Beth Pickens suggests having a Personal Maintenance Day every month. On the day of your birth. So, since I was born on February 22, my Personal Maintenance Day would be on the 22nd of every month.

It’s a day to take assessment of your life. Think about your goals. Do the things you need to do to take care of yourself.

Pickens discusses the idea in her book Make Your Art No Matter What. She got the idea for it from Sabrina Hersi Issa, who calls it her Personal Inventory Day.

Personal Maintenance or Personal Inventory? I prefer Maintenance but Inventory works too.

Today is my first Personal Maintenance Day since coming across the concept.

I took a webinar today to set some goals for the week. It reminded me that I’ve got a list of 30 things to do in the next 5 years. Might need to start looking at some of those things. And work on some tasks to make a few of them happen.

It’s important to make time for yourself. It’s easy to get caught in the day-to-day status quo.

Pickens doesn’t do any paid work on her Personal Maintenance Day. She’s self-employed and can choose to do that. She focuses on her life and non-work-related goals.

Today’s still a working day for me. But I can make some time for reflection. Even if it’s only to look at my 5 Year Plan.

My next Personal Maintenance Day will be my birthday. I will be taking that day as a day off from work. In fact, I’ll be in British Columbia, working on my first goal of my Five-Year Plan.

I plan to do more reflection and planning on that day, also.

I like the idea of a Personal Maintenance Day. I’ll see if it sticks.