Monthly Functional Planning Routine

Monthly Functional Planning Routine

We are currently in the transition period between two months, and so this is the time I like to perform my monthly planning routine. Today, I thought we could plan together and I could guide you through my step my step monthly planning routine.

Why You Should Use a Monthly Planning Routine

In the hustle and bustle of daily life, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, scattered, and constantly chasing after tasks. However, there’s a powerful tool that can transform the way you approach your days and help you reclaim control of your time: the monthly planning routine. By dedicating time each month to organize, prioritize, and strategize, you can unlock a host of benefits that will not only boost your productivity but also enhance your overall well-being.

1. Organize and Manage Your Task Load

A monthly planning routine allows you to take stock of all your commitments, deadlines, and projects. By laying out everything in one place, whether it’s a digital calendar or a trusty planner, you can gain a clear understanding of what needs to be done and when. This organization is key to preventing important tasks from slipping through the cracks and ensures that you can approach each day with intentionality and purpose.

2. Focus on Your Priorities and Goals

A monthly planning routine provides you with the space to reflect on your long-term objectives and break them down into actionable steps. By identifying your top priorities for the month ahead, you can align your daily activities with your overarching goals, making progress towards them with each passing day. This sense of purpose and direction is invaluable in helping you stay motivated and on track, even when faced with distractions or obstacles.

3. Balance Your Workload to Avoid Overwhelm

One of the biggest challenges in today’s fast-paced world is finding balance. A monthly planning routine empowers you to take control of your workload and distribute tasks in a way that prevents overwhelm. By strategically allocating your time and resources, you can ensure that you’re not putting too much pressure on yourself at any given moment. This balanced approach not only reduces stress but also allows you to maintain a sustainable level of productivity over the long term, preventing burnout and exhaustion.

4. Enjoy the Month Without Missing Important Dates or Feeling Stressed

Finally, a monthly planning routine affords you the opportunity to fully enjoy each month without the constant worry of what you might be forgetting or missing out on. By proactively scheduling events, appointments, and deadlines, you can free up mental space to be present in the moment and savor life’s experiences. Whether it’s a family gathering, a weekend getaway, or simply some well-deserved downtime, knowing that your responsibilities are accounted for allows you to fully engage with whatever the month has in store.

Creating Your Monthly Functional Planning Routine

If you are interested in creating productive and functional planning routines in your life, I do have a monthly planning workbook you can download and use to following along with this process. I use this workbook to help me create the outline of my monthly plan before transferring the final information into my Charmed Life Master Planner. I find that using a workbook like this helps me to get my ideas out of my head and onto paper more easily without worrying that I might make a mistake in my planner. This is especially helpful if you use a paper planner and it’s not easy to move things around, or if you use a planner that doesn’t have a lot of different inserts for planning and organizing your ideas- this workbook has some different spreads you can use and then transfer the final information into a simpler planner if that is what you use.

Get the Monthly Planning Workbook to make the most of this process!

Preparing for Your Monthly Planning Session

First, make sure you have 30-45 minutes blocked off to complete this process. If you are new to monthly planning, it might take you a little more time to complete, but over time as you perform this routine, you will find that you become quicker and the process gets easier.

Set the vibe. For best results I recommend working in a clutter free area, grabbing a drink, lighting a candle and/or put on a relaxing playlist.

Grab your planner, writing utensils and any other bits you like to use to plan and let’s begin.

The Step-by-Step Monthly Functional Planning Routine

Step One: Monthly Review | In this step we will review the month that is ending for patterns that can help you to plan better moving forward. There are four prompts in this section:

1. What in the last month worked?

• Wins
• Healthy choices you made
• Major tasks you accomplished
• Boundaries you set
• A new skill you developed
• Decisions you faced and made
• Obstacles you overcame
• Self-care you made time for
• Mindset work
• Objectives or Goals you hit
• New Habits or Routines You Integrate
• Successful Planning and Execution of Plan

2. What didn’t work?

• Tasks you avoided
• Habits you didn’t stick to
• Plans that didn’t work out
• Routines that didn’t work
• Things that overwhelmed you
• Perfectionism that creeped in
• Procrastination

3. Which incomplete tasks from the month need to be migrated to the new month?

• Tasks you planned to do in the prior month, but didn’t accomplish and now need to be completed in the following month. Not all tasks will need to be migrated to this new month. You can defer tasks to a future month where it makes more sense to complete the task, or you might just need to delete the task all together because the opportunity has passed.

4. What have you learned overall to help you become a better planner?

• How to plan better
• How to motivate yourself
• Tasks you enjoy
• Tasks you don’t enjoy
• What needs to be shifted or reworked in your life or plans

Step Two Brain Dump | Use the following prompts to help you get your thoughts, plans, dreams and ideas out of your head and onto paper with a brain dump. These four questions will help you pinpoint priority tasks that should have your primary focus in the month ahead and help you set boundaries so that you avoid unnecessary obstacles and make time for actions that will bring you in alignment with your best self.

Q1: What do you need to get done in the next month

Q2: What would make next month feel productive and successful

Q3: What drains on my time and energy do I want to watch out for and avoid in the upcoming month? What is my plan for dealing with them?

Q4: How do I plan to show up as my highest and best version of self this new month?

Step Three: The Monthly Calendar | Populate key dates into your monthly calendar. Consider holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, events, due dates, appointments and any other days of significance that you need to be aware of this month.

Step Four: Monthly Tracker | Use the Monthly Tracker to outline all your goal related tasks for the month in one place. Each month you can plan for 3 projects, 5 weekly action items or systems and 6 daily action items or habits. 

Step Five: The Monthly Master Task List | Populate the Monthly Master Task List with any additional tasks due this month that are independent of your goals and objectives.

Step Six: Task Allocation | Review your monthly tracker and master task list to choose three priority tasks to allocate to each week of the month. This ensures that you have split up your work across the weeks of the month so that you have enough time to complete your work. If you find that you have too many priorities this month to properly allocate tasks, you may want to consider cutting down your objectives for the month so that you do not overwhelm yourself.

Step Seven: Monthly Manifestation Journaling | Use the following set of prompts to journal out what you would like to happen in your life this month. Think of this process as though you are creating a wishlist of all the ways you would love to be surprised and delighted by life this month!

Prompt 1: What outcomes would you love to manifest this month?

Prompt 2: What unknowns, questions or worries can you surrender to God/Spirit/The Universe, knowing trusting and believing that they will act on your behalf and ensure you have a path ready to your goals?

Prompt 3: Write a list of affirmations to support you in believing that these outcomes are already yours. 

Create a Monthly Plan With Me

If you need more motivation to complete your monthly functional planning routine, feel free to use this video as encouragement. It walks you through the complete process provides additional insight on some of the more complicated prompts and gives you time to complete each activity in the planning routine.

Creating a Consistent Monthly Planning Routine

Once you complete these steps you will have not only a functional and efficient plan for the tasks you will accomplish this month, but you also will have shifted your mindset and opened yourself up to believing that you will get the things you want from life this month. Moving forward you will use this monthly plan to guide the tasks you work on each week, using the monthly tracker to move forward your goals and your monthly master task list to act as a focused to do list that you can plan your days around. Don’t forget to come back to those affirmations you wrote out frequently. Rereading those affirmations aloud a few times a day will help you to continue to shift your mindset in ways that will make it easier for you to take action and accomplish your goals!

Make sure to bookmark this post and come back to it each month to plan, and of course, grab the workbook to help you make the most of this process. As you use this process month over month you will see how the consistency compounds and helps you find more balance and focus in your life.

If you are looking for more planning strategies, I have one more thing that may interest you. I have a free On-demand workshop called How to Plan for a Balanced and Successful Life that will teach you more about planning and executing on your plan successfully.

So if you want to learn more about how to set up a planner to help you get organized, how to establish a regular planning routine, and how to get more done in less time- this free workshop is precisely what you need!

Click here to access the free on-demand training!

xoxo,