This is the twenty-second in our series of emails called “How I Monk.” In this series, we will be highlighting + celebrating members of the Monk Manual community as they’ve meaningfully applied our tools and resources to find peaceful being and purposeful doing in their everyday lives. If you’d like to be featured in a future “How I Monk,” share your information with us here… #HowIMonk
Name: Kayla
Occupation: Stay at home mom and homeschool
Location: New Jersey, USA
A bit about who you are and how you spend your days:
What originally drew you to the Monk Manual?
It was far more than just a planner — it was a journal as well, and I felt like I needed more than just the objective aspect of a planner. I was seeking more of the “being” aspect versus “doing” so that I could give the best version of myself to my children. I was a planner junkie for many years, but they all left me running in circles and checking boxes. When I found the MM, I knew this would be a tool that would really bless my family.
Do you have a favorite prompt or section?
It is currently the section that asks “when I felt unrest” during my day and “one thing I could change” (or for the weekly planner this is posed as “insight”). I use this as my evening examination, and it helps me to prioritize it. There are so many things I feel like I could “do better” in a given day especially with raising children and homeschooling and family relationships, but this question encourages me to slow down and truly reflect on just one thing that I could tangibly change. For someone who really likes control and order (and for someone whose lifestyle has very little control AKA a lot of small children) this has been a very helpful section that allows me to be honest with myself.
Practical Monk Manual Tip:
My schedule tends to be the same pretty much every day so I like to block certain “built-in” timeframes straight across my days. For example, lessons are from 9-12 every day so I just use a highlighter and block that time section off. I can also block off the children’s quiet time as “Mom’s prayer / reading time” each day which really helps keep me grounded. When I first started using it I was stumped with having to fill out the same thing every day until I began using this practice, and it helped make my planning easier.
When you were first getting started, what part of the Monk Manual did you struggle with most?
Setting my weekly / daily priorities was really challenging for me at first coming from using planners where everything on my to-do list was top priority every single day. It took a lot of time for me to cultivate this practice of asking myself, “if nothing got done this week or this day besides ___ what would it be?” It helped me to sift through a lot of the extraneous tasks I had on my daily lists and focus on what really mattered, which in turn helped me to be more present. I can now prioritize different aspects like prayer and exercise above laundry and dishes and realize those are the “tasks” that really fuel me to be the best version of myself.
How has your life changed since using the Monk Manual?
What suggestions would you give to new Monk Manual users?
Give yourself plenty of time and patience to make it your own and try to see it more as a journal than a planner at first — especially if you are coming from a traditional planner. When you use it as a “reflection” tool, you allow yourself margin to use it how it works best for you instead of a “productivity” tool that focuses on checklists and to-dos. Even if you miss a few days (or even weeks!) just remind yourself to keep picking it back up. I find keeping it on my nightstand helps me the best. I can jot in it during the evenings before bed, and I can peek at it in the morning before my day really begins.
If you’d like to be featured in a future “How I Monk,” share your information with us here.
