Ending the month on the right note can set the tone for the following days. If you want to be successful in your career, home, or personal life, I highly encourage you to follow these five tips for creating a healthy plan moving forward.
If you haven’t already, I do have a blog post about things you should do at the start of the month as well. Each post contains some similar tasks and some different but both are valuable for making an effective plan for your future.
Disclaimer: All of the views and opinions in this post are solely my own and are not sponsored. This post may include affiliate links, meaning I earn a commission through links at no cost to you.
Below are some of my favorite things to do at the end of each month to help myself moving forward.
1. Reflect on the past month
One of the first things you should do at the end of every month is reflect on the past. Take a moment to sit down and go over all that happened in the past 28-31 days.
This is one of those situations where journaling can come in handy! I love to sit down and flip through my past months’ pages to see where my head has been.
As you go back and reflect on all that has happened, ask yourself the following questions:
- What did I achieve this month?
- What did I neglect?
- What goals need to roll over to next month?
- If I could sum up the past month in one word, what would it be?
- What moments or feelings stood out to me from the past month?
Having an in-depth reflection can help you tremendously moving forward. It allows you to dive deep into what you’re succeeding at and what you’re not. This helps you to realign with your purpose and higher self to become a better human being.
Additionally, I enjoy my end-of-month reflections because they allow me to separate time. One thing I struggle with is allowing my days and weeks to blur together without any real distinction. By marking end-of-month reflections, I can categorize each month in my mind and reflect on it as a stepping stone towards my ultimate success and achievement.
2. Set goals and intentions for the following month
At the beginning of April, I came out with a blog post about what you should do at the beginning of each month. While the two posts (this one and the one I just mentioned) share many similarities, there are certain steps I follow at the beginning of each month (which is a separate day for me).
At the end of each month, I follow the steps in this blog post to help me on the first of the month when it comes to planning and organizing my life.
One thing that really helps for the first day of the month is setting goals and intentions.
To do this, I reflect on the past month and look at the goals and intentions I set for myself then and whether or not I achieved them.
Here’s an example:
Last month was April. In April, I chose the word “catch-up” since I knew I would be spending some time “catching up” on work missed during my Route 66/Grand Canyon vacation.
I also chose the following goals:
- Complete all of my freelance work on time.
- Get ahead by one to weeks on the blog
- Be a week ahead on YouTube
As it is the end of April as I write this, I’ve been able to achieve one of those tasks so far. I have one more week to complete my freelance work but I’m unsure whether I’ll achieve my goal for my blog.
With this in mind, my plan for May will be a bit different. Hopefully, I won’t have to “catch up” so much. Instead, I want to root my goals and intentions on confidence (since this area of my life has been hard hit thanks to April’s setbacks!).
When setting goals and intentions for the following month, use the past as a guide. See where you’ve been neglecting portions of your life and work to fix that going forward.
3. Make a plan/schedule
Once you have your goals and plans, you can begin making your schedule.
The first thing I do is roll over any assignments or projects I have not yet completed. If I am in the process of YouTube videos or blog posts, those will be shifted to suit the first week of the calendar month.
Next, I’ll jot down any ideas or potential projects that I plan to take on in the next month. If you read my blog post for starting your month the right way, you’ll be able to gauge a better depiction of what this looks like for me and what I recommend you try to do.
For the sake of this article, we need to focus on the end of the month and our personal reflections on our work and home life. Again, the planning phase at the end of the month tends to be focused on areas that rollover. For me, this is often meal plans I didn’t achieve, work projects, home improvement projects, dates, videos, blog posts, etc.
I have a super simple and effective planner that can help you cover everything in this post and more all in one place! Check it out if you’re committed to changing up your weekly and monthly plans to become more successful.
4. Journal your thoughts
At the end of every month, I always create a journal entry where I detail the previous events. I choose the most striking moments and feelings of the past month and jot them down to remember in the future.
I encourage you to do this as well to help you identify events that you should remember moving forward. Don’t just focus on the physical events either! Sure, you should document important trips, discoveries, and notable moments where you went somewhere or did something. But I also encourage you to write down your emotions and thoughts as well.
At the beginning of April, for example, I had quite a breakdown! And that’s completely normal, but knowing the cause of the breakdown and jotting down the timing can help me identify patterns in my moods as well as triggers—which is invaluable for future me.
If you’re new to journaling or aren’t sure where to start, I recommend you begin with guided prompts. You can follow me on YouTube for a guided journaling session or check out my five-minute journal which includes over 55 beginner-friendly prompts for morning and evening journaling!
Using the prompts above in the first section on reflection is also a great place to start!
5. Do a mini purge
Okay, you might think I’m crazy but mini purges are the best part of my end of the month routine. Each month I look at the area of my life that caused me the most stress and I do a mini purge.
Here are some examples:
If I find that I’m struggling with work, I will prepare accordingly by cutting back my workload for the following month.
If I’m struggling with too much clutter in my office, I’ll throw out or donate several items to create a clutter-free workspace.
If I find that I’ve been neglecting my health, I’ll cut back on unhealthy foods and will purchase healthier options. Additionally, I’ll set alarms to hit the gym.
If I’m struggling emotionally, I’ll look for any triggers and do my best to eliminate them.
This task can be easy or challenging depending on what you’re struggling with. But mini purging feels amazing and is one of my favorite activities to do to invite a calm and positive mindset into my life.
If you like this post, check out some similar posts of mine below!
Feel free to leave a comment below and let me know how you like to end your month!
You can also email me with questions or concerns you may have at info.amelia.wilson@gmail.com
My new book, Witch in the Water, is available on Amazon!
Also, check out my poetry book, The Lights are on but Nobody’s Home, available now on amazon for $6.99 in paperback form!
Disclaimer: All of the views and opinions in this post are solely my own and are not sponsored. This post includes affiliate links, meaning I earn a commission through links at no cost to you.
Thanks again
One response to “5 things you need to do at the end of every month to be successful”
Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.