Monthly Goals

Welcome to March!

This month I'm doing something new (to me): I'm writing out my goals for the month. I'm hoping that having a specific list of what I want to accomplish in March will help keep me on track.

While preparing my list of monthly goals I've been reviewing my goals that I set out for myself at the beginning of the year and deciding what I can focus on this month. It's also a great time to jettison any annual goals that are no longer relevant due to changes in circumstances.

I was inspired to do this by Charlie Gilkey's Monthly Action Planner. It has a great format for helping you think through your month, any events that will happen, and your actions for making it a great and productive month. (I also highly recommend signing up for Charlie's Newsletter on his website Productive Flourishing. He sends periodic emails that are motivational and positive. They are like a helping hand to get back on track. Thank you Charlie!)

Of course any kind of list of your monthly goals is more useful than nothing at all. Most importantly, your monthly goals list needs to be someplace where you can refer to it often enough to be useful, at a minimum of once per week when you are making your weekly plans. It's one thing to write your goals, but it's a whole other thing to put them into action.

Last week I busted out my personal Deco Filofax (and am Calling the Dog with it and my Minister weekly planner), because I have so much going on right now and even more coming up in the next several months. I updated my tabs (which you can read about in What I'm Currently Using, scroll down) and freshened-up my Goals section.

Now I put my current month's goals page right behind my Goals tab so I see it first every time I open that section. The next page is my Annual Goals/ New Year's Resolutions, to refer to easily when I'm making each month's goals list.

When the month is over, I'll write the month review on the back side of that month's Goals page. This will let me evaluate which goals I achieved, and which ones I still need to work on. From there I can write the following month's Goals page. I'll archive the old month's page behind my Annual Goals page and put the new month's Goals page in front. That way I'll keep a record of monthly goals throughout the year to see how I'm progressing toward those annual goals. And with my current month's goals in front, I have easy access to it all the time.

Do you make Monthly Goals? Where do you write them? (On a page in your planner? On a sticky note on your bathroom mirror? In reverse-writing on your forehead with a Sharpie so you can read it every time you look in the mirror?)