How To Set Monthly Goals

There are many great benefits to setting goals. Increased productivity, boosted self-discipline, better time management, personal growth, and increased self confidence. As you could see the massive benefits and importance of setting goals, goals need to be broken down into different time frames. One of those time frames is setting monthly goals.

Setting your monthly goals in the beginning of the month will help you follow up with weekly, daily, and even hourly goals. Here are some tips and tricks to help you set your monthly goals.

The Importance of Setting Goals

The first thing Deb let us know is that, “People with goals are 10x more likely to succeed.“

We went over the benefits of goal setting in our introduction paragraph, however the statistic above speaks for itself. 10x is a big number and it’s proof that setting goals, is essential for success.

We wrote a full article diving into the importance of setting realistic goals if you want to check that out for a more in depth overview of the topic.

Steps to Setting Monthly Goals

“Identify what you want to accomplish in the next 3-6 months and then break those goals down into specific action steps.” – Deb Harrison

In the upcoming sections, we will go over a step-by-step process Deb has given us in order to set the most efficient monthly goals possible.

Determine Your Long-term Objectives

Before you start with your monthly goals, you want to expand further than that first. You want to have a game plan for the next 3-6 months. This is a perfect time frame, as anything further out is unrealistic due to the fact that things may change or you may not have the same objectives.

Having a clear vision for 3-6 months prior to setting your monthly goals is important for these reasons:

1. Provides a clear focus
2. Increases Motivation
3. Establishes a foundation
4. Encourages progress tracking
5. Encourages Adaptability

Break Down Long-term Objectives into Monthly Goals

The next thing Deb suggested was to break down your long-term objectives into monthly goals, specifically 2-3 goals. Here’s how to go about doing that:

Review your long term objectives for the 3-6 months and identify key tasks you need to do on a regular basis to achieve those goals.

Prioritize those tasks from most important to least important so you could set the best possible schedule for yourself. Your best work is usually done first thing when you start working. This means you want to dedicate your most important tasks to that beginning of the week or month.

Write Down Your Goals and Reasons

Deb gave us another statistic which stats that, “You are 42% more likely to reach your goals if you write them down.”

Whether it’s a notebook, computer, or on your phone, writing down your goals for the month gives a significant advantage when it comes to reach your goals.

While writing them down, you want to write down the reasoning behind why you are doing this task or goal. This will help keep you motivated to continue working on it and staying focused on the end result.

Create Specific and Trackable Action Steps

The next step Deb gave us was to create specific and trackable action steps. I also like to call them sub-tasks.

Breaking down each goal further will then allow you to set weekly goals, and then daily goals.

Let’s say one of your 2-3 goals for the month is to increase traffic to your blog. You want to break that goal down into sub tasks which could include:

• Posting 3 Pinterest pins on Pinterest for each post (10 blog posts)
• Creating a YouTube video for each post (10 blog post)
• Creating a Tweet for each post (10 blog posts)
• Facebook post ETC (10 blog posts).

As you could see I was super specific. Writing these things down will give you the ability to spread out these tasks efficiently throughout the month and break them down into both weekly goals (see the time blocking section in this post) and daily goals.

For example, you know you’ll have to make 30 Pinterest pins, 10 YouTube videos, 10 tweets, and 10 Facebook posts within 30 days. This gives you the ability to spread it out weekly or daily, according to your preference.

Share Your Goals with a Trusted Confidante

Deb gave us one more statistic which is, “People that set actionable tasks and reported the progress to a supportive friend achieved their goals 40% faster.”

If you have a friend or a co-worker that can keep you accountable and remind you of your goals, it can be extremely beneficial in helping you reach your goals.

When you share goals with someone other than yourself, you feel guilty if you don’t do it. You also get an extra supportive push when someone is rooting for you to succeed too.

One example in my life right now is my running goal. I’ve set a lofty goal to hit a 5k under 30 minutes. I run with my friend Nick every Thursday and he helps keep me accountable. The progress I’ve managed to make because of this is a lot more than if I was running alone.

Conclusion

Although setting goals is only the second step in the whole process behind setting long term goals, it’s arguably the most important. This is because it gives the foundation to go ahead and dive into those goals on a weekly and daily basis.

We hope this gave you a good overview about setting monthly goals. Since it’s so beneficial to write down your goals, share what yours are in the comments below!