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Setting goals and reflections throughout the year

Ideas and templates

Since I wrote about tips to organize our daily lives, I thought it could be valuable to offer some examples on how I reflect on goals and how I do my feedback throughout the year. This is a reference for myself, but you are welcome to do your version, if you feel so inclined.

Somedays I am more diligent about it than others days (or weeks… or months). It’s ok to fall behind on it. Start simple, just think about one goal, or one question. Or just keep a record of ideas, without the pressure of having to do a review each week or so. If you find it helpful, then you can do more. I’ve been experimenting with this, changing it up a bunch of times. I invite you to do the same, if you find it helpful.

I’ve found that when I do get time to write down my ideas and plans (specially if on real paper, instead of digitally), I can be more focused and more intentional about my activities in a particular period of my life. It helps me to get closer to the lifestyle I wish to have, and to focus on the things that are important to me, even though I also face challenges (like we all do).

Yearly goals

I draft ideas like so:

Goals (whatever goals I have for the year, but not too many)
List of my top 3 goals
Set a time to work on my main goals (weekly or monthly basis)
Consider if I have to plan a daily habit for a particular goal
Check books, information, and practices that can help me achieving those goals
Break down the goals in each quarter of the year
Have a mood diagram (this helped me when I was feeling more depressed and wanted to pay attention to my moods throughout the year)

Monthly organization

I draft ideas like so:

Reflect about a personal focus for the month
Reflect about a professional focus for the month
Consider people to reach out
Consider places to go
Reflect about what not to do (things to avoid)
Write down ideas about my personal projects
Write down ideas about my professional projects
Make a list of books to read
Check my habit tracker (in the case I need to have one)

Monthly finances

I try to track:

Checking account: starting and ending balance
Savings: starting and ending balance
Investments: starting and ending balance
Saving goals: (budget for a goal, actual saved for the goal)
Bills: due date, date of payment, budget, actual expense
Expenses: daily expense, description, category, total
Final monthly balance = Income - Bills - Savings - Investments

If you already have a pretty good idea of your expenses, then you don’t have to keep track of each one. Anyhow, it is valuable to keep track of your final monthly balance, especially to check how your savings are going towards your goals (short term and long term savings). Again, start simple! Add things only if necessary.

Monthly review

I try to spend some time writing down reflections on questions like these:

A memorable thing that happened during the month.
3 big lessons you learned.
Are you satisfied with your use of time?
How were you on your habit tracking and monthly plans?
How was your relationship with friends and family?
How was your relationship with God?
What worked well and what did not work well?
What changed during this period?
What could be improved?
For what are you grateful this month?
If you wrote down things you did throughout the month, highlight your accomplishments and look for new ones!

If you wish, you could also do a weekly review with the same questions. I found that weekly ones are a bit too much for me, but I do try to reflect over the month.

Daily overview

If you really find value in keeping track of things and wish for a daily a template, here is one I did:

Write down one thing to be grateful for
Do one thing to exercise your mind for the day (i.e. read something)
Do one thing to work on your health (i.e. walk, make a healthy meal, etc)
Do one thing to work on your wealth (i.e. save money somehow, learn about retirement, plan investment, etc)
List people you are waiting on that day (to keep track of what you need done to advance on your things)
List people you have to reach out that day
Write down your focus for the day
List your to-do list for the day (avoid writing more than 3 things)
A quick check up on your habit tracker (if you have one)
Some quick reflection or gratitude at the end of the day

A simplified option for your daily log could be to write down your appointments for the day, and your tasks. For example, with a pocket notebook I write down the day, the date, any particular appointments, and 3 to 5 tasks. Another idea for a daily log is to use it as a tracker, writing down what you did at each hour (or half hour). So by the end of the day you have an idea of how you have been spending your time.

The daily overview shouldn’t take more than half a page, nor more than a few minutes to write down. It’s not supposed to be elaborate, but a quick guide to help your day. I wouldn’t do this if you are beginning to organize your life this way. It would only lead to frustration if you missed a day, and then you would stop doing everything (I’ve been there). Start really simple, and slowly find what system works best for you.

There was a particular time of my life that I felt extremely depressed, and writing things down was helpful to me. Today I go back and forth with variations of this, but I appreciate it when I have time to sit down and reflect on such things (especially the time to do the review). Reviewing is the key! Maybe this could be of some help for you to!