13 ideas to add to your monthly routine

Little treats to make any month better

It’s the start of a new month tomorrow. I tend not to do much monthly planning in my life, but once a month is a great cadence for things you’d like to do regularly, but not all that frequently. I know some people use the start of the month for various chores, such as paying bills or deep cleaning certain parts of the house. Here are some of my favorite ideas for things that can become once-a-month treats.

1. Do a highlight audit. Look forward to the next month. What are you genuinely excited about? When you look back at the end of the month, what will you likely remember? Thinking about this ahead of time can allow you to anticipate these highlights and really savor them when they happen. As part of this same highlight audit, you can look back on the previous month. What really stood out during the last 30 days? You can look through photos to relive these memories.

2. Host (or join) a friend gathering. Be it a book club, or a game night, or just getting together for drinks, a group get-together once-a-month feels doable, even in a busy schedule. If you always book this for, say, the first Sunday of the month, or the first Thursday, when that local bar holds a trivia contest, you won’t have to plan much but you’ll still get the benefit of frequent socializing.

3. Schedule a virtual mastermind meet-up. Many of us don’t have automatic colleagues, so we have to create our own. Organizing a group of like-minded professionals to meet monthly by Zoom will all have you following each others’ careers, and finding opportunities for each other, without requiring the travel or the schedule gymnastics than an in-person gathering would.