Getting the bigger picture with a monthly review
A process for reflection and connection that drives intentionality
Being intentional about anything requires a constant desire to learn. If you want to focus on, say, baking amazing loaves of bread, then you have to not only bake a lot of bread, you have to collect data on your attempts and examine them objectively. That last loaf was too dry. Why? What was missing? What do I need to remove from the process? What should I do differently? You can’t grow without learning, and you can’t learn without examination.
It's no different when we think about being intentional with life and work as an academic. Mindlessly "getting things done" in the sense of checking things off a list doesn't make you intentional -- it makes you mechanical. You're only intentional when you stop every now and then, pull back, and take a critical eye to what you're doing and why you're doing it.
That's the essence of reviews -- which is productivity-speak for dedicated times for examining the frameworks and processes we're employing. A truly intentional approach to academia involves judicious use of an interlocking system of reviews, done at different intervals. Recently we looked at the weekly review and how important it is for maintaining our system. Today, near the end of the month, we've going to look at a higher level of review: the Monthly Review.
What is a monthly review?
A monthly review is a time set aside, usually at the end of each month, for reflection and planning. It's a date you have with yourself where you can think about how the month went, and what are the hopes and plans for the month that's about to begin.
If your day-to-day operations and task execution is like seeing the world from the street-level perspective, then the weekly review is like looking out at the street from a first- or second-story window. And the monthly review is like climbing to the top of the building and looking out at not only that street but also the ones that flow into and out of it.
Monthly Reviews are not necessary for having a functioning system for managing your time, tasks, projects, and information. But I think they help. Whereas the week feels like the right fundamental unit of ground-level task management and planning, the month feels like a good time increment for thinking about the larger picture. It's a substantial stretch of time, but not so long that you can’t see the end of it. The end of the month (or any once-a-month moment you choose) is a good interval in which to think about how you're progressing toward your goals, your successes and the things that might be blocking your success, and just generally for taking stock of how you are doing and what you'd like to see in the near future from yourself.
How do you do a monthly review?
There is no standard format for a monthly review, unlike a weekly review which has an "official" GTD workflow. Generally, it should take maybe an hour, and during that hour you want to get some clarity on:
How the outgoing month went: What did you accomplish? What worked well? What got in the way? What progress have you made on your larger-scale goals and OKRs? Did your activities align with your purpose and values?
Plans and goals for the new month: What do you want to get done this month? What successes would you like to have? What do you want to do more of? Less of? What will you let go of?
Your system as a whole: What's working well with how you manage time, tasks, projects, and information? What changes or tweaks need to be made? Are there tasks or projects that are stuck in neutral, or need to be shut down? What will you do about those? What about your goals and OKRs -- are they still realistic given your current time frame and any unexpected new realities that have popped up this past month? If not, what changes will you make?
Like a weekly review, it helps to schedule the time on your calendar and get to a place, physically and mentally, where you can conduct this review with no interruptions. During the time set aside, work purposefully but take the time to reflect on all the cool stuff you've done and the challenges you are facing.
As I said, there's no standard format for monthly reviews but you might use this and this as jumping off points; you can find more templates through a basic web search.
How I do a monthly review
I didn't do monthly reviews until maybe a couple of years ago, during Covid. It was during the lockdowns that I had more time to play with than before, and a greater desire than before to know how my life was adding up and the extent to which my everyday actions were moving the needle on bigger lifelong aspirations. I liked the perspective that the monthly review gave back in those days and kept it around.
My monthly reviews take place in the evenings on the last day of each month. It only takes me an hour or so. I block off the time and simply journal, using the following prompts:
What’s in my "highlight reel" for the outgoing month? I look back over my calendar and remind myself of my "top 10 moments" (although it's usually less than 10) because it's so easy to forget that cool things happen to us all the time.
What were my biggest wins? List three positive things that happened this past month, that provided the greatest movement toward my larger goals or the greatest momentum toward being the kind of person I want to be.
What were my biggest realizations? List the top three important lessons learned. Sometimes these are positive, sometimes negative, sometimes a little of each.
What areas am I most satisfied? Least satisfied? List three areas in each category, and give a one-sentence explanation.
What am I going to do more of this month? Less of? Often these are tied to the answers to the previous question; if I'm dissatisfied with my weight, I'm going to do more exercise and less snacking. But sometimes I can see patterns in satisfaction and dissatisfaction that leads to something actionable. For example, say I'm dissatisfied with my weight as well as with my level of social activity. That might prompt me to realize that I am sitting around the house too much, so I might make a commitment to go to the gym more often, which would address both areas of dissatisfaction. That's the kind of insight you really can't easily have without a planned high-level review. Also: Don't skip the "Less of" part of this prompt. You can't just add more to your life -- subtract things off too.
What am I thinking about for the upcoming month? This is where I look at the calendar again, into the upcoming month and catalogue not only the major events on the horizon but also anything else that's top of mind.
After doing that bit of journaling, I look at my OKRs, which I set quarterly. First, I look at the previous month's progress on each OKR and update the status of each key result. Then, I split up each key result into month-sized pieces and list what I need to accomplish on each one to stay on track.
If you set OKRs quarterly, then each month's incremental progress on an key result should be about 1/3 of the individual items in that result. For example, last time I mentioned one of my OKRs for this quarter is to Master the fundamentals of the bass guitar and one of the KR's is to complete a sequence of 12 courses at a bass lessons website. If I aim to complete 12 courses in a quarter, then that's 4 courses a month, so at my monthly review I need to pick which 4 courses I'm going to do this month.
Then, those 4 courses can be subdivided into weekly goals (e.g. one course per week). At the end of each week at the weekly review, I can go to my plans from the monthly review and update progress on the month; then at the next monthly review I can update the progress for the quarter. This system of pouring one "bucket" into another on a weekly basis ensures that I stay current on a regularly basis with all my OKRs, and it breaks down the big KRs into bite-size pieces that can be managed by month, and then by week.
But if you ignore the OKR stuff, really all a monthly review boils down to is an hour of directed journaling. And if you want more than an hour, go ahead and take it!
Now you do it
We’re nearing the end of the month (what happened to May?) so this is a great time for you to try a monthly review. Even if you don’t do any other process I’ve mentioned on this blog, sitting down for an hour to reflect and journal about your month and plan your next month is a big step toward more intentionality and more control over your work and life.
You can use my writing prompts from above, or make up some of your own. Some suggestions:
What am I willing to let go of next month?
With whom do I need to interact more next month, and with whom do I need to interact less?
What has become clearer to me in the last month, and how might this inform my thoughts and actions in the next month?
At what times during the next month will I be the busiest, and how might I use the less-busy times to prepare for that?
What are my top three questions heading into this month? (Those can be big life-defining questions like Is there a God? or simple practical ones like How do I change the tire on my bicycle?)
However you do it, I encourage you to give it a try and report back in the comments.