How to Organize and Plan Your Month Ahead of Time

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How to Organize and Plan Your Month Ahead of Time

Do you ever feel like you are working constantly but don’t feel like you have accomplished anything? 

As a content creator, blogger, and entrepreneur spending most of your time creating content is draining and can lead to burnout quickly.

If you spend your day-to-day constantly writing blog posts, shooting videos, creating social media content, and even creating and scheduling Pinterest pins this may hold you back on your bigger goals and priorities and stuff you need to work on to move the needle in your business. 

I know a few months ago I personally came to a point where I was tired of being on autopilot doing the same tasks constantly without seeing any real progress. I was doing just enough to get by each week.

So, I decided to work on organizing my time and tasks better in order to grow in business and in life. 

So, that is when I decided to get into the habit of planning a month ahead of time. 

I am striving to do a quarter at a time but a month at a time is a great place to start.

Planning my month ahead of time has been a huge game-changer in my stress levels and productivity. 

So, in this blog post, I wanted to share how you can set yourself up for success by planning a month ahead of time.

“Proper planning and preparation prevents poor performance.”

– stephen keague

The Benefits of Monthly Planning

Here are a few reasons why monthly planning can benefit you.

Reduces Overwhelm

When you plan your month in advance it reduces overwhelm because you aren’t scrambling to get things done at the last minute. You won’t feel rushed.

When you feel rushed your best self isn’t present in your work and tasks.

Become more consistent

Planning a month at a time can definitely help with consistency.

Sometimes things come up in life that we have no control over like getting sick, family emergencies, moving, and just life events but if you have everything planned out in advance this helps to execute your tasks efficiently.

Helps with Life Balance

When you plan your month in advance this frees up time and energy to work on other areas of your life with peace of mind. 

You can focus better

Monthly planning can help you to find clarity on your goals and help you to stay on track of accomplishing them.

Instead of working on the same tasks day in and out, you are able to see the overall picture of your bigger long-term goals and make progress towards them.

Preparation for Monthly Planning

When it comes to planning out your month the first step is to choose tools that will help you get organized.

Planning Tools

Here are some of my recommendations:

• A notebook or piece of paper to brain dump all your ideas and everything you need to get done. 

• A monthly calendar to keep track of events and appointments in your personal and work life. You can choose between a digital or paper planner depending on your preference.  For digital, I recommend Google Calendar and for paper, I love the Full Focus Planner.

• A project management tool to help you break down your tasks and manage all your projects. I highly recommend ClickUp but there are also tools like Asana and Trello you can use too.

When is the best time to start planning your month?

I feel like this is based on preference and what you have going on in your life at the moment.

Sometimes I am able to do this 2 weeks before the month starts and sometimes I am able to do it a week before the month starts.

It is important to try to do this in advance so you aren’t trying to play catch up on the first of the month because before you know it you will be halfway through the month and not get anything organized and planned for that month.

Monthly Planning Process

Now that we have the mindset part and planning tools prepared it’s time to actually get into the process of monthly planning.

1. Review annual and quarterly goals

Before you start planning your monthly goals you need to take a look over your annual and quarterly goals because what you do daily, weekly, and monthly should align with your quarterly and annual goals.

Taking the time to look over these goals helps you focus and plan tasks that are in alignment with your bigger goals.

2. Check for appointments and events

Check for any special events (birthdays, anniversaries, vacation, etc.) and appointments so you can schedule them into your calendar right away.

That way you can plan stuff around it if needed and most of the time events and appointments are non-negotiables so it is important to have those in your calendar right away.

3. Plan content

When it comes to planning your content you can do it with a monthly theme to make it easier to create content around that. I also like to list out all the content that will last me for a month.

For example, normally in one month I know I need to do at least 4 blog posts, 12 Instagram posts, 4 newsletters, and a minimum of 150 Pinterest pins a month.

Of course, this may be different depending on your business model.

4. Break down tasks/projects

At this point, I use ClickUp to break down all my tasks and projects into smaller steps.

I like using it because I am able to create checklists, subtasks, and send myself reminders if needed.

I use ClickUp to break down my blog posts, social media, website updates, and promotions I have going on.

5. Batch tasks

Batching tasks especially content will save you so much time and energy in the long run.

If you are not sure what batching is, it is when you group similar tasks together and work on them all at once instead of switching between different tasks.

You can do this by scheduling all your pins for the month in one day, writing all your social media captions for the month at once, or spending one day editing all your blog posts.

I enjoy batching because once I’m done with one group of tasks I don’t have to worry about it for a while.

6. Automation

Now that all the content is planned and executed then it is time to automate as much as you can!

Automation is a huge time saver and stress reliever for creators!

Who has time to manually upload social media posts, emails, and pins?

I have enjoyed automating all my work for the month, it saves me time and I spend less time on social media and more time working on bigger projects and spending time with loved ones.

Here are my favorite automation tools:

• Tailwind to schedule Pinterest Pins
• Flodesk to schedule my weekly newsletters
• Plann to schedule my Instagram posts

I also schedule all my blog posts within WordPress. 

Final Thoughts

Planning a month in advance has been a game-changer for my mental health and productivity.

I hope this post has inspired you to plan and organize your schedule ahead of time.

Do you plan your month in advance? Let me know in the comments below!