Confession, I’m old school.  I love a good planner and can’t live without good notepads.  I don’t use iCal, Google Calendar etc.  I write EVERYTHING down.  To that note, I am a huge list person – daily to-do lists, grocery lists, packing lists, you name it.

One new kind of list that I started this year is a “monthly goals” list.  Let’s face it, New Year’s resolutions never last.  So at the beginning of 2015, I decided that instead of making resolutions for the year, I would make a list of goals on the first day of each month that I would like to accomplish in that particular month.  This approach has been extremely effective.

Making these lists helps me to identify the things that need to get done over the next 4(ish) weeks.  If you’re anything like me, weeks can go by and I don’t even realize it.  Making the “monthly goals” lists is an easy way to stay accountable and make sure that I’m actually accomplishing tasks instead of meaning to and then, before I know it, 3 months have flown by.

So on this 1st day of July, I’ll be making my “monthly goals” list.  My list usually includes an attainable (key word) fitness goal, a financial goal, a few big to-dos for the blog, and usually a travel goal (ex: booking a flight for an upcoming trip).  This year, I’ve been loving my Erin Condren life planner and recently started using these cute notepads from Sweet Caroline Designs.

I hope this little strategy helps you out as much as it has helped me!

*Note – I use this “monthly goals” list as an outside-of-my-day-job list.  I have all kinds of other lists that are strictly for work. 😉