8 Realistic Monthly Goals to Set

Happy Tuesday, sweet friends! Okay, so I know you’re wondering “Why is this girl talking about goals when WE just nailed down our new year resolutions?” Well y’all, it’s almost February and by this point, most people have given up on their resolutions. For me, yearly goals have always been so much harder to attain as time went on. With no real plan of action, schedule of how to check in on that goal or anything else, those goals left as quickly as they came. What I started doing around the middle of 2018 was setting small monthly goals that didn’t feel as daunting and would get me closer to my ultimate goal by the end of the year.

For example, one of my goals last year was to start getting places earlier. That’s a great goal – no doubt, however, nothing about that goal was specific enough for me to measure how I was actually doing. Instead, I made monthly goals to leave 10 minutes earlier than I think I needed to. This was helpful for several reasons. 1. parking – most of the time when we are planning to go somewhere, we forget to think about the amount of time (and sometimes money) it will take to park at or near our location. 2. clear thinking – I don’t know about you, but when I get to a meeting or an important event, I don’t like to be rushed in. I want to spend a few minutes in my car getting my thoughts together and clearing my thoughts for the earlier part of the day. 3. Lipstick check – Okay, who else has this happened to: you spend over an hour talking to tons of people at an event only to realize that you had lipstick on your teeth the E N T I R E time?  Umm, hello, this happens to me way too often. With extra time in my schedule to get somewhere, I can do a “teeth talk test” which is where I talk to, laugh at and smile (I’m a little weird, okay, that’s fine) in my mirror to make sure my lipstick doesn’t transfer to my teeth. 4. Quick review – There have been way too many times where I’ve be running from teaching to a meeting to shoot then to another meeting and my brain basically can’t keep up with my feet. The extra time I’ve set gives me a little saving grace to recap the meeting agenda and quickly prepare any notes/talking points if I haven’t time before then. Those are just a few reasons but if you see, setting a goal of leaving 10 minutes early versus a goal of not being late, is so much easy to attain and monitor over time. When you break the goal down into months, it feels much more tangible going throughout your days. So, let’s jump into a few:

1. Cook 1 additional meal per week – This one is probably the most basic but when I talk to my friends and other young professionals, most of them admit that they spend too much $$ eating out. If you’re someone who spends $7 on coffee daily, go down to only work days or reduce to 4 work days only. Not only does this save you $$ but time and extra calories, too. Personally, I hate cooking. If you follow me over on Instagram, you have probably seen my 10 too many failed attempts at cooking but my goal right now is to cook a new recipe every week and so far I’ve loved everything I’ve cooked. My bank account and waistline are extremely grateful that I set this goal and cut back on my Chick-fil-A addiction. Try this goal for the month of February and track how much time and money you end up saving.
2. Save $50 more a month – Since we’re already talking about money, let’s just talk about it. As a millennial entrepreneur only two years post-grad, I totally understand the budgeting grind it takes to have/maintain/keep a household with student loan payments and more. If you’re looking at ways to slowly increase your savings account, a good place to start is with $50. Being completely honest, you are probably spending $50 on unnecessary items every month anyway, so why not put it away? If you’re someone who already saves a large amount, try to increase that number by 10% for the next year and see what a difference it makes. At $50 a month, 12 months in a year, you now have $600 saved for your emergency fund, car repairs, a vacation, to donate and everything in between.
3. Wake up 20 minutes earlier everyday – This is the hardest one for me. I tend to struggle with falling and staying asleep, so setting my morning alarm any earlier seriously breaks my heart. What I’ve been doing this month, especially on days when I work from home all day, is waking up 20 minutes earlier. This gives me a bit more time to prep for the day, get a head start on my to-do list and enjoy a bit more sunlight. I have never regretted waking up early but still struggle with it daily, so if you’re the same way, you’re not alone. I set a few alarms before I actually want to wake up so I have time to slowly come out of sleep without feeling rushed.
4. Prep your coffee the night before – Part of wanting to have more time in the morning, I started prepping my coffee the night before. Maybe it’s just me but making coffee in the morning takes about 5x longer than it does at night. Probably because I’m moving so slow in the morning and trying to do 100 things before sitting at my desk to work. I usually spill all my water for the coffee pot or drop my coffee creamer or break a coffee mug on days when I’m rushed. Seriously, it’s such a mess. However, I can spend about 1 minute prepping my coffee the night before including grabbing the coffee mug I want to use and setting out anything else I need.
5. No media within 30 minutes of waking/sleeping – This would be the second hardest one for me. I love social media. Not just as a blogger but I love learning through social media and the connections that we create. Twitter is basically my news outlet, cultural plug and life textbook. With blogging, I like to check social media before I go to bed and when I wake up so I don’t miss anything important, however, staring at the screen right before I fall asleep has taken a toll on my eyesight. I find it much harder to get to sleep if I try to close my eyes immediately after staring at my phone for an hour in the dark. If you are trying to practice quiet time or daily reading, make that the last thing you do before bed. This way, the last 20-30 mins of your evening is not in front of a screen, but instead, doing something productive with your time.
6. Leave 10 minutes earlier than you think – As mentioned above, there are so many advantages to this but seriously, try implementing it this month. An easy way to trick your brain into this is to set your appointments on your phone 15 minutes before they actually start and have your alert go off when it’s time to leave. This alone will give you a cushion of 15 minutes. If you want an alert before then, have the alert set for one hour before the event and start getting ready then. Even if you only need to get around the corner, you can be ready and spend that extra time preparing or making that extra cup of coffee you know you need.
7. Stop texting (& other distractions) while driving – Just stop. I have been the girl doing her lipstick at the stop light and held up the line of people behind me. I’ve also been the girl trying to sweeten her coffee while driving and dropped the cup in my lap all over my new white pants. We all know we shouldn’t drive with distractions, so let’s make a commitment to stop doing this. This is a goal you can make daily that will never get old.
8. Spend 1 day investing in yourself – No matter who you are, I can promise you there’s something you want to learn. Whether it’s how to better fold your clothes or graphic design for your side hustle or how to cook or how to create an “instagrammable” flatlay. Find one day in every month to learn something new. Many of these things we want to learn take less than 1 day of learning for the basics. To make this goal more routine, set a reminder for every 1st Saturday to learn something new. This way, a block is always on your schedule and you can you plan ahead for what you need to do to make sure you have time to learn. When it comes to free/low-cost professional development options, I talked about 5 ways a few months back and it’s still one of my most loved post. A quick Google search of what you want to learn with open up a door to Youtube videos, how-to blog posts, courses to take and more. For an ongoing skill like coding or strategic planning, spend a few months diving deep in weekly training and you’ll be surprised at how much you can learn in a year.

Okay friends, I’ll wrap it up here. I could expand on each of these for hours more but the bottom line is: create monthly, actionable goals that can be measured in someway. Starting all these goals for February may be difficult if you haven’t tried any of them before but grab two for the next few months and make note of how life shifts for you. If you already create small monthly goals like these, I would love to know in the comments! Thanks for reading y’all. -xo, Azanique <3