at the beginning of each month has been a game changer.
Filling in your Monthly Calendar
Like I said before, I use Google Calendar to organize my entire month, but this process will work for any monthly calendar! Whether you prefer to use a monthly wall calendar, a digital planner or paper planner is totally up to you!
1. Schedule in important dates: First thing I add to my monthly calendar is important dates. Any birthdays, holidays, personal events, important meetings, appointments, due dates for bills, big project deadlines, date nights and any other important things.
2. Schedule recurring weekly and monthly tasks: Next I schedule recurring weekly tasks and monthly tasks to my calendar. Weekly grocery shopping trips, our weekly date night, cleaning days, photo shoot days, weekly blog tasks, etc.
3. Schedule self-care and me time each week: I schedule in self-care activities once a week for myself. Things like journaling, reading, meditating and hand lettering! Making self-care a priority in my life is something I’ve been trying to focus on this year. By scheduling it on my calendar I’m able to hold myself accountable and make sure I do it.
4. Schedule your monthly to-do items: Remember that monthly to do list you made? Now it’s time to dedicate time on your calendar to actually completing those. Go through each item on your list and schedule time for each one. Some may take multiple days, and if that’s the case, block off more times on your calendar!
5. Break down your monthly goals into weekly goals + add them to your calendar: Look at your monthly goals and figure out how to divide them up into smaller weekly goals! Having small, realistic weekly goals will give you a clear idea of what you need to accomplish each week to hit your monthly goals!
Filling in your Weekly/Daily Planner
Once you’ve filled in your monthly calendar, you can start adding in important events, dates, notes, daily tasks and deadlines to your weekly or daily planner. I basically do the same process with my daily planner that I did above with my monthly calendar. All I’m doing is transferring the information to my paper planner.
Every Sunday afternoon, I schedule a weekly planning session with myself to prep for the next week. I highly recommend doing this! It helps you stay organized and on top of your schedule and deadlines.
Habits for a Successful Month
If you want to have a productive and successful month, you need to create consistent habits for yourself. Here’s a list of daily habits that will change your life!
- Daily Affirmations
- Write down your Top 3 priorities every day
- Habit-tracking
- Waking up 1 hour earlier
- Having planning sessions every Sunday
- Regular goal-tracking
- Daily movement
- Don’t hit snooze
- Write down 3 things you’re grateful for every day
- Go outside on a daily basis!
- No screens 30 min before bed
Monthly Planning Resources
- Daily Planner with monthly calendar – best planner! Plus it’s customizable.
- Daily To-Do List Printable – perfect for daily planning + writing out your to do lists!
- Goal-setting Worksheet – great way to track all your small and big goals for the year!
- White Board Sticky Notes – these are reusable to-do list sticky notes that you can stick to your fridge!
- Monthly Budgeting Template – creating a solid plan for your money is so important
- Daily Habit-Tracker – using a habit tracker is the best way to stay consistent with a new habit!
- The Miracle Morning – a must read book that will transform your mornings. Reading for 10 min every morning has become a part of my daily routine now!
I hope this post was extremely beneficial to you! I love prepping and organizing everything for a new month, so I hope you take away some new monthly planning strategies! Once you create a monthly schedule for yourself, you’ll find that your days and weeks are so much more productive!
Let me know in the comments how you plan to prep for next month!
Other posts you may like:
- 50 Simple Habits to Improve Your Life Immediately
- Ultimate Guide to Goal-Setting and Achieving All Your Goals
- 10 Best Productivity Tips for Working From Home
This post shared the best monthly planning routine.
