Welcome to the Elevated Edit Podcast.

I'm your host, Blakely Ramsey, and the goal of this podcast is to discuss all things personal development, wellness, and the art of editing your life in an elevated way.

From mastering morning routines to mastering your mindset, we're going to sift through the noise and empower you to take elevated action.

Make sure you catch the show notes for all the details.

Enjoy the show.

If you've ever felt like your months just fly by and you're just trying to survive the chaos, you are not alone.

But this month.

This month is going to be different.

Today I'm showing you exactly how I planned my month this month so that I can move with clarity and intention and not be so reactive.

And I have a filter for every decision that I make this month.

This episode is a full behind the scenes into my mindset when it comes to planning my months and also the planner that I use that I created because I could not find anything like it out there.

And it is something that I am working on to bring to you soon.

So with that, let's jump right into it.

So before I ever touch my calendar, my planner, anything, I zoom out first and I look at my yearly goals and my quarterly vision.

So in this episode, I'm going to assume that you have already put in that work.

If you have not, go ahead and listen to the rest of the episode.

But you might want to go back later and think about like, okay, what is my yearly vision?

Like, what is my quarterly vision?

You know, just so you can can kind of have that filter because I am going to use my yearly and quarterly filters and vision as the roadmap for the whole rest of the episode.

Okay?

So if you haven't done that, go back and do that right now.

And if you are listening to this on Apple or Spotify or whatever it is, I am going to link the YouTube episode in the show notes because I have a really cool monthly execution map written out behind me that you can go screenshot and you can use it for when you schedule your month next month.

Okay?

So like I said before, I even touch my calendar, I zoom out and I look at what my 2025 yearly vision is.

So for me this year, it is time freedom.

I want everything in my life to lead to me having more time freedom.

So my work, my personal relationships, my daily habits, my systems, everything in my life, I want it to be and aiming towards having more time freedom.

And so I love having a really clear yearly vision instead of like a yearly plan.

And this is literally My filter.

I'm like, okay, everything.

I'm running through this filter of time freedom.

And then I look at my quarterly focus.

So for me, right now with Q2, I cannot believe we're already going into Q2.

It's crazy.

My quarterly focus is brand expansion.

I have already launched the coaching company.

It's going very well.

I have launched the podcast.

I.

I have launched everything except for the planner, which is coming soon.

But my goal for this next month is going to be getting out of that launch season and going into the spring expansion season, which I am excited for.

And I'm also a little nervous.

And I like to look at these because I'm no longer interested in doing things just to do them.

I don't want to do things just to be busy.

I don't want to do things just to fill my calendar because I felt obligated to say yes, whatever it is.

Like, I want to have actual focus and actual vision.

And so that's why I love to every single month, look back on my yearly vision, look back on my quarterly, sometimes even weekly, I'll look back.

But that is these two filters and focuses I use to create my monthly focus.

So for the month of April, my focus is going to be sales.

It's going to be my 1 priority, and it's going to be my main filter.

Okay.

From there, I reflect and release.

So before I.

I'm still not planning anything out.

I'm just looking.

I'm like, okay, I've got my vision, my focus, my filters.

I know where I'm headed, which direction I'm going.

So then I reflect and release.

I will spend.

I'll personally spend about an hour on this, doing a creative brain dump on the past month.

What worked, what didn't work, what ideas did I really like that I didn't execute on?

Is there anything I need to take off of my list?

Anything I need to add on?

Really just, like, time to sit down and look at my last month, how it went, what I liked about it, and then ask myself, is this aligning with my future vision?

Is this aligning with me having more time freedom?

If I repeated last month over and over and over again, would it create what I really want, which is time freedom?

And if the answer is no, I've got some work to do.

And so this reflect and release is not a place to feel guilty or a place to feel, I don't know, any kind of, like, hesitancy.

It's really just a place to be honest with yourself because you do want to move towards the life that you really want.

And the only way you can do that is to be honest with yourself.

So I love this.

Reflect and release.

Creative, random.

Okay, next we get into some actual nitty gritty planning.

I will then go to my Google Calendar.

I call it a reality checker.

My Google Calendar scan now with my Google Calendar, and I'm not saying this is the right way to do it, but this is how I personally use my Google Calendar.

My calendar is not a planner.

I am not putting to do list.

I'm not putting daily action items.

I'm not putting my vision and my goals inside of my calendar.

My calendar serves one purpose, and it is to house my fixed commitments.

So that looks like appointments, travel, volunteer hours, things I've committed to in advance, they live inside of my calendar.

Now, occasionally, week by week, I will add things in.

As I'm planning my week out, I'll go, okay, this is going to be my recording podcast hour.

This is going to be, you know, my whatever, content batch hour, or this is the hour I'm going to work on this project or whatever that is.

I'll do that on a weekly basis.

But if I'm looking at my calendar from a month's perspective, I am just scanning it to see where I've got things that I have maybe agreed to that I shouldn't have agreed to, what my schedule looks like in general.

So I will ask myself a couple different questions.

And these questions look different every month, depending on what my month looks like.

But for the month of April, 2025, these are the questions I asked myself.

I said, is this month heavy with social energy?

I find that I have a finite amount of social energy and I have to be very aware and very careful of it.

I can be super extroverted for a set amount of time.

And like, once I reach that moment, I'm done.

I can't bring it back.

I've got to go rest.

It just.

It is what it is.

Like, I'm just well aware of that with myself now.

So if I look at my Google Calendar and I see that I have like three, three evenings where I committed to go to dinner or I committed to go to the movies or I committed to go hang out at somebody's house, I'm like, oh, this is a problem.

I will reschedule.

I will cancel things here.

Lately, Like, I used to be the girl.

I never could say no to anybody.

I wanted everybody to love me.

I wanted everybody to be happy all the time.

24 7.

And it wore me out completely now, and I'm just honest with people.

I'm like, hey, I have three social commitments this week.

You were the last one on the list.

Like, you gotta go.

Or I didn't really want to do this in the first place and I shouldn't have said yes.

And, like, having to say that to people is so freaking hard.

It is not fun at all.

And people are going to be mad at you.

Like, I'm not saying this.

Like, it's going to be this super exciting thing and it's going to make you feel so good.

It will feel good later on when you're in the moment, like when you're in the actual the future moment.

But at the time it happens, it might not feel good, but that's where you have to decide, like, what's more important to you.

For me, this year, it is time freedom.

Next year it might be improving my relationships and so I'll have a different filter.

But for me, this year, time freedom and conserving my energy is so critically important.

Also, look at my travel schedule.

I do like to travel a lot, and travel completely shakes up my whole schedule because I need to schedule time right before and right after I travel to pack, organize, get everything together, and then when I come back, I am not good at jumping right back into life.

Like, I need at least a day to do laundry, to go through my email, to just kind of look at everything that I pushed off while I was out of town or I pushed off, you know, while I was in training or whatever it was.

I will look at that and go, okay, here's my travel schedule.

How much can I actually get done in a month?

And if I have a month where I am out of town, two weeks out of the month, I'm probably not going to put a massive project on my to do list for that month.

I am going to maintain something that I've already committed to, like, say, the podcast.

I'll be like, okay, you know, this month I'm going to focus on a 10 increase in podcast views or whatever it is.

I'm not going to jump into any project if I have a very travel heavy month.

It just so happens that for April, I have a very light schedule.

I have a very light travel schedule.

I have a very light volunteer schedule.

I have a very light personal commitment schedule.

My April is pretty much completely open, which is kind of crazy for the spring months, but my schedule is pretty much open.

So then I could ask myself, okay, what is my bandwidth, realistically that I'm dealing With and for the month of April, it's pretty, pretty big.

So it makes sense for me to launch my planner this month versus in May.

I will be out of town almost two and a half weeks out of the month.

It would make sense for me to launch a project or dive into a big volunteer project or dive into a home project in May.

But in April, I have plenty of time.

So it's perfect time to launch the planner.

Okay.

I will also check in on things that I agreed two months ago and just make sure that they are still working with the future vision filter of myself.

There are even like, work commitments that I have been like, hey, you know, I'm in a completely different place than I was six months ago.

I'm in a completely different place than I was three months ago.

This is no longer something that is actually moving me forward.

Can you find someone to replace me?

Can you find someone to, you know, plug in in my place or whatever it is?

So just use that reality check just so you know what you're dealing with.

Don't jump right in with how much can I get done.

Jump in with how much can I realistically, like, how much realistic time do I actually have this month?

If you've got a really heavy schedule, you might not want to put a ton of pressure on yourself when it comes to being creative or launching something or diving into a project, whatever it is.

I have not always been like this.

This is a lesson learned the very, very, very, very, very hard way.

But take my lesson and do it better than I did it.

Okay, next, I schedule what I call my catalyst for everything else but wellness.

First, my non negotiables.

This is also something that I used to not do at all.

And when I tell you that it caught up to me, boy, did it catch up to me.

The media and social media, news, books, even sometimes, like, if you're in, I feel like a corporate setting or having conversations, like, it is very.

It's very unusual to hear people go, oh, well, my, you know, health and wellness contributes to my business more so than anything else.

I had never really heard that until I started hanging out with a core group of people and they firmly and fully think that.

And now that I've started implementing that into my life, I'm like, well, it does make a huge difference.

There are days where I'm like, man, I'm really struggling with work, I'm struggling with my calendar or whatever it is.

Like, I.

I don't know what I need to do.

I'm like, maybe I need to go work out or maybe I need to go for a walk.

And like, that is the thing that helps.

I come up with my best business ideas, my best podcast ideas, my best content ideas from a long walk or, you know, yesterday I did some.

It was supposed to be this easy bar class.

It was not.

It was very hard.

But I actually came up with a really good idea.

When I was like pushing and I just almost couldn't go anymore.

I, like, literally felt like I was about to break.

She said something, I don't even remember what it was.

And it made this thought pop into my head and I was like, oh, that's so good.

But I love to schedule wellness first because if it is not on my calendar, it will not happen.

And I refuse to go an entire month without feeling really good in my body, feeling really good about myself.

I will also schedule my fun stuff, so I will look at my weeks ahead and if I have a ton of heavy work, a ton of heavy admin work or whatever it is, because there are certain things that I have to do at this point in my business that I don't enjoy doing.

Yes.

In the future, when there's a little more money, you know, I'm saying I will delegate all of that.

But for now, it's a, it's a one woman show and we're rocking it over here.

But I just have to be very aware of that.

And so I like to plan fun into my day.

Sometimes this will look like me going on a trip, you know, next month I'm going to Cabo.

So I'm not gonna like plan super fun things into my schedule.

But sometimes I'll be going for a walk in a different town.

Sometimes it'll be taking myself out to eat.

Like, whatever it is, I make sure that I plan it so I actually do it.

And if I feel good, I work better.

Period.

That just, it works for me super well.

Hey, then once I have my yearly vision, quarterly focus, monthly focus, I've reflected and released.

I have done a reality check of my actual calendar.

I have scheduled my wellness first.

I will move on to my monthly focus.

And I personally like to pick three things to focus on for the month that tie back to my monthly focus.

So my monthly focus is my 1 priority.

It is the 1 filter.

I'll run everything else through.

And when I come to my monthly focus, I go, okay, what are the three needle movers that will actually make progress on my monthly focus?

So for me, this month, since my monthly focus is sales, my.

Or since my.

Yeah, since my monthly focus is sales, my monthly needle movers are going to be one Establish credibility online.

I am in a unique situation right now where I have done, in my opinion, I've done fairly well branding and marketing myself as someone who is very hyper local because I've been in real estate.

So it's been, you know, you show up to every local networking event and you are part of every local Facebook group and you put your face on everything that's local.

Banners, signs, screens, all the things like you're just like super in front of your community, you're helping out, you're saying yes, you're doing all the things, there's some social media involved but, but people don't realize how much in person is involved and that can be really exhausting.

But it works on a very hyperlocal level.

However, as I'm moving into this new company, I've ran into an issue that I did not realize before where I was really good at talking super local and I'm not great at talking on a mass scale because not only with the coaching program but with the planner, I can reach anyone anywhere.

And so my, it's going to take a minute for me to establish a, my credibility online as a systems and habits coach just because the people that are following me currently, they know me as a real estate agent.

And so establishing my credibility in a new space has been somewhat difficult.

I feel like I've always been though pretty organized and I've been pretty face forward about personal development and things like that.

So it's not as difficult as a, of a transition.

But it has been, you know, there's been some, some pain moments.

And then also I have had to really, when it comes to online credibility, I have had to improve my language because I'm no longer talking to people that have known me since I was a toddler.

You know, I'm talking to people who have never met me before and I have to talk to them in a different way.

And it's just, it's been such a challenge.

I love a challenge.

I love hard work.

This is the hard work that I love.

I love overcoming these things.

But establishing credibility online in a new space with new people in 2025 is somewhat difficult.

But y'all know I'm up for the challenge.

Okay, Needle mover number two.

So needle mover number one was established credibility online.

Needle mover number two is leveling up my sales skills.

So this is another problem that I've ran into that I did not realize was even a problem because I was so hyperlocal.

So my sales motto has always been, if you take care of your people, your people will take care of you.

That's always been my motto.

I am not really pushy when it comes to being a salesman, saleswoman, salesgirl, whatever you want to call it, salesman rolls off the tongue for me.

I have never been pushy.

I've always, when I was in, you know, I consider restaurant sales because you're like, you want some extra ranch, you want to shot, you want, you know, an appetizer.

You're constantly selling things even though it's on a microscope skill.

When I was in wine and spirits, the other guys on the team would have these like massive like strategies all scanned out on Excel and all this stuff.

And I would literally like bounce in there with a coffee and be like, here's your coffee.

And they'd order whatever I wanted them to.

And so like I said, for me, taking care of my people has always just worked for me, especially in real estate.

All of my clients know I tell them, this is your mortgage payment.

You can buy whatever house you want as you, as long as you love it.

It doesn't matter if I love it.

I'm not paying the mortgage payment, you are.

And so once again, that has just always served me well.

Now I am selling things to people that don't know me from Adam.

They don't know me at all.

They don't know that I am organized.

They don't know that I am really good at systems.

I'm just someone else on social media that's just running her mouth.

And so I have had to really rethink sales and rethink my sales skills.

And I have had, I've been coached and I'm currently in a year long coaching program and I have had gotten very honest feedback that I'm in fact not good at sales at all.

I've got, you know, some things are there just naturally, but I've got a lot of refining to do.

And so daily reps, coaching and practice are going to be part of that needle mover.

Okay.

And then needle mover number three.

So we've got credibility online sales and then refining the product through real time feedback.

So I have a group of women who are beta testing the planner.

This planner is something that I have used for a really long time.

So it is very blakely.

And so when I created the planner that I'm going to set sell, I created it with you in mind.

So my ideal woman that was going to use this and I was like, okay, if I were her, what would I want in this planner?

And I also was like, okay, which parts would be confusing, which parts would make sense?

Because that to me is like the downfall of an on, like a digital planner of any kind is they can be really pretty and they can be really exciting because you have all these tags, tabs, and you've got all these toggles and you've got all these lists.

Everything's great.

But then it's set up in a way that you don't actually ever use it.

You buy it and then you forget about it or you try to use it and you lose stuff.

Like, you get so lost down the rabbit hole, you can't figure it out.

And you buy the planner, but you can't figure out the platform.

And so I am figuring out ways to solve all of those problems on the forefront.

I'm creating checklists, I'm creating videos, walkthroughs so you know exactly what to click, exactly how to add, exactly how to make your own.

It's gonna be really good.

But that refining the product is gonna be really important to me this month.

So that way, when I launch it, it is Chef's Kiss ready to go.

Okay, now with those needle movers, they all, all of this runs back through my monthly focus, my quarterly focus, which all goes back to my yearly vision.

That's why it's so important.

And if I want to get even more nerdy, my yearly vision ties into my ten year vision and then my five year and then my three year before it gets to my yearly vision.

So you just, you want to know where you're headed.

You don't need to know how to get there yet.

You just want to know where you're going, where you want to go.

For me, time, freedom is critically important.

Okay.

And then after that, we are pretty much done as far as monthly planning goes.

There's going to be a couple more things we're going to do, but these live inside of my planner.

And so I just copy my weekly and daily flows and I run them through my filter.

So I am going to give you a little peek into what my weekly rhythm currently looks like.

This sometimes changes based on the season that I'm in the project.

I'm working on my travel schedule, whatever it is.

But in this season, right now, this is how my week is laid out.

Monday is clarity and big decision.

So all of the, like big rocks that I really need to move are done on Monday.

I like to do Monday because it is already kind of a Busy day for me.

People don't want to call you on the weekend.

And so like Monday morning for me is nuts.

Everybody's reaching out to me, everybody's calling me, everybody's texting me, everybody's emailing me.

I need to pretty much be open on Monday and I also need to be open to like being sharp and making really high level decisions.

Okay, Tuesday is content creation.

Tuesday is the opposite of Monday.

Everybody got out what they needed to get out.

Most people are working on their end and so my Tuesdays are pretty quiet.

So I create all of my content I've been doing weekly.

Today as I'm talking to you, I am doing my first monthly batch.

So it is mid March right now and I am well close to close to the end of March and I am recording all of my content for the month.

It is not something.

This is the first month I've done it.

So don't be like, oh, she always plans her.

This is the first month I've done it.

I usually do weekly.

Before that I did daily.

Sometimes I fly by the seat of my pants.

But I am really trying to set up high level systems so that when it does come time for me to delegate, I know exactly what needs to be delegated.

Where I have got my planner set up so that I can delegate certain portions of my planner to certain team members and different things like that.

So I'm always setting up a system with the future in mind.

Okay?

And to that note, on Wednesdays, I do systems and strategies.

So I look at my own personal systems, I look at my own personal strategy.

What is working, what's not working, what do I need to move?

Thursday is creative work and overflow.

So anything that I didn't finish Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday I can do on Thursday.

And I also like to sit down and think really creatively and wild.

Like I have something that I'm working on right now and it's not controversial necessarily, but it is going to be one of those things that makes people go, what?

Because there's nothing like it out there.

I don't even know what category to put it into.

But it's something that I came up with on like a creative day.

And it's so good, but it's one.

It solves such a.

Such a focused problem.

It's wild.

Like it's wild even to me.

But that's what happens when you give yourself space and time to be super creative.

And then on Fridays I rest admin and white space.

Like I said I want to.

My goal for the future is to have Friday, Saturday and Sunday as open spaces and get the bulk of my work done on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

Now with that, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I am not doing this the whole entire day.

That is just my rhythm.

So I make sure that big decisions get taken care of.

I make sure that content is created, I make sure that systems and strategies happen.

I still have my full time job, I am still coaching.

Like, there are things that are still happening in the background that I will plan my week around.

But I love to have that weekly rhythm and then my daily flow as well.

And I've got all of that housed in my planner.

So it's pretty much just wash and repeat.

I'm not having to reinvent the wheel every week.

I'm not having to go, what should I do on Monday?

What should I do on Tuesday?

I just go back to my planner, where everything lives and I go, okay, with my monthly focus.

Now that I've reflected and released and I have done a reality check, I've put my wellness first.

Let's take these needle movers and let's add them into my weekly flow and my daily flow.

So it really all works together so seamlessly and you can filter everything through your vision.

So I have even having a monthly focus because I think some, when a lot of people hear that, they're like, oh, well.

But I've got other things I need to focus on too.

Hear me out here.

When I think of sales, I need to show up as my best self.

I need to be energized, I need to be organized.

I need to be ready to go.

So if you take sales and you go down here to wellness, say, I want to, I don't feel like walking one day or I don't feel like, you know, working out.

Whatever it is, I'm like, okay, I actually have a sales call tomorrow.

If I show up on that sales call and I have low energy because I didn't sleep well, and I didn't sleep well because I didn't work out.

Like, is me skipping that workout actually contributing back to my monthly focus?

Probably not.

And so I love having this monthly focus.

The better the filter, the more you'll be able to use it in all different aspects of your life.

I'll ask myself, hey, are you like, where's your energy at?

Do you need to go hang out with a friend?

Do you need to, you know, take the day off?

Do you need to take a nap?

Like, what is it that you need to show up as your best self?

So that you can accomplish the 1 priority of sales.

It's so good.

I love it.

And this all, of course, funnels back to the yearly vision.

And like I said, all of this lives in my planner.

I love my planner because it allows me to think as big as I possibly can.

I will have.

This whole desk will be full of notes.

I'll have this post it giant post it full of notes.

I'll have.

I've got two whiteboards.

I'll have them full of notes.

I'll just be going to town.

And if I didn't have anywhere to house everything, my brain would be like, okay, we've got to stop brainstorming, because she's not going to be able to get any of this done.

Like, my brain would shut itself off.

But because my brain knows that I have a container for my.

All of my creativity, and I have a container to get super clear, and I have a space to organize my mind.

It just is constantly churning stuff out.

It is like, here's another idea.

Here's another idea.

And as soon as I have that idea, I know exactly where to put it.

And I know where to put it, so I will actually use it.

It's just.

Oh, it's also good.

I love talking about this stuff.

It gets me so excited.

I can talk about planners and systems and habits and all this stuff for days and days and days.

Now, I might do an episode later on where I go into yearly vision and quarterly vision and then weekly flow and daily flow, like, really in depth.

But I wanted today to just be about monthly execution, just so you could kind of see how my brain works.

Questions that I ask myself, the thought process of how my days are operated.

And you do not have to do it exactly like this.

I'm not saying this is the right way.

I'm not saying it's the only way.

I'm not saying it's the way I'm always going to do it.

Definitely not.

I reiterate and revise all the time.

But just having the mindset of, like, having vision and having focus and having needle movers and having a filter, having all the things, it really will help you.

Even if you just start with, like, planning one day at a time.

Like, you can use all of this to plan just one day.

If a month overwhelms you, just start with the day and I'll be a.

Okay.

Okay.

I hope that you like this episode.

It's a little bit different than what I normally do, but I wanted to give you all an opportunity to really see inside my brain and hopefully you don't think I'm nutso.

Hopefully you still like me after this.

But I hope that this episode brought you some kind of value.

And I don't know if I mentioned this, but if you are listening to this in like Apple or Sports Spotify or whatever it is, I'm going to link the YouTube video and just go to it and grab a screenshot of what I've got written behind me and then you can use it for when you plan your next month.

So like I said, I hope this brought you a ton of value.

If you put anything on social media about this, please tag me or DM me.

I would love to see how your monthly planning is going and I would love to hear if you liked this behind the scenes stuff style and I'll keep sharing it.

Okay?

With that I will see you in the next episode.

Thank you for tuning in to the Elevated Edit podcast.

I hope you found today's episode inspiring and full of actionable tips.

Don't forget to check out the show notes for all the resources and links mentioned.

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Until next time.

Keep growing, glowing and elevating your life.

See you soon.