I talked in an earlier post about how I begin when I set goals for the year. Even though January is already more than halfway over, I thought I would also write a post about the tools that I use as I create and implement my goals throughout the year. I have used Lara Casey's powersheets for over a year, and I strongly recommend them for anyone who would like help with intentional goal setting. I use them every month, and they make up the bulk of the resources that I use for setting goals each month. However, I wanted to go into detail a little more about the other tool that I started using this year, and that is my three-ring printables binder. I absolutely love free printables because (well, free) but also because I love when I am organized and there are some great resources out there to help with this.
When you create a printables binder, it is of course most helpful to have tools that are specifically geared towards the goals/themes that you want to incorporate into your life this year. The first section in my binder is a devotional planner. I wanted to make sure that I spent more time in the word each day this year. I printed out a monthly calendar here to use as I plan my devotions for the week/month. Right now I am going through a seven-week devotional that has five days of reading each day, so I planned each week day to consist of reading one section from that devotional. On Sundays I pick out the scripture that I plan on memorizing for the week (one of my goals this year is to memorize more scripture) and Saturdays are "grace days" where I don't have a specific reading, but pray and journal and write out my verse for the week from memory.
The next four printables that I have in my binder are from Emily Ley's printables library. There are so many and you should definitely go check out all that she has to offer. The first one that I am using is the monthly calendar.
I talked on my instagram about how I use this along with my powersheets to help me keep my goals visible throughout the month as well as help me to be more intentional in carrying out my goals by actually scheduling goals onto the calendar to ensure that they get done instead of just pushing them to the side as each day goes by. I schedule the monthly one-time goals like date nights or a girls night with friends, and I also schedule the day each month devoted to working on my next month's powersheets.
I use the weekly calendar for the same reason as the monthly calendar (to keep them visible, and to schedule them intentionally into my day) but I schedule the weekly ongoing goals here, such as read a book ( I break down the book into chapters and schedule a certain amount of chapters to read a few times each week) or tend a relationship ( for example, Tuesdays and Thursdays are the day that I have set aside during the month of January to intentional focus on relationships like texting a friend, or sending them a note that I am thinking of them. This may be too structured for some people I realize, but for me it works because I always know each day what I need to accomplish, so that I can look back at the end of the month and have completed all my goals. It also helps me by breaking down a large goal into bite-sized chunks ( such as the book example I just mentioned).
Another tool that I included in my printables binder is Emily Ley's health and fitness tracker. Since I wanted to be more health-focused this year, I included this to plan out my daily workouts and meals, as well as to keep track of the water I drink. I do use some apps for this as well, but I am still very much a paper person, and I keep this tracker in my planner to refer to as the day goes on.
The last printable from Emily Ley that I included in my binder is her gratitude journal. I taped one copy to my wall to list them throughout my day/week and it helps to keep it visible to me and not just inside the binder. When it gets full, I will return it to the binder and put up another one. Also connected with this is the last printable in my binder from Ann Voskamp which is her joy dare printables where she encourages you to list three gratitudes each day and gives you prompts to help you think of them.
Being such an organized person, I really like having a system when it comes to planning and setting goals, and this just seemed to work for me. I encourage you to create your own if this sounds like it will be helpful for you, and if you are a creative person, it is always fun to create your own dividers for this project. If you are not very creative, or love to shop at office supply stores, it is fun to peruse the aisles to look for some fun dividers and a pretty binder to use for your own library.
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