Your monthly and quarterly cadences are mostly about reviewing and planning. Again, some suggestions but feel free to adapt:
I prefer to look at our finances and budget on a monthly basis vs. weekly. Not enough happens on a weekly basis for it to be helpful. And candidly it can be a charged conversation, as we bring lots of baggage and beliefs around money into the conversation.
Close the books on the last month (often you’ll have some straggler transactions, so might need to wait a couple days), and compare the budgeted plan to actual. Ask yourself if there’s anything you can do to improve next month.
Be gentle on yourself. And if you do this with a partner, be gentle with each other. The goal is to just get a little better each month.
Then, look ahead to the following month. Ask if there are any gifts you need to buy. Any events coming up that represent meaningful one-off expenses (paying your accountant for tax prep, etc). If you have any travel coming up you need to budget for. Create a budget for the coming month based on those details.
Similar to the weekly review, I find it’s a good time to review my one year vision without making judgments about it (unless something has completely blown it up or made it irrelevant). I also review my values again, but without judging them. It’s simply an opportunity to reconnect with them.
I review how I did on my goals last month (being kind to myself), then make goals for the coming month based on my quarterly goals. I also look at my habit plans and ask myself what habit or habits to focus on for the coming month.
I review my someday/maybe list at this time, asking myself if there’s anything I want to move on in the coming month. And I brainstorm scenes for the coming month - ways to make an event (date night, time with the kids, time with friends) more memorable. I find monthly is a good cadence for this because it gives me enough time to plan.
Lastly, I review my home maintenance list and have a couple home routines (wash all the sheets, change lightbulbs, clean the mudroom, etc.)
In addition to the normal budgeting process, quarterly is a good time to check in on your income allocation targets and saving goals and ask how you’re doing. You might find you need to make some course corrections. Or you might find you want to adjust your allocation percentage down.
My quarterly cadence is a slightly higher horizon. I again review my 10 year vision, values, and vision plans. Unlike lower levels, however, I do allow myself to evaluate my 1 year vision plan in particular and occasionally my 10 year vision as well.
I’ve found 3 months of focus on something can sometimes reveal a roadblock or area of frustration, and enough can sometimes happen to force me to evaluate if a particular goal still make sense.
(I don’t tweak my values. I simply review them.)
I review how I did on my goals for the previous quarter and make new ones for the coming quarter. Similar to organizations, I’ve found thinking in quarters is an ideal cadence for making meaningful progress on larger projects. I wrote my first book in a quarter. I’ve stood up numerous processes personally and professionally in a quarter. I created and executed this program in a quarter. 🙂