I like to be organised. I like writing to-do lists and checking off all the items. I like to hit deadlines. And I love making goals. There’s something exciting about writing down a list of goals and checking them off one by one. I’m the sort of person who makes a plan for all the things I’m going to achieve in the next year, things like participating in NaNoWriMo, or publishing a book, or maybe finally learning how to use Instagram properly. It’s a good feeling, writing down all these goals, deciding what I’m going to work towards this year.
Of course, writing down my yearly goals is only a fraction of the job. I then like to sit down at the start of every month and decide what big step towards achieving these goals I’m going to take over the next 4 weeks. Maybe that’s sending a book out to betas, or overhauling my blog. And then, I like to break it down further into weekly goals, much smaller chunks that I will achieve in the next seven days. Maybe that’s a certain amount of pages I’m going to edit, or books I’m going to read.
The reason I set myself so many goals, is because it helps me focus on what I should be doing. There’s never a day when I sit down and go ‘I have no idea what I should be working on right now’. If I don’t write my goals down, it’s easy to lose sight of what is important. I get bogged down in small daily tasks, answering emails and comments, writing social media captions etc, and never make any actual progress on the big goals I want to achieve. It also makes sure that I don’t commit to too many big goals. Publishing one book in a year is achievable. Publishing six is definitely not.
Defining your goals can be as simple as writing them on a post-it note and sticking it somewhere visible, or as detailed as breaking them down into a month by month plan that you note onto your calendar. What I suggest is getting specific when you’re setting your goals. What exactly are you trying to do? Instead of saying ‘I want to work out more’, define what ‘more’ is. Are you aiming to work out 3x a week? When are you trying to achieve your goal by? If you know that, you can break your workload down into smaller chunks and see whether it’s actually realistic. What steps do you need to take to achieve your goal? If you can figure out some of the specifics of your goal, it makes it much easier to achieve in the long run.
Whether you’re detail oriented and like daily to-do lists, or you’re more of a ‘do it by feel’ kind of person, I recommend taking a few minutes to sit down and write out your goals. Add details. Give them a deadline if appropriate. Put this list of goals somewhere where you can look at it every day. If you get specific about what you’re doing, you’ll be able to take concrete steps towards achieving your goals. Experiment, and keep an eye on the progress you’re making. If you know exactly what you’re working towards, you’ll be surprised at how much you can do.
How do you stay organised? Do you set yourself concrete goals? How do you keep track of your progress? Let’s chat!
