Monthly Wrap Up
^^ Listen to a recording of the article below.
^^ Listen to a recording of our discussion about “Monthly Wrap-up.”
It’s March 15th, one month out from the tax deadline in the USA. Lets use this as an opportunity, to get everything nice and neat and ready for the rest of the year. Lets do a…
A monthly wrap up.
I started this my fourth year of freelancing. Before that, things always fell through the cracks. Actually, let me rephrase that, “important things I hate to do always fell through the cracks.”
The trouble with this was these important things would eventually come back to bite me.
Now I combat them monthly and have loved the process:
• Make a list of the tasks you need to do that you always put off.
• Do that list on the last day of the month no matter what.
• Reward yourself upon completion.
Here are some worksheets to get you started. Add or omit whatever you need to best serve you.
Items of note
1) There is a start up period.
The monthly wrap up process is hard to get going if you’re behind, but once you’re current, it’s wonderful.
At first, there could be long days or you might need to break tasks up.
One of my items is to square up my accounting/taxes. However, if you haven’t done that for months, you might need a long day or to break it up over a few days.
2) Pick a good reward.
By it’s very nature nature, wrap up day is about dealing with all the stuff you don’t want to deal with so it doesn’t pile up - that’s not usually fun. Pick a reward you really love for making it to the end of the list.
My reward is guilt free time off. I’m bad at taking guilt free time off and I’m bad at doing tasks I hate doing. This reward serves me two-fold. It helps me speed through the list, since I take the rest of the day off as soon as I’m done. It has also fostered more mindful habits throughout the month. Now I’m more likely to not put a monthly wrap up item off since I know I’ll have to deal with it on the last and it’ll take away from my chill time.
3) Seriously, reward yourself.
In the past I was the master of rewarding myself with the next day’s to do list. Sometimes I still am, but not on wrap up day. It’s the last day of the month. You’ve just completed a big list of all your most dreaded tasks. Take a break, warrior. You get to start fresh on the 1st.
Hope this helps and please let us know if you give it a try!
Best of luck!
❤️
Written by Sarah Dahlinger
Discussed by Sarah Dahlinger and Sarah Forde