This is How to Start Planning Your Month

Sometimes I feel time passes by quicker than I can feel it, and it overwhelms me.

I think this is why ever since I started planning my months, I'm way less stressed in that regard and it feels like I have more of a hold on "time", it isn't so Jeremy Bearimy (if you get the reference, we are friends!)

What makes me really enjoy the beginning of every month, aside from that fresh start feeling, is planning it.

Note:

It's important to me to always plan with the intent to gain some clarity on what I want it to be, but also being aware that no matter how long or how much I plan, the Universe is unfolding as it should. So I'm at peace with God's plan.

Planning just gives me a chance to set the theme for the month, some goals, some mini goals and remind myself of all the things I don't want to forget this month.

Again, I love that it feels like a fresh start. It brings a lot of peace to my mind, and helps my mental health immensely. I've been planning my days, weeks, months and even years since 2007 or 2008 where I would get Erin Condren planners. Now I use Notion for all my planning (I linked my free monthly Notion planner below 😉) cause I am unable to find a physical planner I love in Egypt and the ones I used to get from abroad are too expensive now with what's happening with the economy!

So, if you’re someone who feels overwhelmed with the new start of the month. Feeling like you haven’t achieved what you wanted the month before and don’t want the same to happen in this new one.

This is for you!

Step 1

Like Simon Sinek taught us, everything needs to start with Why.

So first things first, start with Why do you want to get into planning?

Define the reasons behind it and write them down, know them by heart that this is why you want to plan more, so whenever things get hard, you remember all you're getting out of this.

Examples of reasons to start planning:

• I want to stop forgetting important things in my life

• I want to give my mind a break, always trying to remember everything

• I want to stop the feeling that I'm forgetting something

• I want to organize my time so I get freedom to do what I want to do

• I want to organize my time so I can make time for the things important to me

Whatever your reasons are, find them, and write them somewhere where you can see them often.

Step 2

Start by asking yourself these 3 questions when planning to help you gain some clarity on what you actually want from each month:

1.What’s the Theme/Vibe of the Month?

Give the month a theme to give your planning a direction to go to. It could be anything like:

• Family

• Work/School/College

• Adventure

• Love (self love or relationships)

• Friendship

• Travel

• Rest

• Leveling up

• Education

• Or anything that comes to mind!

• 
  

Step 3 What’s One Goal I Want to Achieve?

Ask yourself: What's one goal I want to achieve this month?

You could have more than one goal but be sure you don’t overload yourself with too many big goals, cause that can be a common mistake people make when setting goals for themselves.

Another common one we make is that we set our goals out of fear

Fear of time flying by, or fear that we won’t have enough time in our lifetime to do everything we want to do. It almost feels like we're always behind and if we dare to give ourselves enough time to actually work on what we want to do, we'd be even more behind.

For instance, I was fighting this feeling when planning building my website. I first gave myself 1 month to have it all set up. Just one month. If building that website was all I was doing in my business, I probably would have got it done.

But no matter how well I planned every single week of that month. No matter how much I divided that project into actionable tasks and put each one in the right week and day to get it done. So I planned it monthly and even set up the weekly and daily plan. I was still unable to get it done in 1 month.

Cause I wasn't being realistic.

And that takes us to the next step.

Step 4

Be realistic with your planning.

After that first month I told myself okay so I finished some of it, I just need a bit more. Just one more month.

You already know that this did not work.

It was only when I sat down with myself, had a self-coaching moment and asked myself what fear is driving me to be so hasty with my website launch. Only after calming my fears and moving forward from a place of calm and love for planning that I was able to be realistic.

When we put too much on our plate, we end up setting ourselves up for failure as we won't be able to finish any of our goals cause of the overwhelmed we put on ourselves.

So if that rings true to you at all, just try (as hard as you can, I know it can feel uncomfortable to do this) to set for yourself just one goal a month, just to start with.

But what if I'm ready to add more goals:

Do so as you wish. Only after you're done adding them, really think about each one individually. Think about how much time it will take to get that done. Think about your time this new month, how will you spend it, what life events are happening and then reevaluate your goals.

Be really honest here with yourself (I know this can be hard sometimes for us especially when we're admitting that we can't do something) and ask yourself if you really do have the time to realistically achieve those goals.

If not, see if you can stretch them over two or even three months then decide what part of them can you do this upcoming month now.

Then break that goal(s) into small actionable (magic word here) steps and ask yourself these coaching questions:

• What first step am I ready to start with?

• How will I start?

• What do I need to make this goal a reality?

And add these steps to your weekly calendar ( also linked a free Notion Weekly template below)

Bottom line + Linked Free Notion Resources:

This is how you can start planning your month!

There are other levels of doing this but if you're a total newbie to planning, this is where you can start in order to build a sustainable planning routine that fits your needs and doesn't feel overwhelming.

If you do plan your month using these hopefully helpful tips and questions and are able to take a picture of your planning and tag me on Instagram, I would love you for infinity and beyond!!

Yup! Toy Story level of love...I’m intense like that hehe 😂