Reset your practice 🪴
Day 1 - plan monthly
I hope you had a good start to your week.
This is a short email course to help you reset your practice after the summer - 4 emails, Tuesday to Friday this week.
A journal for your practice
The ideas I’m sharing are principles that have helped me immensely on my practice journey.
make a plan
review and reflect
keep it simple
trust the process
None of this is especially innovative, but, like most things, the more you put in, the more you get out.
I find that planning and reflection work best if I write them down all in one place - a notebook that I use as a practice journal.
A practice journal is a habit, tool and ritual all rolled into one.
A journal gives you a place to write your thoughts, ideas and observations.
It helps you think more deeply.
I’ve been keeping a journal for years and years and it’s the single thing that helps me find ways to grow and balance my practice. 🪴
Any notebook will do
My favourite notebook is the Leuchturm 1917 journal, medium size, with a hardcover and dotted pages. It comes in many beautiful colours.
The Moleskin classic journal is also a good choice, but to be honest, the best journal is one you love and want to use.
Any notebook you have to hand will be perfect to get started.
It helps to have a simple structure, and this is what I will be sharing with you on the email course this week.
Make the most of every month
Let’s start with monthly planning.
The goal: use a journal to plan and organise your time.
The strategy: set priorities and use the month as your deadline.
Write an outline of your schedule for the month ahead.
Write one or two monthly goals, plus a short list of things to do.
Block out time on your schedule to work towards your goal.
Monthly planning helps you think about what you need to do to move your practice forward, and, importantly, how to bring balance to your life.
open your journal so you have two facing pages that are blank
write the name of the month at the top in capitals
on the left side of the page, put numbers for the days of the month (for September, you will write numbers 1 - 30)
write the initial letters for the day of the week, alongside the date numbers i.e. MTWThFSS
go through your calendar and emails etc. so you can add dates for events, personal appointments etc. to write on your schedule
identify which days you have available to work on goals for your practice
This page is your schedule and now acts as a simple planner and calendar.
Now, set your monthly goals.
on the right-side page, opposite the schedule, write your goals for the month, plus to-do items if you like
when setting a goal try to think of the first/next thing that you can achieve, rather than the ‘end-point’ of the goal, especially if it’s quite big
a monthly goal may be a step that contributes toward a larger long-term goal
or it may be something smaller or short-term
you may like to include one or two personal goals
try to limit yourself to a small number of things that feel achievable in the time you have available
Create space for positive change
When I first started this exercise I was highly optimistic about how much I could achieve in a given month! 🙄
I would then feel dispirited as I hadn’t been able to achieve very much of my list at all.
Completing this task monthly for many years has helped me to:
a) be more realistic about what I can get done in a month
b) complete things that I need to do but have been putting off
I am better at realising when I need to ask for help or to apply a little more kind self-discipline in order to get things done.
As you go through the month you can write a small tick or cross next to anything that you get done. (I prefer this to putting a line through as it looks neater.)
One last tip, use a nice pen.
I am a fan of the Muji 0.5 gel pen, so I have a big bundle of them, plus a stack of refills so I never run out.
When you keep a journal for your practice and your life, you will slowly but surely see things shift and change in a positive way. ✨
Do you use a journal to plan your practice?
Feel free to leave a comment below.
Thank you for reading.
Feel free to forward to a friend.
I’ll be back in your in-box tomorrow with Part 2.
Tracy 👩🏼💻
P.S. You might be interested in my upcoming webinar on Homeopathy for Natural Pregnancy which I am co-hosting with Sarah Hyatt, homeopath, doula and pregnancy massage therapist.
Click on the button for more info and registration.