14 Ideas for a Refreshing Monthly Reset Routine
This article is all about creating the perfect monthly reset routine.
Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. See our full disclaimer here.
If you’re looking for a fresh start to your life, you don’t have to wait until New Year’s Day to turn over a new leaf.
A monthly reset routine is an excellent way to take stock of your month, set goals for your future, and start the new month on the right foot.
One of the best things about monthly reset goals are that you can tailor your routine to fit your personal goals and lifestyle.
Whether you’re looking to eat healthier, develop better study habits, practice more self-care, or learn a new skill, these monthly routine ideas are a great place to start!
WHAT IS A MONTHLY RESET ROUTINE?
A monthly reset routine is exactly what it sounds like—at the end of each month, you reflect on the past few weeks, set goals for the upcoming month, and start planning for the new habits, skills, and goals you’d like to work on!
These new habits, skills, and goals can involve any aspect of your life. For example, if you’re trying to develop better study habits, you might spend some time reviewing your academic progress over the past month, putting all your upcoming assignments and exams in your planner, and scheduling dedicated study time into your weekly schedule.
Or, if you’re trying to be better about cooking healthy, you might spend time researching healthy recipes, compiling grocery lists, and even meal prepping for the week ahead.
Your monthly reset goals can be whatever you want them to be!
WHY KEEP A MONTHLY RESET ROUTINE?
Monthly reset routines have a ton of benefits, and can do wonders for improving your mental health, physical health, self-care routine, and even your work, school, and social life! Here are some of those benefits:
- Increased Productivity
When you’re able to identify the strengths and weaknesses in your life, set tangible goals for your future, and regularly check back in with yourself, your productivity levels will go through the roof! - Increased Mindfulness
Instead of moving through your life on autopilot, having monthly reset goals allows you to think more deeply about who you are, what you want, and where you’re going.
Because you’re checking in with yourself every month, you might even notice your levels of mindfulness increasing! - Personal Development
Personal development is all about setting goals, which is a major part of the monthly reset routine.
What’s more, monthly reset routines allow you to implement tangible strategies and routines for you to reach your goals, putting you on the right track to real personal growth. - Increased Motivation
When you’re juggling so many aspects of your personal life, from work to school to relationships, it’s easy to feel so overwhelmed that you lose motivation to get things done.
A monthly reset routine is a great way to break down all the different aspects of your life and establish tangible goals, which can help you overcome that overwhelming feeling and start feeling motivated again! - Self-Care
We’d argue that goal-setting, check-ins, and mindfulness are all forms of self-care. But, in addition to these forward-thinking aspects of the monthly reset routine, it can also be an opportunity to indulge in other kinds of self-care.
For example, you might also use your monthly reset time to do a face mask, DIY manicure, everything shower, or even just go to bed early so you can wake up the next morning feeling extra refreshed!
WHAT TO INCLUDE IN A MONTHLY RESET ROUTINE?
The kinds of things that you include in your monthly reset routine depend a lot on your personal lifestyle and goals. Here are some of our favorite monthly routine ideas if you’re looking for some inspiration to get started!
1. MONTHLY PLANNING
Your monthly reset routine is a great opportunity to look ahead to the upcoming month and put all of your deadlines, assignments, meetings, and events on your calendar.
If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the amount of stuff piling up on your plate lately, getting it all out on a single calendar page is a great way to visualize your month and start organizing your time.
You can even schedule in chunks of time where you study independently, take mental health days from work or school, catch up with old friends, or spend time outdoors!
2. GOAL-SETTING
One of the most important parts of a monthly reset routine is coming up with your monthly reset goals.
Try to keep these goals tangible and doable. It’s better to start small and build your way up to big goals than to bite off more than you can chew right at the very beginning and feel disappointed with yourself.
Your goals will depend on your lifestyle, but some of our favorite monthly reset goals include walking 10,000 steps a day, doing a five-minute mindfulness meditation every day, or journaling three times a week.
You can also set one or two big goals for the month that you work towards each day, like getting an A on your final exam or being able to run a 5K.
3. CHECK-INS AND REFLECTIONS
As you get into the swing of the monthly reset routine, it’s also a good idea to spend some time checking in with yourself and reflecting on your previous month’s goals.
Were you able to achieve the goals you set for yourself? If so, how are you going to maintain that positive progress going into the next month? If not, what can you do to improve?
This is also a good time to do some overall reflecting on the past month as a whole. How have you been feeling? What’s been bringing you joy? What’s been making you stressed, depressed or anxious? What were the highlights of your previous month, and what are you looking forward to in the next month?
4. JOURNAL PROMPTS
A lot of these questions serve as great journal prompts. Sitting down with a physical journal and writing down your responses to these prompts is an excellent way to slow down, get in touch with yourself and your emotions, and think deeply about where you’ve been and where you’re going.
5. HABIT TRACKING
If part of your monthly reset goals involve starting new healthy habits or breaking old unhealthy habits, setting up a habit tracker is a great way to get started.
Set up a mini calendar for the month with a little box for each day. Then, as the month progresses, you can check off a daily box for each day that you do the habit you’re trying to form.
Some of our favorite healthy habits include drinking eight glasses of water a day, reading for thirty minutes each day, and doing fifteen minutes of yoga each day.
TIPS TO HELP CREATE A MONTHLY RESET ROUTINE
If you’re inspired to incorporate a monthly reset routine into your life, but aren’t sure where to start, here are our top tips and tricks to get yourself into the swing of the monthly reset routine and set yourself up for success!
1. START SMALL
If you’re just getting started with a monthly reset routine, it can be tempting to try to overhaul every aspect of your life.
However, if you get too ambitious at the very beginning, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all of the different goals, habits, and checklists you’ve created for yourself.
Instead, we recommend starting small. Pick one of two areas of your life that you really want to focus on in your monthly reset goals, like fitness and mental health, or household chores and study habits.
Then, as the months go by and you become more comfortable with your monthly reset routine, you can slowly add or change the areas of your life that you’re focusing on!
2. SET ASIDE A SPECIFIC TIME EACH MONTH
The word “routine” is key! The best way to ensure that you stick with your monthly reset goals is to establish a set time each month to devote to your monthly reset routine.
Depending on your personal schedule, you’re going to want to schedule two or three hours on the first or last day of each month to check in with yourself, reflect on the previous month, and set goals for the upcoming month!
Having a set date on your calendar that’s exclusively for working on your monthly reset routine is the best way to make sure that you actually follow through.
3. BULLET JOURNALING
Bullet journaling is one of the easiest, most efficient, and most aesthetically pleasing ways to go about your monthly reset routine.
We love the idea of buying a fresh, blank dot grid notebook to dedicate exclusively to your monthly reset routine.
Inside, you can use stationery tools and your own creativity to make pages for your monthly check-ins, habit tracking, to-do lists, and journal entries!
Recreate it!
4. USE A PREMADE TEMPLATE
If you’d prefer to do your monthly reset routine in a digital format, we highly recommend downloading a premade template from Notion or Etsy.
There are a ton of digital journal and planner templates out there, with a wide variety of layouts and a bevy of cute, minimalist, and aesthetically pleasing designs.
Recreate it!
MONTHLY RESET ROUTINE CONCLUSION
If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed and unmotivated lately, a monthly reset routine is the perfect way to reflect on your life, set new goals, and start working towards developing healthier habits.
These monthly reset ideas are sure to help you start the upcoming month on the right foot!
