Ideas for a theme for each month of a year
In the book ‘The Happiness Project’ by Gretchen Rubin, she has a theme for each month of the year like April was ‘lighten up’. It allows each month focusing on something new.
In this blog I will provide some ideas about potential themes for the year approaches.
Each month has a ‘word’ for the month.
This option is choosing a ‘word’ for each month to focus on. ‘Words’ could be picked at the start of the year, or for each quarter or even month by month. For ideas for ‘word’ themes for the month I have a free download of a list of words.
2. A monthly theme based on a yearly overarching theme
A monthly theme could be an overarching theme for the year. Examples of yearly themes that might go split up into monthly themes are:
improving your home e.g. making changes each month or decluttering each month
adventure - each month having a theme of a type of adventure e.g. one month might be ‘water adventure’, local adventure, food adventure, social adventure
socialising - each month the theme might be a form of socialising e.g. potluck dinner parties, coffee with friends, pizza, burgers, nice restaurants
money - each month might be a new monthly challenge e.g. like a no spend month, save $500, make extra $50 (sell some stuff), buy something you have always wanted
learning and hobbies - each month could be sampling a hobby or learning that you have always wanted to do
reading theme - each month you could read a particular style of book e.g. science fiction, non-fiction food, non-fiction self-help
improving communication - each month could be an area of communication to improve e.g. public speaking, small talk, business communication, spousal communication, children communication.
3. Theme based on a book
This option would be to have a theme based around a book. For example, in my blog on ‘The Korean Book of Happiness’ I noted that the chapters would make great monthly themes for a yearlong project e.g. one month might be food and the next enlightenment.
The Happiness Project book might inspire some monthly theme ideas.
You could also look at self-help books and see if there are chapters that would make monthly themes. For example, Dale Carnegie’s book ‘How to stop worrying and Start Living’ has eight parts. These could be made into 12 monthly themes. e.g. a couple of months on particular ways to break the worry habit.
4. A theme each month based on your goals for the year
This option involves having a theme each month that works towards your goals. For example, if your goals is to:
travel, the first month may be ‘exploring travel options’, second may be ‘developing an itinerary’
declutter your home, each month could be an area to declutter e.g. kitchen
simplify your life, each month could have an aspect of your life to simplify e.g. declutter, simplify your schedule, simplify your household management
Improve your physical health, each month could support that e.g. a month of physical activity, month of yoga, month of drinking 6 glasses of water a day, a month of regular sleeping times.
5. Put some themes into a hat and draw out 12 months of themes
If you are not sure what to focus on you could put ideas that you like into a hat (or jar) and pull out 12 ideas. This works best if there are more than 12 in the jar because there is an element of chance in whether an idea comes up.
Focus on the theme when planning the month and during the month
Having a theme for a month does not make any difference if no action is taken on it. It is a good idea when planning the month to look at the theme and think how it can be implemented. For example, one of my monthly themes is ‘nature’. As actions for this theme, I have pencilled in two weekends where I will do a hike in nature. I will also go outside in the garden with my coffee and watch the birds bathe in my bird bath more regularly than I normally do.
During the month, for example, when planning the week ahead, thinking about what things to do towards the theme (if nothing is planned already) helps put activities in place for that theme.
Having a theme a month provides a bit of variety on what to focus on and can help achieve your goals or improve your life.
