↗️ What's your headline?

We have just crossed the 50% mark of 2024. Fast, wasn’t it? I am curious: What headline would you use to summarize the first half of your year?

This also brings me to this week’s small but helpful mental tool: ‘monthly headlines.’ It is something that I use with clients (and with myself) all the time.

This is how it works:

1️⃣ Choose a medium-term planning horizon to start with, for example, 4 or 6 months.

2️⃣ Think about a theme you want to give every month until then…an area of focus.

3️⃣ Give each month a snappy headline of just a few words. Less than 7 words is best (= easy to remember).

For example, if you are on the track to improve your leadership skills, it could look like this:

• July: “Finally Master Delegation”

• August: “Ask more Feedback than ever”

• September: “Getting Comfortable with NO”

• October: “Getting structured stakeholder feedback”

• November: “Client Relationship Planning”

• December: “Look back and ahead for 2025”

Why is this helpful? This simple act of creating headlines gives a direction to your efforts each month, making your goals more tangible and hopefully less overwhelming.

Here’s how you can start (and how I use it with clients):

1️⃣ Pick an important, ambitious goal for December. Break that down into 6 months and define milestones.

2️⃣ Craft engaging headlines for each.

3️⃣ Write out July’s headline on a sticky note and paste it on your bathroom mirror :)

The headlines are meant as flexible guides, of course, not rigid rules. They're meant to keep you focused and motivated.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts. If you decide to give it a go, what headline would you choose for next month? Feel free to share – I'm always interested in learning from your experiences!

If you find this idea helpful, consider sharing it with a colleague or simply ask them ‘what’s your headline for this month?”. Sometimes, the simplest tools can make the biggest difference in getting some focus!