Starting with pen and paper
The first step is to write down all your goals for the year. You can start by dividing a blank piece of paper in four or more sections.
Write down the areas of your life you think need some improvement. For instance; relationship goals, health goals, financial goals, etc, and begin writing things you would like to do in each of those fields.
Prioritizing and organizing your goals
Having in mind that you're only one person to acomplish all those goals, It's better to list them one after another, keeping a classification tag with its category before it. It can be a simple () or [] markup. The tag is useful to monitor the acomplishment of goals by area.
Now, they are ready to be rearranged in priority order.
Goal Purgatory List
Once you've done that, you can start working on your goals according to your daily schedule.
Most goals depend on oneself's dedication to it, but, eventually, they may be impacted by action (or not) of others. Those goals may be important, thus you won't want to keep them out of your list.
Keeping track of goals and keeping goals on track
The title of this section must have reminded you of Martha Stewart's motto*: I'm huge fan of her organization tips. Now we are going to see how to monitor your goals and make sure you don't give up along the year.
*"A place for everything and everything on its place."
So, I divided the Purgatory of Goals in 'keep it' (monthly/weekly/daily), 'depend mainly upon me', 'depend on others' and 'maybe' goals.
Then, I started to look for the already stablished routine through the preliminary list and put them under the 'keep it' group in the Purgatory Goal List only as a reminder and did the same for the other goals, ordering them by priority.
Breaking goals into smaller tasks
We can analys each goal's feasability in more detail by breaking them into smaller tasks.
For goals that depend upon others, or any other goal that can't be broken into smaller tasks, you can ask yourself: what can I do about it? And come up with ideas to help achieve it.
Goals month by month
Once you prioritized your goals and started breaking it into smaller tasks, you can distribute them by month.
I currently keep my goals in a .doc file in a text editor, but have already used Trello in the past and their drag and drop, horizontal folder display is perfect for this job.
Accountability and evaluation of goals
It's a good idea to check periodically if your goals are being met, so you don't run the risk of coming to the end of the year without achieving them, and, in case they´re not, you can adjust your schedule.
It's also good to review your goals from time to time, to see if they fit within the big picture of your life plan and inner motivations.
For that, you must be aware of your priorities and motivations, and ask yourself: is this helping me in the path to what's really important for me? if not, maybe you´d better drop this goal or change it for another one.
Electing your Top Priority Goals
When you reflect about your life's purpose and motivations while reviewing and evaluating your goals, you may find out that you have too many goals to achieve in the interval of one year.
If that's also the case with you, you must elect your Top Priority Goals. Those ar e the ones you need to make sure are being acomplished each month.
It's a bit like evaluating each goal, only now you go through your Priority List and also compare it your other goals when you reflect about your your life's true purpose, needs and motivations.
Dealing with the unexpected
When you start working on your goals, eventually you may need to deal with unforeseen events, such as an acident, illness or any other setback.
If those things happen, also make them part of your goal list. For instance, recovering from an illness may need to take the first place in your Priority List, depending upon the severity of the situation and/or impact on the execution of your goals.
By including the measures needed for dealing with unforeseen events on your goal list, you don't loose sight of your goals, keep motivated and organise yourself better.
Do this and you're on a sure path for achieving your goals. Happy goal setting!
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