Monthly Planning

5 Ways to Make Progress (Early & Often)

If you’re like us, you've put a lot of time into figuring out what goals you've wanted to move on at the start of the year.

Now that we’ve arrived finally in the spring, we're starting to see traction and results on our most important projects. Meanwhile, other goals and plans might have fallen by the wayside.

April is the moment when we need to make progress, before the weather starts to heat up. We'll also want to be assessing what we want to do with our energy for the rest of the year. May, which is right on our doorstep, starts the crescendo of graduations, weddings, and vacations.

The joyous events of life are just as important as other projects, but can tend to slow us down on whatever we had in mind, and in our planners, where we wanted to make progress.

Our point is: Try to get as much done this month as you can, so you can enjoy those moments fully.

Here are some essential planning tips for doing that: 

  1. When you're planning for this quarter and the next, ask yourself: What can I truly accomplish during the next 4-6 weeks?
  2. Take a look at how ready you are to start cranking out progress on your goals. Do you have the habits you need already locked in? If not, get those habits started now.
  3. When you’ve figured out what habits you have or still need to build, then you can plan the actions and tactics — that’s where we get into chunking those projects down into doable pieces. 
  4. A word to the wise: Not only should you be thinking about how to break those projects down, but you need to figure out what order your series makes the most sense. That’s called sequencing, and it's key.
  5. Work to your strengths. Knowing what you’re good at and what’s best to delegate is one of the best ways to get things done efficiently.

Remember that your best chance to make forward progress may be in April, before things heat up 🔥 and people slow down.

This is the moment when you can see your plans start to bloom 💐. Seize the day. Don’t wait.

Mary Clare O'Donnell

Writer & Content Creator at Productive Flourishing and Momentum. She's passionate about our climate, nature, foreign languages, and discovering uncharted places.