Good morning everyone, and happy Monday! I’m really stoked about today’s post because March is my birthday month and I have a lot to look forward to in the next few weeks. In this post, I’ll cover my monthly planning process from beginning to end, including both my journal setup and my month-at-a-glance planner spread. Ready? Grab your highlighters and let’s do this.
PART ONE: CHECK IN
Brainstorm
First, sit down with a journal for thirty minutes and think back to the month that has passed. What do you want to change? What are you most proud of? Where could you be improving productivity? Where could you set aside space to make memories? Are there projects you want to begin? A mindset you want to change? What were your highlights?
Think forward to the end of this upcoming month. Where do you want to be? What do you want to have accomplished? How do you want to feel? Does your daily routine look different?
For example, I want to make it a priority to wake up earlier and have a quiet time: light a candle, savor a cup of green tea, enjoy the silence, quiet my mind, and pray. I also want to do more evening yoga and set aside time for journaling before bed. Whatever your ideal is, write it out in excruciating detail. Make it something to look forward to.
find a monthly Focus
In 2019, I’ve noticed that each month has been centered around a regular theme or focus.
- January was focused on setting goals and intentions for the year—I found my word of the year, decided on some new opportunities to pursue, and settled into my daily and weekly routines.
- February has been focused more on self-care; making space in my life for intervals of rest like a hot bath, time to read, cozy movie nights, weekend hikes, cafe days, etc.
- Going into March, my focus is gratitude. I want to seek joy in the everyday moments of my life. I want to wake up feeling excited. The best way to get there, I think, is to make sure I’m intentionally grateful about everything that surrounds me. For that reason, I’m doing a challenge this month to write down one distinctive beautiful moment each day.
Aesthetic:
I’ve written about this before, but part of the reason I love living by the seasons is finding a new “mood” or aesthetic for each upcoming month. At the end of the year, I love looking back and seeing how my vibe has changed over the course of twelve months.
If you like this sort of thing, go ahead and make a list of your current essentials. Colors you’re drawn to. Songs that are the soundtrack to your life. Feelings. Scents. Flavors. Things you have been loving lately. Changes inspired by the seasons. Moments you’re looking forward to that month.
PART TWO: THE JOURNAL
For each month, I like to begin with a cover page. This month I started with a simple “month at a glance” outline and then sketched the pisces constellation and stars all around it.
On the following spread, I write out my goals for the month (usually color-coordinated with my “focus” areas—but I’ll explain that in a minute). I also leave a space for “reading” to record all the books I read that month and scrawl down a few sentences about each.
There are so many amazing ideas for monthly spreads on Pinterest or Instagram; the possibilities are endless. You could create a vision board with printed pictures, write out a quote that inspires you, or copy out your aesthetic list from the brainstorm paper—whatever you fancy.
On the opposite page, I copied out a page where I will record something I’m grateful for each day. On any normal month, I would actually leave this space to record my monthly highlights—kind of like a “memories at a glance” spread that distills the entire month’s experiences into a single page.
PART THREE: THE PLANNER
After getting an idea of where this month will take me, I begin on the planning process itself: the actual day-to-day of it all.
At a Glance
To begin with, I like to set up a few lists on the margins of my monthly planner page. My planner has a space for my “top five” goals of the month, which generally fall into five categories: writing, blog, finances, health, and creative.
Beneath this, in the notes section, I create a reading list for the month. For each book, I write the title, the author’s name, and draw a little square. Once the book is in progress, I fill in half the square. When it’s finished, I fill in the square completely (It’s very satisfying, I highly recommend).
I also like to write out my budget by hand, usually in the notes section, and I record the basics: income, expenses, tithe, savings, blow money, etc. If your finances are a little more complicated, you might want to do a spreadsheet instead. But for me, I like to just keep track of things on pen and paper.
Monthly Spread
Now for the planning itself. First, I fill in my definite commitments: birthdays, the shifts I’ll be working at my jobs, paydays, book club meetings, bible studies, travel commitments, blog articles that I’ll be posting, etcetera.
Another tip…try to set aside one day a week just to get your life together: do laundry, set appointments, schedule the week ahead, do a face mask, dust your bookshelves, water your plants, change your bedsheets, and so on.
Once I’ve written down all these things, I like to go back in and schedule fun moments and things to look forward to: writing sessions out at a cafe, hiking somewhere new at least once per month on the weekend, trying new restaurants or cafes, coffee dates with a friend, day trips, a day outdoors, movie nights, brunch with a friend, quiet days, pedicures, visits to a bookstore or museum, home projects, etc.
Color Coordinate EVERYTHING (YAY!)
Once everything is written out on the planner, I finish by highlighting it all in different colors:
- Blue: writing projects and deadlines (i.e. word count deadlines)
- Pink: blog-related projects and posting days
- Yellow: health (i.e. workouts, hikes, yoga classes, challenges, etc.)
- Orange: anything work-related (i.e. shifts and paydays)
- Green: travel or events (i.e. road trips)
- Purple: creative/fun (i.e. brunch with friends, movie nights, shopping days, etc.)
There you have it! That is the general routine that I follow to prep for the upcoming month. Hopefully that sparks some ideas that will inspire you on your own planning journey.
<3 Olivia Grace
