What does it mean that the monthly review?

A monthly review assesses progress on larger goals and commitments.

Example: You sit down on the last Sunday of the month with your project tracker, your calendar, and your journal. Over ninety minutes, you compare what you planned to accomplish against what you actually accomplished. You expected to finish a certification course — you completed two of eight modules. You expected to launch a side project — you built the prototype but never showed it to anyone. You expected to exercise four times a week — you averaged 2.3. The numbers do not lie, and they do not rationalize. You notice a pattern: every ambitious goal was roughly half-completed. This is not a failure of effort. It is a failure of estimation. You have been consistently overcommitting by a factor of two. The monthly review does not just show you where you fell short. It shows you why — and that "why" restructures every plan you make for the next month.

Try this: Block 60-90 minutes at the end of this month. Review your goals, calendar, project list, and weekly reviews from the past four weeks. For each goal, record planned versus actual progress, identify one structural reason for any gap, and write three concrete commitments for the next month that account for your real capacity — not your aspirational one.