Episode 176: Creating a Simple Monthly Overview
One of the best ways to stay organized and create structure with your time and mental energy is to map out your month in advance!
In this episode we'll be covering simple ways to create a monthly overview in your life & biz so you can stay on top of important projects, get things done, and also create time to reflect and set mindful intentions for the month ahead.
We'll be using the pages inside Mindful Productivity Guide Undated Planner as a guide. If you'd like to grab a copy, you can find yours here.
Transcript:
Hello. Hello. You are listening to episode 176 of The Mindful Productivity Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Steckler. And this week I thought it would be fun to do a bit of a deep dive into one way that you you can get started with monthly planning. So we're going to be actually using my Mindful Productivity Guide, which is an undated planner. And walking through this process. You do not need a copy of the planner to go through this, but if you have one, you can listen along and flip through the pages with me.
But by listening to this episode, you're going to gain some insights into planning either in a new way to you or learn a great structural way to start planning. If you're new to planning on paper or in general, or maybe this is just a brand new concept. And hey, no judgment. We all have to start somewhere. So let's go ahead and dive into this episode. I'm really excited to talk about these components of planning with you, and I think you're going to find a lot of fun and enjoyment in this.
And you're also going to feel so much better because you're going to have some structure, some organization and a plan moving forward for the month ahead. All right, let's go ahead and dive into this week's episode.
Welcome to the Mindful Productivity Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Steckler, and this is the place to be to live a more mindful and productive life. If you're ready to turn daily chaos into calm and start your days with intention, then get ready to join me as we dive deep into mindful living and personal productivity. It's time to connect with your true self so you can live the life you want to live. And it all starts now.
Hey, friends, welcome back to the podcast. I'm super excited to kind of get back to some basics with productivity with Mindfulness as we kind of end the current year and move into the next one. I'm already thinking about what I want the new year to look like. And at the time of this podcast, it's a few days here before Thanksgiving, before Thanksgiving week, and I was just thinking I was taking a bath and I was thinking this is going to be a short week, which I love.
And I'm very excited to spend Thanksgiving with my family and my mom since we haven't been able to do that in two years and we're all fully vaccine. We've all got the booster. And so I'm like, very excited. But I also kind of get overwhelmed when it comes to shorter holiday weeks because my mind goes to this place of, oh, no, you only have two and a half three days to get a lot of work done. So I've been thinking about ways to plan for different things in my life and how I should really start thinking ahead of how do I want to structure out shorter weeks?
Or how do I want to structure out things? Or how can I create a template in my life, so to speak, when I have weeks that are busier or weeks that I'm going to go on vacation or go to a cabin? What can I do to bring up a template either in notion or in my planner? That reminds me of the most crucial things to get done and focus on and the things that I can totally not worry about. So that's one thing I'm working on for the New Year.
But in today's episode I thought it would be fun to come back to the basics of what is monthly planning. And how can you create a monthly overview for the next month in your life and your business? These concepts will apply to your life and business. So no matter which one you're planning. And quite honestly, I find they usually overlap. But as I said in the beginning of this podcast, I'm going to be using my Mindful Productivity Guide as our template through this. This is an undated planner.
It's an eight by ten paperback, and it's really great for creating structure in your life. And the way it's set up is that there are all kinds of planning templates in here for your annual goals, your quarterly goals, breaking those quarterly goals down into what each month is. And then each week. And then there's also monthly banks. And these monthly banks are a series of pages that help you structure out your month, but also review your month. So not only like, what are you doing, but how are you feeling?
How are you reflecting what are the intentions that you're wanting to set for yourself? So it allows you to go through all of those different things in a very structured way. And then there's also weekly pages spreads in the back of the planner, and it allows you to kind of stop and pause your planning when you need to. So I find that really helpful. So if you're looking for a new planner for the New year, definitely check out the Mindful Productivity Guide. I will link below this episode on the Show Notes, page two.
I do have some YouTube videos of some walkthroughs of it, so if you want to see some of the pages in there, you can check those out as well. So again, we're just going to focus today on the monthly overview section of this planner. And again, you don't need this planner to go through this process. I think you're going to get a lot out of this episode in general. But if you do have the planner, then get cozy and open it up and we can go ahead and jump into this and get started.
So what I really like to do when I'm monthly planning is really think about the month ahead. And I want to preface this with there's so many different ways to plan and there really are, depending on what your goals are. Times to plan big picture, like looking at the year, looking at the quarter, all of that. And those are things I do when I'm definitely looking at, like, launches or bigger content marketing strategies in my business. But when it comes to actually doing more micro in the weeds work, like when I'm actually creating curriculum for my courses, or I'm actually creating a new planner, I can't necessarily plan that out at a year at a glance, because one, if you know this, your creative process can be very sporadic.
It is for me. And when I have access to my brain. But also, I just don't know when I'm necessarily going to get a new idea. And all the planners that I've created in my business were not a byproduct of me planning them years in advance. They came to me, they were ideas. I made them a priority, and then I made them happen within a pretty short amount of time because I created a focus project around them. So whenever you're thinking of the new year, I want to remind you that you don't have to plan out your whole year in advance and know everything about yourself and what you might want to do.
But you can create more of a structure and a framework for yourself, and then you can kind of plug and play and put things in where you need them as your year progresses. Right? It's one of the reasons why I'm not quite sure if I'm going to choose a word for the next year because I don't know that's always changed for me. It always seems to change month to month, or I find myself being like, Well, I chose this word. How am I going to, like, frame something around it?
And I don't know, it felt kind of limiting. So I'm not sure if I'm going to do a Word of the year. I love to hear from you on Instagram. If you're going to do one, you can find me over there at Mindful Productivity Blog. But let me know if you listen to this podcast or if you're going to do a Word of the year. So let's get into it. All right. You're probably like, sir, come on. Monthly overview. So we're basically just focusing on this month, right?
So listening to this podcast going through this process, try to take yourself out of the biggest picture planning and let's just really sink our teeth into what do you want the next month to look like? So on this first page, here one place I really like to start is we're looking at a two page spread right here in the Mindful Productivity Guide, and I'm actually on page 58. If you want to follow along 58 and 59 and where I actually like to start is on the right hand side of the page.
And that is where the reflection and intention setting page is. So I'm actually going to walk you through these exact prompts that are in the planner, and these are different for every single month. But basically these are seed sentence prompts. And the reason I like to start with these is because sometimes when I'm trying to think of, like, my top three priorities or the tasks I want to complete for the next month, sometimes I can completely change after I do this reflection and intention setting exercise.
So this allows you to kind of tap into what's been going on the past month for you and also set an intention for, like, how you want to feel what behaviors you want to incorporate into the next month of your life. So let's go ahead and walk through these together. And I'll also pause or you can pause this episode and fill them in for yourself. So this particular one has five different prompts. And then there's one prompt that takes up a little bit more space, and this one at the end is the same for every month.
But the first seed sentence prompt for this month ahead is something I want to embody. This month is blank. So what do you want to embody? And then it says because it allows me to take ownership of my blank. Right? So thinking about this for me, I'm going to fill this in kind of on the go. Here something I really want to embody this month is daily movement because it allows me to take ownership of my health. So for me, I know that specifically, this is going to take the form of daily walks, and I've got a fallback plan.
So if it's great outside and not pouring down rain or super cold, I can go on a walk around my neighborhood. And if it is super scary and I don't want to go out there, I have a treadmill, and there's also a fitness center at our unit. So I have options. Again, that seed sentence prompt for you to fill out is something I want to embody. This month is blank because it allows me to take ownership of my blank. And this could be a health goal, a fitness goal, a business goal.
It could be a feeling, right. So maybe you want to embody more presence or more positivity or more whatever it is. Right. So that's the first one. The second prompt is helping you think about your last month. So it says last month, one of the biggest lessons I learned was blank and how I can blank. So for me, I guess that last month, one of the biggest lessons I learned was that counseling can change everything and how I can receive support will vastly change the way that I look at my life.
So again, I'm literally doing this on the fly right now. But for me personally, I finally found a counselor that really vibes with me, and I struggled with that. So that was like a big lesson I learned is that there are counselors that can meet you where you are and provide the right amount of help. Right. I've just had so many bad experiences, unfortunately, where there hasn't been the right fit or there has been some stuff that really wasn't helpful in working towards some of my goals.
So this past month, that was my big lesson was that there is a counselor for me, right? And it's really going to impact how I can show up for myself. I think what I would say there. So I'll read this one more time for you so that you can think about it. Last month, one of my biggest lessons I learned. One of the biggest lessons I learned was blank and how I can blank. I think another time I did this was I think it was something about patience and how I can observe my anger versus react to it.
And that was a big lesson for me. The third prompt here is I now know that I am capable of blank even in the face of blank. For me, I think that this would be that I now know I am capable of getting through really tough days, even in the face of debilitating anxiety. I feel like these are a bit heavy, but that's just being honest. What's on my mind. So for you, I now know that I am capable of blank even in the face of blank.
Okay. And we've got two more to go through here. This next one is when blank happens, it often causes me to react in a way that doesn't feel good later. I want to work on responding by doing this instead. Next time and then there's a semicolon and a blank for you to fill it out. When blank happens, it often causes me to react in a way that doesn't feel good later. I think for me right now, this is definitely when Bella, my Bulldog, wakes me up in the middle of the night.
It often causes me to react in a way I don't like later. Usually I get very frustrated. I have a hard time calming down, going back to sleep. And so I would say that I want to work on responding by doing this instead next time. So the next time she wakes me up in the middle of the night and I'm frustrated and exhausted and I have to take her out or whatever it is. I think instead of reacting or getting frustrated, I think I need to go walk over to my office because no one's in there in the middle of the night and sit down on the floor and just breathe before I get more mad and just kind of let myself feel it because I hate that I hate getting woken up in the middle of the night is the worst.
So for you again, when blank happens, it often causes me to react in a way that doesn't feel good later. I want to work on responding by doing this instead. Next time. Okay. Here's the last thing. And this one is just one. Fill in the blank. It says one thing I want to remember about myself in this moment is I love that one. It's so cozy. One thing I want to remember about myself in this moment, I think for me that is I want to remember about myself in this moment is that I am capable of cultivating coziness no matter where I go.
And no matter where I am, that's something that really brings me a lot of joy. And I take a lot of pride in that. I love just making things special and cozy no matter where I go. So, yeah, right now that's decorating our house with Christmas decorations and twinkling lights, and it feels so cozy in here. One thing I want to remember about myself in this moment is blank. So what do you want to remember about yourself in this moment right now? Maybe it's that you can get through hard things.
You can do hard things. Maybe it's that you can cultivate patience whenever you need to or that you can trust in yourself or that you're a good friend or a good mother or a good father or a good spouse or a good friend, whatever it is, what is the thing that you want to remember about yourself? And then every single month, there's a space to write a paragraph or so. And there's just this little prompt that says what I need to write down and release. And I always fill this thing up.
I always am like, oh, there's quite a few lines here. I don't think there's that much. And then once I get going and I love this because I love this prompt because I feel like it really gives you permission to vent in a way that's not just complaining. And I guess I was thinking about the difference between those the other day. What's the difference between complaining versus renting? And I think we all know that on the receiving end, right. If you have a friend that's always whining and complaining, there's never any solution.
It just feels like they're finding more reasons to stay in an angry or upset state, whereas venting is I really feel like this place where you're open minded, you're open to letting go and you're open to, like, exhaling. Right? Like if you had a balloon full of air, you're open to letting the air all the way out of the balloon and throwing the balloon in the trash instead of holding onto the balloon and blowing it right back up. Right. And so I really like this prompt because it says again, what I need to write down and release.
So you're writing it down. You're giving your space and yourself space to be angry, to be mad, write down whatever you need to and then release it and then let it go. I really like that, right? It reminds me of that. I think it's a Buddhist proverb about holding onto a hot stone, right? When you're angry, just waiting to throw it at someone else when it's just like burning your hand the entire time. That's one thing I always try to remember when I'm very angry at something.
Okay. So I love that section. I hope that was helpful for you, and that's just a peek at one of the twelve pages that has these prompts, and they're different every single month. And I like that too, because you just have to fill in the blank. So if you are new to reflection, writing or journaling and a blink page or morning page feels a little overwhelming, this can be an easier way to do that. Now we're going to take a look at your monthly overview, and this is great because this page is going to allow you to create something that you can look at and see at a glance.
So you're going to be aware of what you want to do, what you've already agreed to. So commitments and what your time is kind of look like. Right? So you're taking the intangible thoughts and ideas and things that you have in your head or plans that you've made and you're making them tangible by writing them down on paper and giving them dates and times when you're going to do them. And also kind of starting to understand how long these things might take. So in this monthly overview page at the top, there's a line over that.
And that's where I write the month. So for this, I would write December because I'm planning out for the next month ahead. And in the top here it says, top three priorities and tasks. Now I don't know about you, but a lot of times when people say or like a page says, what are your top priorities? I'm like, I don't know. I know that there's 1000 things I need to get done, but I don't know what the top one is. So if you're feeling overwhelmed about which one is your top priority, I would just start.
There's quite a few lines here. Just start writing the main things that you want to get done. And these can be kind of like bigger project ideas. You don't have to break down all of the micro tasks within your monthly overview. You just want to have kind of like an at a glance view of what's going on. So for example, right. One of my monthly things on here is that I want to finish this current book that I started. So I think I would write that down, like, finish this book and maybe I'd even give myself a date.
Another thing I want to write down here for the month of December is I want to record four more podcast episodes. I want to figure out the launch date for the next round of published with purpose and figure out when our next big 60 day live round is going to be. So as you can see, I'm writing these things down, but I'm not quite sure which one of these is going to be like number one, two and three priority yet. But I'm writing them down beneath those.
So start by writing down like bigger tasks that you want to accomplish. And then what can happen is then you can start getting really real with yourself. Right? As you might have been listening to me, one of the things I didn't say was create a brand new planner, start a brand new podcast, right. Like launch a brand new course. That would be too much. I know that I couldn't do all that in one month, so I can write that idea down. But it may not be something that actually ends up happening.
So what I might do is move that down to, like, the notes and reminder section, or just move that down to the idea space. That is another part of this page. Another thing I want to briefly mention is when I do a monthly overview, I'm typically writing things down that are different. So these are things that are going to make this month stand out. Right. So, for example, I know that I do a weekly pulse point check in in my business every Friday. And if you want to learn how to set up your own weekly pulse point, check in and want to know what I do for mine, you can go back and listen to episode 174 of this podcast.
I'll link it in the show notes, too. But what you'll see I'm not doing in my monthly overview is I'm not mapping out everything that I'm doing in that weekly pulse point check in in my monthly overview, right. Because I know that that happens every week. It's on my Google calendar. The templates are there. I already know that I'm doing that for me. What a monthly overview is it's saying what's coming down the pipeline? That didn't happen last month. It might not happen next month or what's a continuation.
What's something that you're not doing every day that you want to be focusing on. And what is that time going to look like? So that's why I really like monthly overviews because they really help you pinpoint, like, what's the main overview and what's the main focus? So again, in this task section, don't get stuck on trying to figure out. Oh, my gosh. I've got to know what number one, two and three priorities are. Just get clear on what the main tasks are that you're going to do, because when you get into weekly planning and like, time based planning, when you're actually giving things like a due date, like do when you're doing them, that's when you're going to take these things and actually plan them, like plug them in two time block time in your days in your weeks.
So right now in the monthly overview, you're doing just that getting an overview. I hope I'm really hitting this home. And again, this is just how I do it. Also on this page there is a section for word, theme or intention, so sometimes it can be helpful to give yourself a theme for the month or something that you want to remember. Or maybe there's a quote or an intention. I know for me, one thing I really want to focus on in December is really making sure I'm getting enough sleep.
The time difference thing always messes with me. The time change. And so I always have to make sure that I'm making sleep a priority and really doing things to calm my body down. So even just writing up here, like sleep as my theme for December is going to just help me remember that. That's a deep intention that I really want to foster and create below that you have a place for your appointments. This is a great time to write down any appointments that you have upcoming for the week, because not only is it just important to not miss things, right.
But also this helps you take into account when you start doing your plug and play weekly planning, and when you start taking these monthly priorities and giving them a time on your calendar when you're going to do them, the appointment lets you know. Okay. That's when I'm actually going or hopping on Zoom or whatever. But also does that appointment affect your energy levels? Right. So I know for me if we have, like, a big vet visit with Bella like this past week, she had to be sedated.
It was a whole big thing I had to monitor afterwards, and I couldn't really do a whole lot of work. Right. So knowing that that kind of an appointment is really going to impact my workflow is important. So again, if you're going to the dentist or if you're getting your second shot or your booster shot of the vaccine, you might have a little bit of symptoms afterwards. Right. Like just knowing those things can help you better manage your time and energy. So it's really great to list out any and all appointments or commitments that you have in your month at a glance overview page.
And again, this is great because you have this one page where you're going to be able to see everything and map that out so that you're not forgetting anything, because sometimes too, what will happen for me is like I'll make a commitment or I'll say that I'll be part of a summit and I need to create a training or I say that I'll be part of a podcast, but it's not for a while. Right. Or it's like next quarter or a couple of months down the road.
The monthly overview is going to help you remember. Oh, yeah. Right. So sometimes I'll even go into a month ahead or two months ahead and be like, I'll just make a note on one of the task lines, like podcasts with So and so this month. Maybe we haven't scheduled a date, but I know we talked about this week, or you want to make sure you have this training done a week ahead of time, so that if you need to make any changes before you submit it to So and so you have it done.
So again, that's just reminding you of anything that's already on your plate, both time appointments, but also maybe commitments or promises you made in life and business. There's also a section here for notes and reminders. So what are things that you need to remind yourself? One thing I didn't write down for my November planning that I wish I did was Thanksgiving week is a quick week. There's not as many work days. You're going to spend most of Wednesday doing a lot of prep and drinking wine and getting the pies ready.
Right. But you're not going to be working Wednesday through Sunday. Really? I really love to take that time off and just totally relax and chill and eat a lot of good food and laugh and watch Health and all those good things, right. But I didn't plan that it wasn't on my radar for my November planning. So now that I'm going into that final week of November, I'm like, oh my gosh. There's still so many things I wanted to accomplish this month, and I totally didn't have that on alert.
Again, notes and reminders about time and what might happen there. And then a section for ideas. I like to sometimes use this as a mini brain dump or something like that, and it can be fun to differentiate between ideas that you have versus actual tasks and things you need to accomplish to make money and move the needle in your business. So every month there's ideas and there's things I want to do, right? I still want to open a sticker shop. I still want to open a product line.
There's a lot of things I want to do, but I just know that those aren't priorities yet, because if I made those a priority, the other aspects that are really running the revenue of my business would suffer, or my students would suffer because I'd be distracted when I promised them updates to courses. Right. So there's all these kind of things that you need to consider. So ideas will go down there and they can turn into actions or tasks later. But then they're also living there. So I'm not forgetting them right now.
As a side note, your monthly Overview If you're starting for the first time, you'll notice that this episode and this thing I'm walking you through, this process, I'm walking you through is pretty basic, right? Like, you're probably not going to walk away from this episode being like, wow, I've never thought about listing things out, Sarah, or thinking about my appointments ahead of time. But if you're feeling overwhelmed, I really invite you to create a monthly overview page. You could also do this, like In Motion or Google Doc whatever on a blank piece of paper.
But having one page for the month that you can just open or you can print out or you can just have in front of you is really going to help you. And I know too. Sometimes just having my planner open and reviewing that monthly overview at the start of every week, and even every day is just helping keep me on task. And what it's really doing is it's reminding me of the main path ahead, what's the main road that you're on? And what are those vehicles on that road look like?
What are the tasks that you really want to focus on? So do a monthly overview, give it a shot. You can do it ahead of time. You can do it in the middle of the month. Don't feel like you need to be perfect and plan perfectly in advance. But I invite you to do a monthly overview and just make sure you're writing down your main priority tasks, like the main things that you want to accomplish for the month ahead, your time commitments, both actual, like scheduled appointments on your calendar, and maybe things that you need to do ahead of time.
So you're not rushing at the last minute and then, like, notes and reminders about how long weeks are. If there are things that you want to do, events you want to attend, like things that you want to do outside, but it gets dark earlier. I know that's always a big surprise for me. Like, oh, it's 07:00 and I'm still working, and it's dark like it's not the summer where I can just jump to the park with Bella real quick in the evening. So having that and then having an idea space where you're also capturing ideas that you have not only when you're planning your month, but as the month goes on.
Right. So you can keep all of that in front in the front of your mind on one page. I really feel like this is going to be helpful. And again, it's simple, right? This is not complicated. Write down your tasks, write down your appointments, write your notes and write your ideas. I hope you found this episode helpful next week. We'll be diving a little bit deeper into weekly planning as we kind of just continue on in this little back to basics section of the podcast, so I hope you enjoy this.
Let me know if you do, and I will see you back here next Monday. You can always find more resources, planners, and more by visiting mindfulproductivityblog.com. All right, talk to you soon. Bye.
