How to translate yearly goals into monthly goals

In the past, I have written out my goals at the beginning of each month. Many of my yearly goals include doing certain activities once per month (date night, reading a book for fun, sending a note of encouragement to a friend). The secret to accomplishing big goals is to break them down to a small, manageable steps. For me this means repetitively listing out the goals I’m trying to accomplish every month of the year, as well as defining smaller parts of big projects. For example, when I was writing my dissertation, my monthly goal was usually to finish writing or editing just one chapter of the 200 page document. If I am trying to clean out our whole house, my monthly goal might be to purge one room.

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This year, I am taking my planning one step further and making my monthly goal lists for the entire year NOW. Since one of my marriage goals is to go on a date night once a month, there is no need to wait until May 1st to write down that goal. I can list out all the goals I already know in advance now while my overall 2017 goals are fresh in my mind, then I can simply add to or adjust the list when that particular month starts, print it out, and start accomplishing things. No more finally getting around to writing out my monthly goals on the 5th or 6th day of the month.

The other benefit to writing out my monthly goal lists in advance is that I can be more intentional about breaking down my bigger goals. For example, one of my goals is to finish memorizing Romans 8 in the Bible. I have been stuck at verse 11 for about a year! But if I know I have 28 verses left to memorize (there are 39 total in the chapter), I need to memorize approximately 2-3 per month. I can look through the passage now and assign 2-3 verse sections for each month (verses 12-14 in January, verses 15-17 in February, and so on). That way I have a clear goal for each month, and I’m not floundering to figure out which part of passage I’m stuck on when a new month begins.

I am going to share my January goals with you. This month is a little more dense than most, mainly because it starts this weekend, so it’s really detailed, and because I am trying to accomplish a few of my bigger goals (like decorating my office) in the first quarter of the year before our new baby arrives and takes up a lot of time.

January

___ Memorize Romans 8:12-14

___ Register for MOPS

___ Write outline for homiletic Bible study

___ Write a note to Micah

___ Send a note to a friend

___ Date night

___ Write prayer for Micah

___ Date with Talitha

___ Memorize Ephesians 6:1 with kids

___ Written prayer for each child

___ Play date with a friend

___ Invite a family over for dinner

___ Update front-page bio on teaching website

___ Decorate shelves in office

___ Print family pictures from beach

___ Choose journal and scholarly article to edit for submission

___ Order Retinol serum and Moisture Surge for face

___ Write one recipe for box

___ Make and order Artifact Uprising album

___ Blog 3x/week ( 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10  11  12 )

___ Fix/import RSS feed on new blog

___ Pin blog posts from May-December (2016)

___ Share a blog post from archive 1x/week ( 1  2  3  4 )

___ Contact YoungLives about volunteering

___ Talk to Courtney about serving at church

___ Clean photos off computer for 15 minutes

___ Create and save 1 second video from 2016

___ Finish The Nightingale and start The New Jim Crow

Starting in April, my monthly lists are little less daunting. I’ll have a new baby, we’ll be moving this summer, and I know things will be chaotic for awhile. I intentionally reduced my goal lists for the spring and summer months, with very few goals other than the monthly habits I’m trying to build. By that time, I should be done with big projects like decorating my office and making yearly photo albums, and all other long-term projects will be postponed until the fall when I can establish new routines with three kids. Here is my goal list for May.

May

___ Memorize Romans 8:26-27

___ Write fourth passage of homiletic study

___ Write a note to Micah

___ Send a note to a friend

___ Date night

___ Write prayer for Micah

___ Date with Talitha

___ Memorize Psalms 118:24 with kids

___ Written prayer for each child

___ Plan Talitha’s birthday party and send invite

___ Play date with a friend

___ Invite a family over for dinner

___ Write one recipe for box

___ Blog 3x/ week ( 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10  11  12 )

___ Pin blog posts from April

___ Share a post from archive 1x/week ( 1  2  3  4 )

___ Clean photos off computer for 15 minutes

___ Sign up for post-partum barre classes

___ Finish __(book)__ and start ___(book)___

I have never tried writing out my monthly goal lists this far in advance before, but I’m really excited about it. Often my monthly goals don’t get written down until a week or so into a new month. With these lists already typed up, I can simply modify them right before a new month starts and then print them out. I’ll keep a copy of each list in my office and at home, and I’ll probably write my goals into my planner as well. It’s understandably been harder to reach my goals in the years I’ve had a new baby, but I’m hoping my foresight this year will keep me on track even in those hazy months with an infant in the house.