Fix the day and keep it: the first Saturday, the first Friday, a set week of the month. Prepare with an examination of conscience — the U.S. bishops publish forms for children, young adults and married persons — and take five minutes over it rather than thirty seconds in the queue. In the confessional, name grave sins by kind and number, as the Church requires; name venial sins simply and specifically rather than in generalities, and say what you actually did. Listen to the counsel, accept the penance and perform it the same day if you can. Make an Act of Contrition. Then ask the confessor for one point to work on, and bring that same point back next month — this is what turns repeated confession into real growth. Keeping the same confessor, where possible, gives the sacrament the continuity of direction. The Church's law obliges the faithful to confess grave sins at least once a year (canon 989), and grave sin must be confessed before receiving Communion; the regular confession of venial sins is not commanded but is strongly recommended by the Church as a genuine means of conversion and of growth in the Spirit.

Canon 989 states the annual obligation. Reconciliatio et Paenitentia and Sacramentum Caritatis both urge the frequent, devout use of the sacrament, and Misericordia et Misera treats confession as the ordinary place where the Church's mercy is met.

Penance

Latin Church

Monthly is the common counsel; at minimum once a year for grave sin

penance