Monthly Lists to Plan Your Year

Monthly Lists for Planning the Fun Stuff

Do you start every year with the same goals you had the previous year? Have a list of books to read that you never get around to? Keep wishing your kids knew how to do their own laundry? Here’s a template for creating monthly lists to systematically plan your year.

By assigning each month a book to read, a restaurant to try, or a monthly workout challenge, you will end the year having accomplished things you’ve been meaning to do for years.

In years past, I sat down to plan my goals for the year each January. Most years, I repeated almost exactly the goals I had been so excited about the previous January. I wasn’t accomplishing much in 12 months. So I ditched my old goal-setting system, and developed monthly lists to use in planning my whole year. Some monthly lists, like dates to remember, will stay the same from year to year. Then there are lists that I update regularly, like monthly family activities or movies to watch.

Here is my 3 step process to creating monthly lists that plan my whole year. These lists keep my top priorities and tasks front of mind and visually accessible.

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Step 1: Do a Brain Dump

The first step in using monthly lists to plan your year is to write down all the things that are on your to do lists. I’m not talking about the urgently required to-dos that are time sensitive. These are the to-do list items that you keep putting off because the urgent takes priority over them.

The list of home improvement projects that’s been on the fridge for 6 months. Maybe you have a Pinterest board with cookie recipes you want to try. Write down the shows that are sitting in your Netflix watchlist.

Start by making a list of all the things you want to do. Keep a second list handy to jot down things you want to prioritize this year. You might not have a to-do list item related to self-care or healthy habits, but you want to make time to care for your body and mind. Write these down as a priority for you this year.

Step 2: Categorize and Label

Next, create categories that make sense for you. Look through your list of things to do and group items if possible. You may find categories like “personal development”, “home improvement”, or “family fun” cover a lot of items. Make a list of the categories you may want to use.

Step 3: Assign One Item Per Month

Using the categories you’ve chosen, assign one item per month to each category. For instance, one book you will prioritize reading each month, one podcast you will listen to each month. One organizational project you will tackle each month (be realistic with your choices).

If date nights are a priority for you, come up with 12 date night ideas and assign them to each month of the year. Same with family activities, restaurants you want to try, or YouTube workout channels you’ve been meaning to check out.

There’s nothing saying you can’t do things outside of this list, but by assigning items that you want to prioritize to a specific month of the year, you have a built-in checklist to reference.

Here are a few examples of what this might look like:

Complete Set of Templates Available in My Etsy Shop

Reusable Monthly Lists

In addition to these monthly lists that plan and prioritize your year, I have a few lists that I reuse each year. These include holiday lists and lists of special occasions. Read on for examples, and FREE DOWNLOADS of these lists that you can use too!

I love binders for organizing, and I keep all my lists in a binder. My monthly planning lists are organized using monthly divider tabs, and the holiday and special occasions lists stay in the front.

Holiday List

This is my one-page list of the standard holidays or events I plan for each year.

Fun Holidays

I’ll pick a few of these each month, just for fun with the kids. I’m giving these to you, too! You can download the twelve month set of fun holiday printables, incuding the one-page standard holiday list, HERE.

Occasions and Events

This gives me a space to record family, church, or community events and activities that we typically do year after year (e.g. Fall Festival, summer camp, beach trip, Christmas parade). Get the free download HERE.

Specific List Examples

I went through some of my new year planning lists from previous years and came up with a list of things that I want to consider each year.

List for January

Here’s what my monthly lists look like. The first section includes things that I actually need to schedule on the calendar. I added a check box to indicate when I’ve scheduled it. The remainder of the items are things that I will refer to throughout the month.

You can download a printable set of these month-by-month planning lists if you want to use them for yourself.

Monthly Life Skills Focus

If you have kids, you know there is a lot to teach them outside of “school” subjects. Life skills are crucial to their development into functioning adults. I picked life skill to focus on each month and add those to my monthly lists.

1. Making beds (put on clean sheets)
2. Cooking (eggs and pancakes)
3. Laundry
4. Doing dishes
5. Grocery shopping (using a list, comparing prices)
6. Conversation (eye contact, asking questions, not interrupting)
7. Organizing clothing and belongings
8. Reading recipes
9. First aid
10. Cleaning toilets
11. Peeling carrots and potatoes
12. Setting the table

Monthly Family Activity Ideas

These activities are subject to change, but I’ll try to plan at least one fun family activity each month. Choose a fun family activity to do each month. Here’s an example of what a year might look like.

1. iFly
2. Laser tag
3. OMSI
4. Family Olympics
5. Wings and Waves Waterpark
6. Hiking
7. Croquet
8. Beach
9. Outdoor movie
10. Bike ride
11. Bowling
12. Concert

Monthly Fancy Dinner

Ok, fancy dinner at our house is not FANCY dinner, so much as dinner that is not a one-dish meal. We set the table with nice dishes, light some candles, use a table cloth. The stuff I used to do all the time P.K. (pre-kids). For a while we did Fancy Fridays, but now the kids have activities every night of the week, and, let’s face it…I’m not always super-motivated to cook a fancy meal (as opposed to letting them eat cereal out of a mug) every Friday night. But it is fun, so I’m bringing fancy dinners back as a once-a month occurence. Here are some of my ideas for fancy dinner nights this year.

1. Bacon wrapped scallops w/quinoa + baked parmesan zucchini
2. Crab cakes + steak w/mashed potatoes and caesar salad
3. Cashew chicken + fried rice
4. Fondue night
5. Parmesan crusted chicken + hasselback potatoes and glazed carrots
6. Tea party finger foods
7. Thai-grilled chicken + spring rolls
8. Salmon w/tarragon sauce + Israeli couscous and green beans
9. Pesto pork tenderloin + smashed potatoes and roasted vegetables
10. Pineapple glazed ham + sweet potatoes and broccoli salad
11. Orecchiette w/broccoli and parmesan + garlic bread and salad
12. Fancy hors d’oeuvres night

Monthly Watch List

Twelve shows, movies, or videos that I want to watch this year. (If it’s a show with multiple episodes, I’ll try it, but no pressure to binge the whole thing.) These were available to watch on the platforms as indicated at time of posting; obviously that is subject to change.

1. Everything is a Remix
2. Chef’s Table (Netflix)
3. Tim Brown: Tales of Creativity and Play
4. Between the Folds (Amazon Prime)
5. Minimalism (Netflix)
6. Abstract: The Art of Design (Netflix)
7. Up Series documentary
8. Art & Copy
9. Helvetica (Kanopy)
10. Objectified (Kanopy)
11. John Adams miniseries (Amazon Prime)
12. Ken Burns: The Brooklyn Bridge (Kanopy)

Monthly Watch List with the Kids

I picked 24 movies to watch with the kids this year and assigned two to each month of the year. I did put some thought into watching movies that correspond to the time of year in some way, but didn’t really fixate on trying to make everything connect that way.

1. Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit + Opposite Day
2. Big Miracle + Mad Hot Ballroom
3. Darby O’Gill and the Little People + Jig
4. Duma + The Miracle Worker
5. The Mighty Macs + Disney’s The Kid
6. A Ballerina’s Tale + Wonderstruck
7. Wadjda + Morning Light
8. Children of Heaven + The Greatest Showman
9. Superman + Spellbound
10. The Odd Life of Timothy Green + October Sky
11. Alaska + The Miracle Season
12. The Man Who Invented Christmas + Little Women

Monthly Podcast List

Podcasts are an almost daily thing for me. I usually listen at some point during the day while driving, exercising, cooking, or cleaning. Here’s my list of podcasts I want to give a listen (or re-listen) to this year.

Monthly Reading List

I’ve already chosen 36 books to read this year, all of which are not new books; rather, they are books that have been on my “to-read” list for a while.

I’m not choosing a monthly book to read with my girls, because we won’t get through an entire book in a month. We are working on The Story of the World, Volume 1 by Susan Wise Bauer right now. After that we’ll listen to the audio version of The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis, and then read Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper if they don’t want to continue on in the Narnia series.

Monthly Craft or Create

I’ve got three girls and they all love to get crafty. We’ve always done crafts together, but my goal this year is to be more intentional about planning craft projects for them.

1. Cut-out snowflakes from Wander Florida
2. Yarn-wrapped hearts from Easy Peasy Fun
3. Crayon canvas from Gathering Beauty
4. Draw a bird day (THIS video is easy to follow. Read THIS if you want some background about this day)
5. Paper flowers from First Palette
6. Sponge painting from Artsy Craftsy Mom
7. Washi tape craft (inspiration from A Night Owl)
8. Popsicle stick craft on canvas (maybe like THIS from A.C. Moore)
9. Hand lettering/creating coloring pages (inspiration from Money Saving Mom)
10. Knitting craft (inspiration from Red Ted Art)
11. Painted wood bead necklace from Handmade in the Heartland
12. Make a gift (inspiration HERE)

Download all the Free Printables

One-page holiday list + monthly fun holiday calendar printables

List of lists + fill-in-the-blank occasions & events pages printables

Fill-in-the-blank monthly lists printables

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Plan Your Year with Monthly Lists