How I Do My Monthly Review
At the end of every month I do a monthly review. I like doing reviews because it helps me to reflect on the past month. We live day to day but when we actually reflect back, we discover things we wouldn’t have otherwise. Which is why I enjoy reflecting.
I spend more time doing this review than I do planning anything. I think reviewing and reflecting is an extremely helpful part of self discovery and growth. This exercise can take anywhere from half an hour to a few hours depending on how the month was for me.
Here are some of the questions I ask and the reflection practice I go through. Free free to adopt this practice and write it in your journals or planner. I also include the monthly review in the Free Printable Planner bundle for you.
Free Printable Planner
2 Things I Learned
I start by writing down 2 specific things that I learned that month. This can be anything. I’ve written “I learned how to skip rocks” to “I learned about trauma bonding.” It can simple things or more complex ideas.
I keep it at 2 because I have found that when it’s more than 2, sometimes I spend too much time thinking about what I’ve learned that I don’t end up writing anything at all.
This practice is supposed to be reflective but not extremely time-consuming. It’s supposed to help pin-point key themes or ideas of the previous month. If you want to spend more time really diving into the things you learned and express your thoughts and emotions, I highly highly recommend spending time to do a free-open journaling session where you write down whatever comes to mind about the previous month.
How did I Felt/How was this Month for Me
I think recognizing our emotions is something we don’t do enough, which is why I started to incorporate this into my monthly reflections. I think a lot of time we just go, go, go, we don’t take time to actually take it all in and sit down with ourselves.
For this section, I typically write down a few sentences, but if keywords work best for you, that’s totally okay too. One thing to keep in mind for this part is, as a whole, how did you feel that month. Every day we have ups and downs, but as a whole, how was the month for you?
I usually find that I have between 1-3 different emotions within a month. If the month started out exciting but ended with me feeling disappointed—I write that down.
Don’t judge yourself. Be honest. This exercise is to really help get you comfortable with reflecting on your feelings and why you felt the way you did. It’s therapeutic and healing. If I have more thoughts, I move this section to a journal so I can write things down more thoroughly. (Feel free to do that too).
What Goals Did I Accomplish
For this section, I list out a bunch of different goals that I completed. It can something simple like, I made my bed every morning to something more complex like, I paid off my student loans. I found that by writing down things that I accomplished or completed, it really helped to shift my mind to accept the fact that I do do things and I can celebrate all these wins.
5 Things I am Grateful For
Here I write down 5 specific things I am grateful for. Even though I do daily gratitude practices (You can find the gratitude & planning page here), I find that when I’m reflecting on the month, it’s still important for me to write down 5 of the things that month that I am grateful for.
This really helps me to see the month as a whole. Sometimes we don’t see things for what they are or we don’t get the whole picture until we look back.
2 Things I am Proud of
I finish by listing 2 things I am proud of. I do this because I think it’s extremely important to be proud of how far you’ve come or how much you’ve done. While we can accomplish a lot, that doesn’t necessarily equate to things we are proud of.
This section has been the most transformative for me because I was never someone who was proud of the things I accomplished or the journey I was on. I always felt like I had to dismiss my success or my goals. But after proactively doing this exercise, I now feel good about the things that I do and I’m truly joyful. I’m also able to express this in others too.
I think we often think we can’t be proud of the things we’ve done or how far we’ve come. I had to hit rock bottom to know that I can be proud of myself. Getting through that dark & difficult season was not easy or simple—but I’m on the other side now—and I’m proud that I’m here, I’m proud of who I am today, but especially proud of who I’m becoming.
I’ve learned to celebrate the trivial wins. I can also see other people’s journey better now & express to them that I’m proud of them. It’s so weird but powerful in its own way.
That is a breakdown of the monthly review or monthly reflection exercise that I do at the end of every month. It has definitely helped me, and I hope it’ll help you too. Feel free to do this practice using whatever tool you already use like your journal or planner! If you want a more specific guide, I also included the Monthly Review Page in the Free Printable Planner bundle. Print it out and use it—I hope it’ll be a useful exercise and tool for your life!
Free Printable Planner
Want more than just the Monthly Review page? You can get the entire Planner Bundle Free!
Click here for the Free Planner Bundle. It comes with a total of 8 planner pages that you can print as many copies as you need for your personal needs!
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