I am not a plan ahead girl by nature. I resist anything that has boxes, list or deadlines.
Structure? Is not my jam.
But, what I’ve come to understand is that planning ahead has so many benefits. It was something I knew I had to incorporate into my real life. People around me would call me a planner, but I know my secret identity: the kid who did her homework on the way to school.
Spontaneity is great for going to the movies or taking a walk, but most good, healthy or fun stuff needs to be planned for.
I now have planning sessions for three time frames:
- The Month Ahead
- The Week Ahead
- The Day Ahead
In this article, we’ll be talking about planning for the month ahead and what you need to do to make the most out of your planning time.
Benefits of When You Plan Ahead
When you plan ahead it:
- helps you save money.
- gives you something to look forward to.
- means less crises in your day.
- means you get to include more people that you love.
- will save you time.
- will save you energy.
So, how do you actually plan ahead for a whole month? Here are a few key things to focus on as you learn to become a plan ahead person.
When to Plan ahead:
I have a few “Plan Ahead” times scheduled on my calendar:
One day a month is my “Plan Ahead” Day for our personal “stuff.” Yes– I take a big portion (maybe two hours) and plan ahead. But here’s the thing: On my Plan Ahead day in June, I’m not looking at June – I’m looking at July, and maybe some of August and September.
What am I planning ahead on that day? Here is my checklist of what to look at:
- What are our work/school schedules?
- What events do we have coming up? Do I need to do anything in advance for them?
- Send a gift
- Plan a party (family birthdays, events, etc.)
- Do any travel plans need to be made?
- Are there any appointments that need to be made?
- Doctor
- Dentist
- Car maintenance
- House maintenance
- DMV, insurance, etc.
- What do we want to do?
- Go away for a weekend?
- Make improvements on the house
- Work on a project?
- Getting together with friends.
- Meal Planning
Meal planning a month out may seem crazy, but since I’ve started planning meals a month in advance, we’ve saved time, money and trips to the grocery store. Yes, plans change, but boy, knowing what we want to cook saves me a whole lot of time and trauma.
What is involved in meal planning?
- Taking an inventory of what you already have
- Picking meals
- Finding recipes
- Grocery Shopping
- Prep
Next month I will be sharing my strategy for how to plan ahead for the coming week. If you’re not subscribed to the blog, do it now so you won’t miss that article.
Do you have any plan ahead tips? If so, share them in the comments below. If we use one of your ideas we will send you a copy of The Cure for the Perfect Life!
I have a goal for 2018 to send a card a day (or catch up on the weekends if I miss a day). With this goal, I like to plan ahead for a list of people I can send a card to so that I don’t duplicate people. I send cards to people I know, people I don’t know, celebrities, people in the news who have done great things for other people, people I see in the news who are suffering, etc. I make sure to have plenty of cards on hand each month for the people I have planned to send cards to and also some extra cards for people who come up on the prayer list or cross my path for whom I want to send cards. I also try to choose a charity a month to support and by doing that, I can plan ahead to pick up items on sale to donate to that particular charity. Thanks for the great article!
I love using the Flylady calendar, it has big squares where things can be written in a normal size. I also color code everything so I can quickly look and see who has what coming up. I also use the cozi app which can also be color coded. For meal planning because I eat the same thing for lunch daily I am able to pack up 2 weeks worth at a time except for my fruit which I only do 1 weeks worth. I also cook on the weekends for the week so we basically eat warm ups during the week. It makes our week go so much smoother.
Kathi, this is a great article. Thank you for the gentle reminder of how planning really makes life more enjoyable and relieves stress. I do much of this in my bullet journal. It allows me the freedom to think, plan, make notes, track ideas, and follow through all in one place.
I then utilize something I started sometime ago which you recommended, the planning file system. I have the 12 monthly folders, the four or five weekly folders and then a place in the back to place stamps, address return labels, etc.
Finally, I get my meal planning from Forks over Knives. The food is healthy, unprocessed and provides options to prep some ahead to eliminate some of the time it takes to prepare and eat healthy.
Thank you again for the encouragement!
Have a GREAT day!