Proper time management and monthly planning can prove very helpful in achieving long-term goals. It is necessary to manage time and have a well-organized system if you have big projects on your plate.
Planning your month ahead of time will make everything less overwhelming. This way, you will be able to achieve your goals without stressing about them. You will have more clarity about your goals and will be able to focus better on accomplishing the tasks.
A new month is always a blank canvas, exciting and filled with anticipation. A well-thought-out reset routine can help you have a productive and effective month.
The Best Time for Monthly Planning
The planning time largely depends upon your work and what things are going on in your life. However, the ideal time for monthly planning is a week before the month starts.
The last week of any month is the best for checking on your previous month’s progress and planning the upcoming month.
If you usually stay too busy in the last week, somehow manage your time two weeks before the months start.
Always plan your month in advance; otherwise, you will find yourself catching up on things during the first week of the month.
Soon you will realize you are already halfway through the month and you are not on the right track. That way, everything will stay unorganized.
Benefits of a monthly reset routine
-Increased productivity
-Sets you up for success and makes it more likely to achieve your goals
-Good for your mental health due to regulated stress levels
-Helps boost your self-confidence
Planning Tools
Before jumping onto the process of planning the month, you will need some tools that can help keep everything organized. This is what you should have:
-A monthly calendar to divide all your tasks on all thirty days of the month
-A notebook to write down all your goals, plans, and meetings
-A digital app or a paper planner that can help you manage projects, meetings, and deadlines
Monthly Planning Routine
Step 1: Reflection
Reflect on your past month, and think of your goals and the progress you’ve made or haven’t made so far.
It’s important to look back at what has happened and what you have achieved. Acknowledge all your wins, big or small.
Before you set new goals, it’s important to reflect on the ones you have achieved and reassess what you can achieve the following month. You’ll learn where you’ve grown and where you need to put more effort the following month.
It’s important to always begin your reset with a reflection.
Step 2: Review Your Goals
Planning a month revolves around achieving the goals you have set for yourself. Before sitting down to plan your month, have a glance at your annual and quarterly goals and see how much you have achieved so far.
Reflect on how much time you spend working for those goals and when you find yourself carelessly scrolling through social media.
The plan is to cut down the time spent on social media and set time limits such that you prioritize the most important tasks while you have time for yourself, friends and family as well.
Step 3: Braindump
Your brain is on full blast every day of the month. It’s important to declutter it.
Take some time to write down any ideas you’ve had, upcoming events you’re attending, occasional, important dates, and anything that comes to mind really.
This allows you to get your thoughts and ideas down before the bustle of the following month wipes it clean of your mind.
Step 4: Clear Up The Clutter
Over the course of the month, clutter builds up. Now that you’ve cleared the clutter from your brain, it’s time to do the same with the rest of your life.
-Clean your space: Use this time to refresh your space. Deep clean your space and get rid of or donate anything you don’t need anymore
-Clear your devices: Clear your junk folder in your emails, clear your Dms on all socials and delete any junk files from all your devices to have a more organized system to work on.
Step 5: Make a List of Incomplete Tasks
Time can always escape us, sometimes we don’t get to complete all the tasks we have lined up for the month.
So during your monthly planning, you can take note of any incomplete tasks that can be incorporated into your new month’s to-do list.
This allows you to still complete overall goals and not fall behind on your yearly goals.
Step 6: Prioritize Your Tasks
This helps give more time to what is important and what needs to be done first.
You need to make a list of tasks in the right order. Considering the difficulty and length of the task, assign it the time in which you have to do it.
Step 7: Schedule all Your Appointments
Appointments, meetings, and events are some of the things that demand commitment and cannot be moved from the schedule.
Therefore, it is better to mark these things in the calendar first and then plan your other tasks accordingly.
Set reminders and alarms on your phone for all the important events so that you don’t miss out on them.
Step 8: Set your new goals and determine your focus
Armed with your brain dump, list of incomplete tasks, and your priorities for the month. You now need to plan out the month ahead.
Decide what is most important to you and pin down the main goal for the month. Set this as your focus and main objective for the month. Make sure the goal is specific, clear, and measurable.
After you have determined your main goal, plot out your month, making sure to allocate time for any commitments and incomplete tasks.
When setting goals, let them be smart goals.
Prioritize the more important goals and don’t overdo it.
Step 9: Batch Tasks
Batching tasks include grouping similar tasks together. Doing similar tasks at once will save lots of your energy in switching between things. You will also be able to do the tasks more efficiently this way.
Let’s say you have lots of cleaning and writing work scheduled for the coming week.
Instead of dividing both tasks on all days of the week, you can appoint the first three days for writing and the next three days for cleaning. This will help you focus on one task without having to worry about the other.
Step 10: Make Use of the Monthly Calendar
A monthly calendar is very useful when it comes to planning your month. You can use a wall calendar, a paper planner, or Google Calendar to organize your tasks.
First things first, mark all the important dates that may include events like birthdays, holidays, meetings, deadlines, etc. once you are done, move on to dividing your goals into small weekly and daily tasks.
Avoid multitasking as it is less efficient, and keep small rewards for yourself at the end of every task. For instance, you can plan a movie night with a friend the day you complete your important project.
Don’t forget to keep some free time in the calendar as it will prove helpful in case some urgent task comes up
Step 11: Prepare Weekly Outlines
Breaking down the monthly tasks into weeks is extremely beneficial. You can dedicate a week to a group of tasks and so on. This will be according to your priority. The project, whose deadline is approaching soon, should definitely be done in the first week.
You can definitely change that in the middle of the month if things change and something urgent comes up in between.
Step 12: Finances and budgeting
When deciding to reset your month, budgeting should be a priority.
Budgeting helps you to know where your money is going and if you need to make any adjustments to your spending habits.
Budgeting can be as simple as tracking your income or expenses. You can then work out what you want to save on next month and schedule all your bill payments.
Step 13: Restock
Restock your supplies, groceries, and toiletries. This will save you money in the long run if you do one major trip to restock. Rather than going whenever you realize you need something.
Avoids you from spending money unnecessarily.
Buying in bulk is also significantly cheaper. So buy a lot of groceries to prepare for the month’s meal prep and stock up on all your supplies.
If you really want to reduce work stress and increase your productivity, you should start planning your month ahead of time.
With proper time management, you will be able to organize everything appropriately. This will develop self-discipline and enhance your work quality while giving you free time to relax and focus.
Evaluate your progress after a month and analyze how much work you could do on time, where you were lacking, and what else can be improved. Even if you get stuck in the middle of the month, gather your energy and continue once again. Continuous practice and proper time management will definitely help you go to places.
