Choosing a Focus for Each Month + Free Printables

Throughout this year, I’ve been trying an experiment choosing a focus for each month. I love setting and achieving goals, and lately I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how to make goals more attainable. So I’m changing the way I set goals and sharing what I learned with you all!

I really love the idea of setting multiple big goals at the beginning of a new year, but this year that felt really out of reach, and honestly self-defeating, as the last couple years my chronic illnesses and new health issues have prevented me from reaching goals.

So I decided to choose a focus for each month—not a set number of to-do’s or things I had to complete by a certain time. To me, a focus is flexible and helps guide where I put my energy and what I work on.

This idea was greatly inspired by a YouTube video called Your Theme. Go check it out—it’s fun and inspiring.

I created a printable to record my focus for each month and I want to share it with you. It’s free to my newsletter subscribers, and I’ll share more details at the end of this post.

Here’s how I’m making goal setting more achievable and flexible, especially for those of us with chronic illness.

 

January Focus: Planning and Gratitude Journaling

Instead of diving right in and striving to achieve goals, I spent most to the month brainstorming, jotting down possible goals and praying about the year ahead. This led me to set a focus each month vs. having a bunch of big, nebulous goals. I created a plan so I could choose one (at most two) areas to focus on each month.

In addition to planning, I decided to start keeping a gratitude journal. Gratitude journaling is something I’ve done in the past, so this didn’t feel like adding too much to my plate.

Here’s what I’ve found helpful so far: 1) choosing a journal that I really love 2) putting the journal out by my bed each night 3) not worrying if I forget a day or two and 4) not trying catch up if I skip a day. Letting go of perfectionism has really made the journaling process much more enjoyable.

PS You may find this post helpful: Practicing Gratitude When You Don’t Feel It

 

February Focus: Practice French

I went on a mission trip to France in 2009 and learned a little French leading up to my trip. I’ve practiced a little and learned more off and on over the years, and wanting to learn more is often on my mind as my understanding of French remains pretty rudimentary.

Once I’d decided my focus would be practicing French again, I downloaded the free Drops app that my brother recommended. The free version gives you five minutes of practice a day, and there are also fun quizzes. I really like that the quizzes ask a question in your native language, and then you answer them in the language you’re learning. It’s been a really great test for comprehension for me.

I’m fighting the perfectionist urge telling me I should be practicing more than five minutes a day, by reminding myself that this is a huge step forward from practicing zero minutes a day.

 

March Focus: Prayer

I had to change my focus partway through March due to my health. As I was praying about what to focus on, I realized that prayer was exactly what I wanted to spend more time focusing on.

I finished reading Praying with Jane, which I had forgotten I had abandoned partway through, back when I wrote this Jane Austen gift guide. It was very encouraging to choose a book that helped me stay on focus.

During March, I tried to be more intentional about how and when I prayed. I was reminded that not all goals have to be big or tangible. I’m not sure if I came up with this phrase, but I think of certain goals as “quiet goals.” These include more introspective work like choosing to work on spiritual health, mental health, etc. These goals can be hard to record or track, especially since you’re never “done.” But the process and growth of quiet goals can have profound impact, on both ourselves and others.

I found taking it slower and focusing on prayer fruitful and beneficial. I want to keep this kind of goal/focus in mind for the future.

 

April Focus: Medical Fundraising

Once again, I had to be flexible with what I focused on this month. I had set one ambitious goal, and then my health gave a resounding “no.” Those of us with chronic illness have to become very adept at pivoting!

So I asked myself: what would help me most right now?

I realized what would help most would be relieving stress by paying down my medical debt and having support for upcoming medical expenses. So I decided to focus my energy on sharing more about my medical fundraiser.

Read about my experience fundraising for healthcare expenses through Help Hope Live here. I share tips for others who need financial assistance.

I had a revelation this month that everything I do counts as valuable work. Medical fundraising didn’t seem like a “good goal” for me at first, until I put it in perspective: writing updates for my fundraiser, crafting social media posts, submitting claims to get reimbursed from my fundraiser—that counts as work!

So I’ve been reminding myself that what I do counts as work. Whether that’s blogging, keeping up with medical admin work, chores, etc. I also show up daily to work on my physical, mental and spiritual health. It all counts!

I hope this helps you see things you can focus on each month, and recognize the value of what you spend your time and energy on.

 

May Focus: Medical Tasks and Fundraising

I was so busy with medical tasks in May that I got halfway through the month and was still wondering what to focus on. And once I paused to think about it, the answer was obvious: I needed to focus on the medical phone calls, scheduling, appointments, and healthcare tasks that kept coming up.

Help Hope Live planned a fundraising event called Hope in Action on May 31 and covered the credit card fee on donations for 24 hours. This was a great opportunity, so I decided to once again focus on my medical fundraiser. I treated writing posts about my fundraiser as a social media campaign. And I stayed on top of submitting reimbursement requests.

I felt really proud of my work and accomplishments this month, and I am so grateful for the response and support I received on my fundraiser.

 

June Focus: Review and Sunshine

Since we’ve hit the halfway mark for the year, I am taking this month to evaluate my goals and think about what I want to focus on. I’m asking

• What worked well this year?
• What didn’t?
• What do I want to change in the future as I choose what to focus on?

Also, I am prioritizing time outdoors. I love summer and I love the sunshine, and we are *finally* experiencing consistent warmer weather after frequent wind and rain storms this spring.

I’m enjoying using an app to track my hours outside. After reading about habit tracking apps and trying a couple, I downloaded the Habitify app and I like it best.

Pro: It’s free and easy to use/customize. Con: You can only track 3 habits, and only check in 15 times a week, which isn’t enough to check in once daily per habit. (I keep getting offers to get 50% off the paid version, so that’s something I might consider in the future, as the discount would put it at $1.67 a month.)

 

Evaluating and Reviewing Goals

Goals can be tricky with chronic illness, so I think it makes a lot of sense to pause periodically and check in about what is working well. Sometimes this means pausing or stopping even good things I have going on. I never regret listening to my body when I know I need to slow down and prioritize my health.

At the same time, I think it’s important to have things to aspire to and look forward to achieving—I know this is one of the things that helps me stay hopeful.

With that in mind, here are three questions I’m asking as I review my goals and look ahead to what I want to focus on: What goals/areas of focus do I want to add? Which do I want to change? Which do I want to drop?

I definitely want to have a month where I focus on writing in the near future. Maybe one month will be focused on blog writing and another will be geared towards fiction.

I’ve been going back and forth about practicing French. I haven’t practiced in two months, and I think I may try switching things up. Maybe try a different app? Maybe try something I did in the past and watch French films? Maybe start researching French children’s books to add to my Christmas wishlist? I also spoke with a friend who is interested in practicing French again, so we’re talking about how we can encourage each other and learn together.

Similarly, I haven’t written in my gratitude journal since mid May. I might decide to drop this and try another type of journaling. Maybe writing down a sentence about each day?

I hope seeing my review process helps you think about what you want to do. There are a lot of options if a focus isn’t quite the right fit. And no harm in dropping an area of focus if you want to pursue other things. There’s no right or wrong way to do this.

 

Get the Focus by Month Printables

Want a tool to help you record your focus for each month? I’ve created two different color schemes for the printables, so you can choose which one you like best. They’re bright and colorful, which I hope you’ll find inspiring. Prefer something a little more neutral? You could always print the printables in grayscale.

There is a space on the printable to write your focus for each month. A different color block under each month provides space to write down insights and key takeaways from that month. At the bottom of the printable is a space to review your progress after six months.

I’ve included a version of each printable with 2024 at the top. I’ve also included a generic version you can use any time in the future. You could write the year in the decorative shape at the top of the printable if you like.

These printables are free to download for my newsletter subscribers.

If you’re already a subscriber, you have access to these new printables in my printable gallery.

Not a subscriber yet? Here’s how to sign up and have the printables emailed to you!

Please let me know if you try setting a focus for each month!
I’d love to hear in the comments how this works for you, and if you find the printables helpful.

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