Strange & Charmed

Hello My Charmed Ones!

Last month, I shared how I functional plan my months to ensure I am achieving my goals and balancing my workload, and as promised, now I want to show you how I plan my weeks and days.

Let’s talk about how I plan my weeks first. I am currently using the Week on One Page Inserts from the Master Plan System for this process.

The first thing I do when planning out my week is identify 3-5 priorities for that week. These priorities will often be goals I am working towards that week or they can be big projects that need to be accomplished. This really helps me focus on spending my time wisely and not scattered putting effort in too many directions.

Next, I make a complete task list of items due to be worked on this week. These tasks come from my monthly editorial calendar and monthly master task list!

Then, I’ll add any key reminders for the week in the proper section of this insert- I’m using my week on one page insert design as you can see.

Finally, I will populate the top 3 tasks for the current day, and fill in any other tasks that I know will be top 3 items for the rest of the week based on my default weekly schedule which is what I use to keep track of my themed workdays. I do not, however, fill in my top 3 for each day ahead of time. I only populate information I know will likely not change and I always recommend not filling in too much ahead of time with your planning in case things do change or you get behind or ahead on work one day.

With my weekly plan laid out, I then move onto daily planning if I know I am going to have a particularly task heavy day and need the extra space. Daily planning isn’t something I need to do everyday, but on a few high performance days I find it incredibly valuable to keep me on track.

The inserts I use for my daily planning currently are the undated Daily Planning + Journaling inserts available exclusively to my Productivity Master Mind Members. They give you space to set an intention for the day, which again, helps you get clear on what you’re working towards. I then copy over my top 3 for the day into the space provided.

Next, I write out the goals I’m focused on for the day- similar to the weekly priorities, but I can get more day specific here if I want to.

Then I write out my complete task list for the day.

I’ll also make a plan for how I’ll spend my down time that day, which can be very helpful in motivating you to stay productive on work when you know you have something to look forward to later on.

Finally I will populate my schedule for the day. I am not usually one to write out and stick to a detailed schedule, but I do enjoy creating an outline for the way I want my day to flow. I don’t always stick to the exact time schedule, sometimes I finish things early and sometimes I finish them a little later, but when I script my day out like this it does tend to go according to plan. This was a very task intensive day where having that plan for my time really made a difference.

Now, to round off my daily planning, I also like to do some journaling in the space provided on the back of this daily insert. If you want to learn more about journaling, I made an in-depth video on 7 journaling strategies and getting started that you may find helpful.

When it comes to my journaling, I like to do a few different types of journaling at once. Here you see I am starting with gratitude journaling- where I personally like to write out 7 things I’m grateful for. Then I will script my day out a little more based on my schedule. Last I will write out my Vibe for the day, which is what I call my affirmations. These set the tone for how I want to feel and the mindset I want to embody that day.

So, that’s my vibe journaling and my process for weekly and daily journaling to achieve my goals using my functional planning methodology!

xoxo,

Hello My Charmed Ones!

Earlier last month I talked you through my process for ensuring I move my goals forward each month through my monthly planning process, but today I want to show you that complete monthly review process step by step.

The Monthly Review is a multi-step planning routine that I perform at the end of a month to review my progress from that month and then make my complete plan for the next.

I’ve codified this process into a handy insert that I’ll use to guide my steps today. This Monthly Review insert is an exclusive download for my Master Mind Members, if you want it, definitely sign up for the membership because at this point, if you’ve been watching my videos and getting value from them, my membership group is how you become a member of my inner circle and get consistent accountability, valuable content and exclusive resources from me on a daily basis. So, if you are serious about improving your productivity and want to join a community dedicated to helping you get down to business creating your dream life, then click here to enroll today!

Now, let’s get to my monthly review.

The first set of tasks on my monthly review have to do with closing out the prior month.

• First, we will review the prior months calendar and agenda to ensure all completed tasks are checked off and tracked on their designated project plans as necessary

• Next, we determine if any incomplete tasks need to be disregarded or moved to the current month for completion.

•And finally, we ensure all prior month trackers have been populated as necessary.

Once the prior month is up to date, we move onto planning the current month.

• First, I perform a braindump.

• Then I ensure project plans are completed for objectives scheduled in the current month as necessary

• Next, I move project related tasks to monthly master task list along with all other known tasks belonging to the month.

• Next I populate the Monthly Master Task List with all tasks related to my monthly objectives, along with all other known tasks belonging to the month.

• I then populate important dates, schedule and reoccurring events into the monthly calendar

• I populate any additional key information into the monthly calendar as well.

• I ID the top 3 monthly objectives

• Then, I determine which tasks I will work on in which weeks so time is clearly allocated for everything I intend to accomplish this month

• And finally, I will Fill out monthly habit, finance or other trackers as necessary

There is a space on this insert to then list out any other additional tasks you like to perform as part of your own personal monthly review, and for me I like to script the month ahead, and track my finances. Both I will complete at the official close of the month.

The page page of the monthly review insert has some key questions to use to evaluate your productivity from the past month so you can then create a better plan moving forward and learn from your mistakes.

These question include:

How satisfied are you with the results of the prior month?

What were your victories and accomplishments to celebrate last month?

What did you do well in terms of productivity and planning last month?

Where did you struggle in terms of productivity and planning last month?

What are three areas you would like to improve upon this month and what concrete actions will you take to do so?

And that is how I perform a monthly review.

In the comments I’d love to hear which part of this process you are going to start implementing with your monthly planning routine.

And of course, if you want to get your hands on my monthly review insert, enroll in the Productivity Master Mind Membership today. I can’t wait to work with you more in the group!

xoxo,

Hello My Charmed Ones!

Today, I want to show you how to plan and organize your month to achieve your goals. Specifically, I want to walk you through my monthly functional planning routine, which is the routine I use to create a big picture view of my month, understand and set reasonable expectations for what I am going to accomplish and ensure that I am moving my goals and objectives forward. This routine is not how I plan out my weeks or my days specifically- those are completely different parts of my routine with their own process and intentions. For me, the monthly routine is where I get a chance to align with my goals and ensure process is being made on them.

First, I’d like to explain the inserts I use for this process. I am currently using the Month on 2 Pages inserts that come bundled with the Master Plan System. You can purchase these inserts a la carte as well. Although these inserts are called Month on 2 Pages, it would really be more accurate to call them Month on 4 pages because there are two full spreads, 4 total pages thatI I use to write out my monthly plans. The first spread is the dated 2 page calendar, and then second spread is the Monthly Master Task List and Monthly Tracker.

Now let’s talk about how to plan and organize your month to achieve your goals!

The first thing you need to know about planning your month, especially if you have goals you are aiming to hit, is that you need to have your goals broken into objectives ahead of time. At the start of the year, I set my goals, I break them into objectives, and I map those objectives out in my project planning sheets and with my CEO Strategy Planner inserts. So walking into any month I always know what I am going to be working on as long as I don’t need to change my plans. Click here to learn my entire goal setting process.

Now, I might not create the complete project plan for each objective at the start of the year- I prefer to do that as necessary at the start of the month. So if any of my objectives require a project plan, I will create one at the start of the month so I know all the tasks I need to accomplish for an objective, and then I transfer them to my Monthly Master Task List. Instead of keeping a complete list of all the things I know I need to do, I keep my lists broken out by month so I am only looking at the tasks that belong to that month.

So here you can see, this Monthly Task List is everything I expect to do in February. Does that mean, it’s every single thing I will do and nothing not on this list will get done? No, of course I know things pop up throughout the month, but for now, walking into the month, these are all the tasks I know I need to focus on if I want to accomplish my goals!

Once this list is populated, the second thing I do in my monthly planning process is to populate my monthly calendar. 

On my monthly calendar, I will mark off important dates and scheduled tasks I have across the month. This by no means will be an exhaustive list of every single scheduled task I have, because there is not enough room in the boxes for me to list every call, errand or appointment, but if it’s something important, or a key element of a day, I have it scheduled in.

So you can see, I schedule things like giving my dogs their meds, holidays, birthdays, I put when credit card payments are due. You’ll see I don’t love to decorate in my planner but I do like these little page flag stickers to help me highlight a day in my calendar. I make those flags myself with my silhouette machine. 

My monthly calendar is also where I put my editorial calendar for my content, and marketing information for my business. I post content onto one of my platforms everyday, and I have that schedule marked off, and then as I populate content ideas I write them in and highlight them so I remember what I need to post each day. Most of my content is processed in bulk. I write all my blog posts on one day, I create my Instagram posts for the week in one day, so that is why the editorial calendar itself isn’t fully populated yet. I will write in the posts when I create them and I use a content brainstorm insert from the CEO Strategy Planner to list out all my content ideas. I have gone through periods where I would outline all the content for my editorial calendar at the start of the month, but I would often switch up posts and come up with even better ideas at the last minute so the plan would change. It’s easier to just have the skeleton right now for me and then populate the posts as I solidify the content. 

With the calendar populated, the next thing I do is transfer my top 3 monthly priorities to my monthly calendar page. I use the lined note section on the bottom of the spread for that so I know what the 3 most important projects are for my month. This is an example of what I mentioned before, that I have my goals and objectives broken out for the year ahead of time, and during this yearly goal planning, I assign 3 tasks to each month to be my focus. This system has served me well, helped me to properly plan out what I am working on when, and ensures I complete my objectives and goals for the year.

Next, I use the notes column at the start of each week on my monthly calendar to allocate tasks from my monthly master task list to my monthly calendar to ensure that I have time set aside for when I will be doing the work I said I wanted to do. This practice is great for setting reasonable expectations for ourselves because without this little step, it’s easy for me to push off tasks or just put too many tasks on my to do list and then get overwhelmed and fail to complete my objectives. So this helps me balance my workload for sure.

The final part of my monthly planning process is to populate my monthly tracker.

As part of the Master Plan system you get a monthly tracker that you can use to track whatever you please. I actually like to use it to track habits, tasks and my income in one place. You can see, I can write in the habit in the largest column, there are 7 columns for the days of the week, and I can leave space in the rows for the number of weeks in the month. I put the date of each Monday in the left side column when I lay out the tracker this way. Then I make an area for Income, I can track the weekly income in my shop, then the total income from a few of my main income sources. This tracker page is great because you can lay it out a number of different ways and track many different things.

That is everything I wanted to teach you about my monthly planning process and how I create monthly plans that help me achieve my goals. This process even makes planning my weeks and days easier because I’ve laid out a lot of information in just the calendar spread alone. This really is a great monthly spread. If you’re monthly calendar doesn’t give you this much space on such a relatively small piece of paper- this is half letter paper- It may definitely be time to upgrade your planner to the Master Plan System. 

For the month of February I have a special discount code to share with you that will give you 20% any Productivity Tools and insert in my shop. The code is FEB2021 and it expires at the close of February so if you have not found planner peace yet or have a system of inserts that make planning a daily routine for success, purchase your copy of the Master Plan System TODAY!

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Wishing you a productive week!

xoxo,