It’s been 12 months of making monthly goals and reviews, since August last year. Massive credits goes to @craigpetterson, who’s very first Awesome August post started it all here on 200wad, and created quite a lot of excitement then. Since then, @knight, @keni were my constant buddies in it.
We didn’t start off with making monthly goals though. I remember we only did monthly wrap-ups in the beginning, but after 1-2 months everyone started doing monthly upfront goal-setting too. That’s why I cannot find my August goals, only August review. And I realised I didn’t always do it as an alliteration, because it was hard to find the right adjective to describe the theme for the month.
Just for archiving and reminiscence, I’m listing them all here:
2020
Awesome August - goals
Altruistic April - goals, wrap-up
Juicy January - goals, wrap-up
2019
Deep December - goals, wrap-up
More Code November - goals, wrap-up
Singular September - goals, wrap-up
Awesome August - wrap-up
July - a July without appointments
Some observations and insights:
Seasons of work, and full circle
I seem to cycle through predictable seasons of intense work, burnout, rest, play. Just like nature’s seasons. I always known it but to see my goals reflect that almost every quarter to half-yearly, is nonetheless still surprising. I guess that’s how I like to work. Pulse and pause, sprint and stop, instead of flat-lining at a constant pace throughout. Fun fact: I rested last July by not making any appointments that month, and true enough, this July I rested too! Full circle.
Coding, money, work vs play
Recurring themes seems to around coding, making money, and the push-and-pull of work vs play. Re: money, I guess it’s indicative of my financial situation. When the new year came I could really feel the purse string tightening, and money themes came back every other month. Looking back, it gives me a sense of what were important to me, and my areas of growth – what I need to work harder on (if it keeps coming back, it’s a sign!).
Many reviews good, one review bad
I remembered going into my annual personal retreat in December in Ubud thinking that I didn’t seem to have that much to reflect on, since I had been doing so regularly every month. Instead of a huge introspective dump, I had spread it out. Which is great because you catch things and nip them in the bud before it festers. Just like with work performance reviews, constant reviews are better than one big scary one once a year.
The value in the process
I recalled that for some months, it does feel kind of forced to have to set some goals when you have no idea what. Those invariably evolve and change during the month, to whatever I’m consumed with. Then again, there are some months when the goals were spot on, and addressing a deep need (like play or rest). So it’s a hit or miss, but I think the value of setting them anyway at the start of the month is that you have something to benchmark with, to bounce off against. Kind of like making a prototype. You might not like it, but it draws out critiques and feedback for the next better iteration – which is the important thing.
So will I continue doing it? HELL YEAH! It’s only given upsides, little downsides.
Someone needs to make an app for this
I just wished there was an easier way to track all these trends and themes. I tried it with a rough MVP app called Your Life In Months, but stopped working on it for months already because it didn’t quite work. But kept thinking about it, like some first love romance. This is a good habit system to have, and any good system needs some sort of tracking. Micro daily habits have their streak counters, but what can we do for more macro, monthly habits, where the tracking isn’t quantitative and linear, but more qualitative and conceptually networked?
Anyone?