The one constant in the life of a creative is change, which means that you must regularly ensure that the plans you’ve made and the practices you’ve established are still relevant. The Monthly Checkpoint is about reviewing how the past month went, and recommitting to, or changing rails, around practices for the upcoming month. It’s a way to gain a more clear perspective on your current priorities and workload.
The Monthly Checkpoint is an hour per month, preferably at the very end of a month (to plan for the upcoming one). The goal is to recognize trends in your work and to do some strategic thinking about which types of practices will help you most in the coming weeks.
Monthly Checkpoint Prompts
Focus
Challenges: What are the biggest projects you’ll be working on in the coming month? Do each of them have Challenges? If not, create them.
Big 3: What are your Big 3 for the month? Write Challenges for each of the Big 3 if they don’t already exist.
Clustering: As you examine the upcoming month, are there days or weeks where you can cluster project work in order to focus more deeply? If so, plan ahead by marking those days on your calendar.
Relationships
Circles: When will your circle meet this month? Put time on your calendar or send invites to members.
Head-to-Heads: Do you have any head-to-heads this month? Put them on the calendar or send an invite to the other participants.
Core Team: Do you have any Checkpoints coming up with your core team members? You may want to schedule a lunch or a call. Send an invite or an e-mail.
Energy
Whole-Life Planning: As you survey the landscape of the upcoming month, are there any potential conflicts this week between work and personal activities or expectations? How will you get ahead of them?
Pruning: Look at your upcoming month; are there any especially busy weeks where you may need to prune either work or personal commitments in order to maintain a healthier energy level? Do it now, before things get too busy.
Stimuli
Study: Which items from your Stimulus Queue will you incorporate into your study times this month? Determine now what will best help you with your upcoming work and schedule. You may even want to create a note in your calendar on a weekly basis with the stimuli you hope to use that week.
Notation: Take a few minutes to review your idea index. Is there anything that may apply to upcoming projects? Is there anything that needs to be turned into a project? This is the time to do it.
Purposeful Experience: What kinds of experiences would you like to schedule into the upcoming month? What experiences would help you with your work? Create a list to use in your Weekly Checkpoints, or go ahead and put them on your calendar now.
Hours
Idea Time: Given the nature of your upcoming work, would your Idea Times be best placed at the beginning or end of your weeks? Which projects will definitely need some focused Idea Time? Make this list now to use in your Weekly Checkpoint.
Unnecessary Creating: What kinds of Unnecessary Creating projects will you work on this month? Take a look at your Project Queue and select the projects that seem the most appropriate given the time and energy you’ll have this month. Add them to your calendar, or just make a list for use in your Weekly Checkpoint.
Additional Questions
In addition to the more practical questions about the practices, the Monthly Checkpoint is a good opportunity to ask some self-probing questions about your current work. While some of these questions may seem obvious or unnecessary, the answers can often be surprising.
- How do you feel about the work you’re doing right now? Do you feel like you’re doing your best work? Why or why not?
- What do you perceive to be lacking in your life and work right now? What can you do about it?
* Source: The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry