10 journal prompts to start a new month strong (and reflect on the previous one)

starting a new month is not only the perfect time to reset your mind and plan for the upcoming weeks, but it’s great time to look back on the previous month and see where you can make improvements. if you’ve been following the little wellness journey i started for 2024, you’ll know it’s been a minute since i’ve journaled properly. i used to be the girl brain dumping a page minimum every night before bed, but now i’m crashing the second my butt hits the mattress. so it’s taken a bit of work to warm up my journaling muscles again.

here are some prompts/questions to ask yourself at the beginning of each month to reflect and set goals:

reflecting on the previous month

taking a moment to look back the previous month and figuring out what worked and what didn’t is a great place to start. before you can go on setting new goals, it’s important to identify where you are at currently so you can devise realistic and tangible goals. one of the main reasons i am unable to achieve a goal is because i am being too ambitious. most goals take time to work toward, and it’s important to have an understanding of your starting point. where you are mentally and what is actually achievable at this current point in time.

ask yourself these 5 questions:

• what worked well this month? — what are some habits or lifestyle changes that worked for you this month? was it waking up at a certain time, or going on a walk every morning? maybe you made it a point to cook at least 3 meals at home each week and you’re starting to see benefits in your mental and physical wellbeing. identify the things that you will be taking with you to the next month. these habits have the potential to become permanent fixtures in your daily life.
• where can i improve? — what are some habits that you want to change? did you find yourself reaching for your phone as soon as you get out of bed? or maybe you’ve fallen victim to the endless scroll when you were supposed to be finishing that assignment. identifying the habits we are not satisfied with can provide ideas for goals to work toward in the coming month.
• what are three (3) things i accomplished? — it’s important to highlight even the smallest wins. it’s easy to get down on yourself and focus on the negative, but acknowledging things you can be proud of give you that sense of accomplishment, that you ARE doing well, even if other things are slow.
• what is a moment i was grateful for? — i love writing gratitudes. even if we’re choosing just one thing out of an entire month, i know i will treasure this one precious memory years down the line if i commit it to paper.
• what is one thing i learned? — be it about yourself, life, the people around you, etc. this is a real moment of reflection. accumulating all that you experienced during the month and making an observation. it may take you a while to come up with something to write, but i swear this question has given me like 3 different epiphanies.

setting goals & intentions

now that we’ve reflected and cleared our mind, it’s time to look forward. i’ve always been a huge goal person. it helps me to have an endpoint so i can plan the steps i’ll take to get there. provides structure if you will. it’s also fun to just pop open pinterest and visualize your dream life lol.

5 questions to plan:

• what is my main goal this month? — i like to set one main goal for the month. if i set too many goals i find i’m spreading myself thin. having one overarching idea to guide my actions makes it easier to stay focused and actually reach said goal.
• how will i improve this month? — similar to the second “reflection” question; what are the habits or lifestyle patterns that i will be implementing this month that will help me reach my goal? what are small things that can be done each day to improve my overall mental wellness?
• what am i looking forward to? — what are you excited about this month? do you have any trips planned? or are you staying home and scheduling a solo self-care day at the end of the week? this is the time to look at your calendar and plan everything out. idk about you, but planning is almost as exciting as the real thing to me.
• what am i letting go of? — what no longer benefits you? what are some habits or lifestyle traits that you are leaving behind in the previous month? let go of the things that don’t add value to your life so you have room for the things you actually care about.
• what are my affirmations? — basically the part where you hype yourself up. it might sound dumb if you’ve never done it before but i swear writing out “this is the best month yet. also you’re a slay queen” does something to your brain chemistry. idc if it’s cringy, if you can’t be cringy in your journal, well, maybe that’s another thing to add to the “letting go” list.

ideas for spreads

these questions are merely ideas to get your brain warmed up. some may only require a few words to answer, while others you may find yourself filling the entire page. but if you are a wordier writer, or just someone looking to use all your cute stationery, here are some ideas that can be turned into larger journal spreads:

• highs & lows — open to a blank spread and label one page “highs” and the other one “lows.” now start listing out the various moments of your previous month, categorizing them on their respective page. this spread creates a visual of memories that can help you with your reflection questions.
• more of / less of — similar to highs & lows, but this is more focused on the specific habits or lifestyle aspects that you are either bringing over to the new month, or leaving behind for good.
• dream life… as of now — i love to do one of these every few months as a way to see where i am at in both my career and mentality. it’s fun to look back on and see what your interests were at different points in your life, and how they’ve changed your ideas of the future. a fun spread to relax with after all that inner reflection.

hopefully this gave you some ideas on how to get started journaling! taking an hour or two to just sit with yourself and empty your mind is so freeing. being able to enter a new month with a fresh mind and clear idea of your goals will help you stay on track, so you can spend more time just *living*.

if you try any of these prompts out, i’d love to read them! leave a comment answering one of the questions and we can get a little conversation going hehe.

wishing you all the best this month~

take care friend,

annika