60 Good Monthly Goals ideas for all areas of life

Monthly Goals are a great way to hold yourself accountable and work on your priorities. 

We are often over-enthusiastic while setting new year’s resolutions to only forget about it in just a matter of few days, but if we really want to make a change in our life, we must not forget that it is about what we do month after month. 

It is about setting monthly goals that help you reach your main life goals or your big yearly goals. 

Breaking down big goals into monthly, weekly goals, and daily goals is essential for long-term progress. 

Here in this post, I share 60 good monthly goals ideas to improve all areas of life, namely

• Personal Goals 
• Health Goals 
• Financial Goals 
• Self Care Goals 
• Work Goals 
• Relationship Goals  

But first, let me start by sharing why you should set monthly goals 

Why you should set monthly goals 

1. To be intentional with your month

Monthly goals should be set at the beginning of the month and when you start your month by setting your goals, you become more intentional with how you want to live your month. 

Instead of allowing outer circumstances to dictate how our month will go, by setting monthly goals, we become the ones to dictate how we want our month and days to go. 

Our life is broken down into months, weeks and days. When we start working on our monthly habits, we start to improve our life. 

P.S 12 things to do at the beginning of every month. 

2. To experiment with yourself

Setting monthly goals is a wonderful way to experiment with yourself. 

‘I want to see what happens if I do this’. 

With this spirit of experimenting with life, you can start seeing the difference in yourself which can change your life in a positive direction. 

• See what happens if you start a morning routine. See how you feel.

• See what happens if you don’t complain for a month. See how you feel. 

• See what happens if you meditate every day. 

There are endless experiments to try every month. 

P.S. If you are ready to give a try at working on yourself and changing your life, I have recently created a Special challenge/Guide for you to Change your Life in 7 days.

I think you’ll love it if you give it a try for 7 days and see what’s possible for you.

3. To work on your priorities

Monthly goals help you to work on your priorities. It is important that you don’t set a whole bunch of monthly goals, but only 1-2 monthly goals for each area of your life. 

Or you can also set monthly goals only for a specific area of your life that you know needs more attention in your life. 

This way monthly goals let you work on your priorities instead of going about your month procrastinating and being directionless. 

4. To measure your progress 

If you want to be successful in achieving your monthly goals, you need to make sure you write it down and track your progress. 

Habit trackers are very useful here. It helps you measure your progress and keeps you motivated. 

Whatever your monthly goals are, make sure you can track them in some way or the other. 

Setting weekly goals for your monthly goals can also be helpful because it is much easy to keep yourself on track for 7 days.

5. To work on your habits 

Monthly goals help you work on your habits. Without setting some kind of monthly goals one cannot hope to improve one’s habits. 

You have to set some goals if you want to change your habits and improve your life. 

And setting monthly goals for 30 days is a good place to start to finally work on those habits. 

P.S How to form new habits that stick 

How to choose monthly goals 

What monthly goals you choose is up to you. This list has 60 monthly goals and ideas to choose from for every area of your life. 

Here is how you can choose your monthly goals: 

1. Review your previous month: Write down what went well in the previous month, what didn’t go well and why it didn’t go well. 

2. Choose which area of life needs your focus: See which area of life you are struggling with or which needs to be given your focus. 

Is it your health? Then you need to set health goals 

Is it your finances? Then you need to set goals to improve your finances. 

3. Decide what you want to experiment with

Lastly, choosing your monthly goal is all up to you to decide what you want to experiment with. 

Good Monthly Goals Ideas for all areas of life 

Monthly Personal Goals 

1. Follow a morning routine for a month 

Start following a morning routine for a month. See how you feel. If you don’t know what to do after waking up early, check out these posts

• 5 habits to add to your morning routine 
• My 5 am morning routine 
• How to stick to a morning routine 

2. Read one book a month: Pick a book to read every month. If you read only one book a month, in a year you will have read 12 books!! 

Here are 10 books to read in the morning and 18 books to read for beginners

3. No checking your phone first thing in the morning: Set a goal to not check your phone first thing in the morning for 30 days and see how it changes your life. 

4. No complaints for a month: Take a 30-day no complains challenge and write about your day-to-day experiences with it in your journal

5. Take up a course and finish it: Take up a course for something you’d like to learn or improve. You can take up physical classes or sign up for an online course on udemy or Coursera. 

6. Find a podcast to listen to: Set a goal to listen to podcasts on your way to work or when you’re cooking or going for a walk or exercising. Currently, I’m listening to ‘The Tim Ferris Show. Before this, I listened to ‘The way out is in’.

Here are some good podcasts recommendation by Ali Abdaal 

7. Keep a clean space: Set a monthly goal to declutter your room, your closet, and your desk and keep a clean space all the time. 

8. Use the bed only for sleeping: Set a goal to use bed only for sleeping if you are in the habit of doing everything in your bed and it is making you lazy and unproductive. 

9. No single-use plastic for a month: Do a 30-day no single-use plastic challenge and write down your experiences for the month. 

10. Learn something new: Set a monthly goal to set at least 30 minutes aside in your day to learn something new. 

Monthly health Goals 

1.Stretch for 10 minutes every day : You might think what good will it do just stretching for 10 minutes a day, but consider how most of our days we don’t even raise our hands above our head. 

2. Do a 30-day yoga challenge: Try this 30 days yoga challenge by Yoga with Adriene. 

3. Exercise 3 times a week for a month: Set a goal to exercise 3 times a week for a month. 

Then increase your workouts to 5 days a week. Here is how I made myself love working out. 

4. Walk 5000 steps every day: Just saying that you’re going to walk more every day won’t do. You need to set SMART goals. 

And in this case, a SMART goal would be to walk for 5000 steps every day or walk for 30 minutes after work every day. 

5. Don’t skip breakfast: Here is why you should not skip breakfast. 

6. No processed food for a month: Another health challenge you can set for the month is to go without processed food for a month. 

Cook all your meals at home and see what difference it makes you feel in your body. 

7. Drink more water: Set a goal to drink more water every day. Here a SMART goal would be to drink 8 cups of water every day. 

Always keep your water bottle in front of you and keep it filled. 

8. Sleep 7-8 hours a day: Set a goal to get a good night’s rest and sleep for 7-8 hours. Not more and not less. 

If anxiety is causing you trouble sleeping at night, here is how to sleep better with anxiety.

9. Quit coffee for a month: Here is why you should quit coffee for your health. 

10. Quit alcohol for a month: Here is an interesting article from Cup of Jo on, ‘Why I gave up drinking and how it changed my life.‘

You could experiment with yourself and note down your thoughts, your urges, and your self-talk when you do so for a month. 

Monthly financial goals 

1.30 day no-spend challenge: Try a 30-day no-spend challenge where you don’t spend on anything that is not completely necessary. Particularly, it includes not spending on: 

• Clothes and accessories
• Make-up and skincare
• Online shopping 
• Restaurants and take-outs

2.No eating out for a month: Challenge yourself to not eat out for a month and only eat home-cooked meals. 

3.No buying clothes for a month: Uninstall all shopping apps and don’t buy any clothes for a month. 

4. Adopt the cash envelope system: A cash envelope system is a great way to stick to your budget. Here is how the cash envelope system can transform your finances. 

5. Learn how to make $1000 in side income: Set a goal for the month that you will research and find out ways to make an extra $1000 in side income.  

6. Stick to your monthly budget: Here is how to stick to a monthly budget

7. Save money for an emergency fund: here is how to save $1000 in the emergency fund. 

8. Track every penny spent for a month: Keep a small notebook where you can note down your expenses or you can note down on your phone’s notes as well. 

9. Read a personal finance book: I’d recommend ‘The richest man in Babylon’. 

10. Keep 10% of your income for investment: Start learning about investments and keep 10% of your income every month for your investment purpose and let this money keep on growing. 

Monthly Self Care goals 

1.Start a gratitude journal: Here are some benefits of keeping a gratitude journal and my 21 day Gratitude Challenge that you can take

2. Pray morning and evening: Praying is the highest form of self-care. It helps you develop a connection with yourself and the higher power. 

There is something powerful about praying that restores your energy and gives you strength and balance. 

Never underestimate the power of praying and set a monthly goal to pray every morning and evening and see how it transforms your life. 

3. Do a 30-day meditation challenge: Try this 30-day meditation challenge for each week of the month and experience for yourself the changes. 

Here is a post you’d love to read: ‘I tried meditating for 30 days and here’s what happened.‘

4. Do a 30-day social media detox: Set a goal to not use social media- no Instagram, no Facebook, no twitter, no TikTok or anything for 30 days. 

If your business depends on social media, try setting a goal that you will use social media only for 1 hour a day. 

5. Moisturize yourself daily: Set a goal to add moisturizing and take care of your face and body into your daily routine. 

Don’t hurry with this ritual and give yourself time. Here is a post I wrote about it: ‘Not hurrying with my body’

6. Wear nice house clothes all the time: Most of us hardly give any thought to wearing nice house clothes. 

I used to look like a beggar at home with messy clothes and messy hair until this changed during the pandemic. 

I realized that wearing nice house clothes uplifts my mood and makes me feel good. So now I always try to wear nice house clothes and keep myself tidy by combing my hair and taking care of how I feel. 

I think this is an essential self-care goal to set. 

7.No digital devices 30 minutes before bed: Set a bedtime goal and don’t use any digital devices (except Kindle) 30 minutes before bed. 

Especially don’t scroll through your social media while laying in bed as you go to sleep. 

8. Follow a relaxing night routine: Here are some relaxing night routine ideas for your self-care. 

9.No negative self-talk: Set a monthly goal to be mindful of your self-talk. 

Notice all the negative ways you might be talking to yourself and let them go. Be kind to yourself and be mindful. 

Here are some ways to practice positive self-talk. 

10. Sleep before 11 pm: This is a self-care goal as well as a health goal. This is because taking care of your health and body is taking care of yourself.

Set a bedtime goal and try your best to sleep by that time. 

A study suggests that a good sleeping time is to sleep by 10 pm or 11 pm and wake up by 5 am or 6 am to have 7 hours of sleep. 

Keep trying every time you fail and you will be successful. 

Monthly relationship goals

1.Go for daily walks with your partner: This is one of my favourite rituals to do with my partner. 

We always go for our evening walks where we enjoy talking, laughing and just walking. 

2. Do something new every month: Here are 30 things to do as a couple you will love. 

3. Read the same book and talk about it: Pick the same book to read for a month and talk about it as you progress through the book. 

Share your thoughts and review them together. 

4. Go on dates at least once a month: Even if you’re been together for a long period of time, dress up and take out time to go on dates to a restaurant, picnic, or watch a movie at least once a month. 

5. Give time to each other: Carve out togetherness times. 

Set a goal to give evenings completely free to your partner and do things together. Cook together, bake together or paint together. Give more time to each other and grow your love bond. 

6. Give a surprise to your partner: Maybe it is surprising her or him with flowers, bringing chocolates for no reason, ordering something which you know they’d love, or just simply giving unexpected kisses and cuddles. 

Set a relationship goal to make your partner feel loved and appreciated. 

7. Watch a series together: Pick a series to watch and watch it together. 

8. Listen more and understand more: Love is not possible without understanding. In fact, love IS understanding. 

A good relationship goal is to be more understanding towards your partner. Try to see things from their eyes and understand them 

9. Have an honest communication Friday: Set a goal to sit down with your partner every Friday or any day you are comfortable with and talk honestly about what you would love if your partner did for you. 

Share any unsaid feelings and be there for each other. 

10. Don’t lie: Set a goal to not lie to your partner for anything, no matter how little. 

Monthly work goals

1. Work on your M.I.T first thing in the morning: Set a goal to work on your M.I.T (Most Important Task) first thing in the morning. It is the only productivity tip you’ll ever need.

2. Follow the 2-minutes rule: Whatever that actually takes up 2 minutes of your time do it immediately. 

For those that might take more than 2 minutes, schedule it in your calendar or routine.

 3. Don’t work after 6 p.m: Another good work goal to set is to not work after 6 pm. This helps you relax, keep your mind light and work much better the next day. 

4. Adopt the Pomodoro method: Setting a 25 minutes timer while you’re working and taking 5 minutes break works wonders. 

5. Improve your resume: Here are some resume writing tips to help your resume stand out. 

6. Keep educating yourself: Keep educating yourself in your field of work. 

Sign up for courses, and training, attend seminars and workshops and really upgrade your knowledge and skills which no one can take away from you. 

7. Sign up for a leadership training

8. Improve time management skills: Here are tips to help you improve your time management skills. 

9. Organise your files: Make it a goal to organise all your files physical and digital in the month and always keep them updated thereafter. 

10. Finish everything ahead of time: If you’re in the habit of doing everything last minute, then set a goal to stop being a procrastinator and finish everything ahead of time. 

So these were some good monthly goals you can choose from and set for yourself. 

Have fun with these goals and change your life

• P.S Common Goal setting mistakes to avoid 
• How to set weekly goals + 50 weekly goals ideas 
• 30-day self-improvement challenge ideas