getting my planning geek on
It's a new month, one of my favourite times to take stock and set intentions, time to let the left-brain come out and play!
A few people have expressed interest in learning more about planning so I thought I'd share a glimpse into my monthly planning process here. It usually includes two steps:
- Review and assess the previous month's goals and intentions, including recognition of all that I accomplished - big and small
- Set goals and intentions for the month to come
This post will focus on Step 1: Review and assess the previous month's goals, intentions and accomplishments.
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In this first step I try to focus on what I accomplished and what I chose to not do (yup, if I didn't do it, it's because I chose to do something else instead right?). There's no beating myself up for what didn't get done. It's much more constructive and fun that way.
Previous month's goals in hand, here are some of the questions I ask myself:
~ Did I meet my initial goals set? In hindsight, were they realistic?
~ What did I accomplish last month? (I include items from my list, work and non-work, plus any new stuff that came up and add it all to my running Ta-dah! list.)
~ How did/will I celebrate all that got done? (Though I'm usually good at acknowledging my accomplishments, I'm not always good at celebrating them. I'm not sure why, something to think about...)
~ Which goals did I choose to drop, in favour of what? Am I happy with that decision?
~ What unexpected opportunities or pleasant detours did I choose to follow?
~ Did I allow myself enough goal/work-free time?
~ What about my non-work life? How did that go? Was there one?
~ Would I do anything differently next month and if so, what? Is there anything that worked particularly well that I want to keep doing?
I don't usually write down my answers formally, though I may jot down notes to record any insights that come up. Sometimes I run through the whole thing pretty quickly, sometimes I dilly dally - depends on the day, depends on the mood.
Once I've taken a look at where I've been, I shift my thoughts to where I want to go. Stay tuned for Step 2, setting goals and intentions for the month to come...
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Do you have a favourite monthly ritual or process to take stock of how you're doing and where you'd like to go? Tell me, I'd love to hear about it.