Gerritt Rosa

July 2, 2021

My Monthly Review Process

I’d like to share my practice for reviewing how my month went. It’s based primarily in the Bullet Journal Method and some Agile practices around retrospectives and data tracking. You might find parts of it useful for keeping your goals insight. I always enjoy seeing how other people work privately so if nothing else the voyeuristic aspect may appeal

But first, a few tools that well be important in the monthly review and goal setting process:

  • Techo Weeks: I use this as a short daily log of an event or two worth remembering. I also track various bits of data here that help me see patterns over the month and year. I track mood, diet, caffeine and alcohol intake (things that can often impact my ability to achieve goals). I have a poor memory for such things, and it’s also quite handy for helping me recognize some of the fun moments I would probably forget otherwise. I capture the items at the end of each day.
  • Field Notes Pocket Notebook: These are great because they fit in your pocket. I use mine for daily to do lists and because it’s always with me, I jot down all kinds of ideas to remember too. It gives me a peace of mind that there’s always somewhere I can take a moment to write on my person. The to do lists are driven by my goals for the week which I set in my journal. This also happens multiple times a day.
  • Journal: My journals are rarely about what happened that day and more about why they happened or how I feel about a thing. This is also where I capture my monthly and weekly goals after a journal where I reflect on either subject. I try and make an entry once a day.

When I started I did the out of the box Bullet Journal Method. His system puts all of this into one notebook which I’ve iterated away from over years. I like to keep my work and personal items separate so I usually end up with several different collections.

The goal of the monthly review is to understand how I did against my goals and how I feel about that after reviewing some of my collections to build a good context for the month:

  1. Goal Review: Look at last months goals and write a few lines on how each goal went and why.
  2. Month Events Review - Look through the Techo Weeks and recall key events (I forgot things more than 2 weeks ago).
  3. Journal Review - Recall key insights, challenges, and what week to week goals I set throughout the month.
  4. Field Notes Review - Quick look through for any items I want to bring in for future goals or just to see what stuff is in there.

All of this physically happens in my journal and takes an hour and a half in 3 pages of writing. The benefits of this process are mostly to solidify any learning that’s happened in the month, and see if I’m being intentional about the goals I’ve set before I set more.

After the monthly review I set goals while looking ahead at the next month. Some times this is a day or two later.
  1. Rough Goal setting: Take goals from last month and carry forward any, see if there’s new things I want to add or take off. I usually over commit here and put a bunch of stuff on it before the next few steps refine it.
  2. Month look ahead: I review work and personal calendars for key events scheduled that month. These sometimes become goals but also comprise of future to do list items like preparing for birthdays or holidays. I’m always surprised at the value of doing this small task is for being ready for the next month.
  3. General Considerations: This is a new activity I borrowed from the scaled agile framework. Are there non-event considerations like free time next month, seasonal changes or patterns emerging and other insights I’ve collected over the years to think on. For example, July tends to be hot and also forest fire season so my ability to get outside to exercise can be harder. I may want to consider changing a goal or doing more morning exercise than evening. I’ll be taking time off work so my capacity for work goals is lower and the time I do have available will be compressed with prepping to go out of the office. It’s partly about checking the feasibility of my goals against known items and “the unknown but you probably could have though of it ahead of time”.
  4. Monthly Goal Setting: I take my rough goal list, look at the month ahead events and considerations and make a final “this is my focus for the next month”. I won’t list the idea of SMART goals here but I keep them brief and with clear outcomes. This month looks like this for example:
    1. Guitar: Finish learning the rest of the rhythm and lead guitar parts from The Strokes "Room on Fire" Album
    2. Reading: Review the last 6 non-fiction books from this year and note key learnings and build flashcards for them to practice.
    3. Pass the Scaled Agile Framework Lean Portfolio Management test
    4. Fitness Goals
      1. Achieved 30 minutes of exercise 20 of 30 days in July
      2. Achieve apple watch active energy goal 20 of 30 days in July
      3. Get +8 hours of sleep over the course of the month

This process takes 30 minutes to an hour and results in another page or two in the journal. An important final step is to take the month goals and write them on a post it note that I stick to the front of my field notes keeping them visible. Week to week I do a mini version of all these activities for about an hour on Saturday or Sunday. The only difference is looking at the focus for just that week and how they support the monthly goals.

I’ve used this version of the process for about 2 years with changes throughout but these elements seem to stay throughout. Reflect throughout the week on what you did, have some to do lists the relate to your intentions, and set aside time at the end of the week to look at all of it. Keep the goals for that month visible is also key. Often I'd set goals but forget them after a week or two.