Each month in my planner is unique. I have a new set of goals that need to be accomplished. New tasks and appointments that need to be completed. Each month is different, but structurally they follow a similar pattern for setup. This is a breakdown of how I setup a month view in my planner. Hopefully, this will help you to organize your month’s better, give you a basic structure to follow or just provide you with a nudge to think about the setup of your month differently.

I start by writing in holiday dates and observances into the month, if they are not already in place. This allows me to see if any work days are no longer applicable. This is vital when it comes to coordinating my schedule with others. Sometimes, I get caught up with planning and the day to day happenings that I forget a holiday. I don’t like to make plans and then break them, because others can assume that you remember that it is a holiday and have taken it into consideration. Also, block out the days that are not a part of the current month. This allows you to better see at a glance the days in your actual month, if you want to accomplish a task before the end of the month.

Now, put in any non-negotiable tasks as I like to think of them. These are things like birthdays, vacation and family visits. These are plans that cannot be moved around or even omitted from your schedule. So, we put them in early to make sure they are at the forefront of our minds.

After this, I put in appointments and scheduled tasks. Scheduled tasks are events or meetings that occur with other people that require both your presence and time. Online meetups are easier ion our schedules because they can occur anywhere you just need to schedule the time. Making sure that my appointments and scheduled tasks are in allows me to see if any of my weeks will be busy before I have even scheduled in my personal tasks. This goes a long way towards making sure you’re not being overwhelmed by your schedule.

Now for the routine items. Personally, anything that is recurring in every aspect does not get put into the calendar. This, for me, includes pay days and trash pickup days. These occur at the same time, every time. I do however schedule in bill payments because I don’t do these at the same time each month. Otherwise, if a routine item takes up a lot of time during the day or week then it should be put a scheduled task. These tasks are more appropriate for the weekly or daily schedule rather than in the month view.

Lastly, but definitely not least, I pull at least five items from my quarterly or yearly goal template. I have a list of at least three that way I can focus on at least one each week. This makes it more likely for me to get these goals completed as I have already given them a space in my calendar. Time that has been allocated to focus on these goals.

This is my basic setup when it comes to each month. Not all of these things are applicable every month, but it gives me a starting place to work from and a basic structure. I hope that this is helpful to anyone who is unsure of how to use their monthly section or are thinking of using it in a different way.