When Monthly Planning Doesn’t Make Sense

Not every area of life is best suited to division into twelve parts. Some things only need seasonal updates (picky deep cleaning tasks like washing sofa cushions, or visits with acquaintances you won’t see very often), and others require changes on a weekly basis (maybe slowly amping up a workout routine, for example). It’s important to acknowledge this, and set your update automation to the cadence that is appropriate for the task or activity. For instance, I live in New England where the seasonal weather changes require significant wardrobe switch-outs. If I tried to switch out my clothes every month, though, I’d be creating a lot of work for myself that wasn’t necessary, since October and November, for example, by and large require similar items (all hail sweater weather). I like to think of this not in terms of planning by the moon not applying, but instead, planning by some alien moon, which for this particular discipline is more appropriate. (If I were really together, I’d switch my clothes out 4 times a year instead of 2, and keep it seasonal. I think this would help keep me from getting tired of things, and wouldn’t be that much harder. Plus, at any one given time, fewer clothes would be in my closet and drawers, which is always a win. But in reality I usually do a winter and summer clothes switchout only, and bake fall and spring weather into a “good” winter and summer wardrobe, respectively.)

 

The best way to figure out what the right cadence is for any particular area of life you want to plan out is to jump in and try what makes the most sense to you initially, and be open to iterating.

 

Some other areas of my life I plan by “other moons”:

 

  • Reading lists
  • Wardrobe changes
  • Deep clean seasonal projects
  • Certain exercise goals
  • Personal hygiene and beauty routines
  • Nutrition goals
  • Grocery shopping (though I do plan my meals by Earth’s moon!)

 

Some things, like management of the books I want to read, I’m open to changing. I’ve considered revamping this recently – would it be better if I cycled through a different theme or genre each month? Not sure, but the bottom line is, not everything on this list will remain on this list forever, and other things I currently plan monthly may one day find themselves here. The key is staying flexible and improving your plans to better fit your life, which does mean that they sometimes need to change!