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Personal Productivity Timer

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Goal Setting

Why is goal setting important? It is simply that if you set specific goals your actions will be more focused and you will achieve what you want more quickly and more consistently. The value of goal setting is well summed up by the sayings "If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time" and also "If you do not know where you want to go, how will you know when you get there?".

The process of setting and working towards goals can be broken down into the following four separate steps which are each discussed below

• Composing the goal statement
• Compiling the plan
• Carrying out the planned actions
• Reviewing and adapting the plan

When you are working on goals it is best not to work on more than 5 or so at a time, or your efforts will become too diluted.

Composing the Goal Statement

It is very important that your goal statement is carefully composed to reflect accurately what it is that you want to achieve. Getting the goal statement right makes the steps that follow it easier and more effective. It is also critical that your goal statement should be written. A goal that is not written down is a fantasy or a dream. When you write it down it becomes a target that you can focus on.

A set of rules has evolved that will ensure that you have composed your goal statement correctly. This is known as the S.M.A.R.T.E.R. method of goal setting. S.M.A.R.T.E.R. is an acronym made up of the following terms :-

Specific - the more specific your goal the better you will be able to focus on it. State exactly what it is that you want to achieve so that there will be no doubt what it is that you are working towards.

As far as possible the goal should be specified numerically. It is much better to say "I will decrease my weight to 160 pounds" than it is to say "I will lose some weight". It is better to say "I will reduce my credit card balance to zero" than to say "I will try to live within my income".

Where it does not make sense to express the goal in numbers, just make it as specific as you can. For example your goal may be "Read the complete unabridged edition of War and Peace".

Measurable - A goal has to be measurable in order for you to assess whether you have achieved it or not. It is very difficult to know whether you have achieved a goal like "I want to be happy", but if you know that socializing with friends makes you happy you can state your goal as "I will spend at least 5 hours per week with my friends".

Being measurable also makes it easier to break the goal up into smaller steps as part of your plan (see below). By tackling smaller sub-goals you can make the task easier and also give yourself some positive feedback as you achieve each milestone successfully.

Achievable - The goal needs to be a balance between realistic and stretching. If you set your sights too low you will not achieve as much as you could. On the other hand if you set the bar too high you may sub-consciously give up before you have started because you know there is no chance of reaching it.

Relevant - The key word "Relevant" applies to two aspects of your goal. Firstly, it must be relevant to your personal mission and fit into your bigger picture. If your goals conflict with each other they are obviously not going to be achieved.

Secondly the goal should be relevant to your personal situation. If you are an elite athlete you may have a goal of running a mile in under four minutes, but as a weekend jogger you may be happy with 6 minutes. Your aim should be to improve from where you are, and not to compare yourself with others.

Time-bound - If you do not set a time target for achieving your goal there will be no urgency to do anything about it and it will be too easy to put off any actions. As stated above, the target time should be achievable - i.e. a balance between realistic and stretching.

Exciting - Phrase your goal statement to make it exciting. If you feel your heart leap when you re-read the goal it will fire you up and increase your motivation to get working on it. A good way to make the goal statement more exciting is to list the benefits of achieving the goal. If you have a good reason why you want to achieve this goal you are more likely to be successful. It is often said of goal setting that "the why creates the how". If you want it badly enough you will find a way.

A less exciting method, but which is potentially also very motivating, is to list the negative consequences of not achieving the goal. For example, if you are aiming to lose weight and eat more healthily you could remind yourself of someone you know who suffers health problems as a result of unwise eating habits and lack of exercise.

Recorded - At the very beginning the goal statement must be written. The act of writing it down makes the goal much more concrete and transforms it from being a mere dream or fantasy into a target. You should also record the results of your efforts as you work towards this goal so that you can measure your progress. Seeing definite and quantifiable progress is a great motivator and will encourage you to keep working towards this goal.

Compiling the Plan

A simple plan is all that is needed for most goals. The process was accurately and concisely described by Mark Twain

Your plan should list all the tasks that you need to perform to reach your goal, and each task should be allocated a deadline. However, if your goal involves a very large number of tasks then you can compile the plan in stages. When you first create the plan list only the first few tasks. It can be difficult to know at the start of a project exactly what tasks will be required towards the end, and you can only work on a few tasks at a time anyway. As you progress through the tasks and you perform your reviews you can plan out the next few tasks.

Carrying out the Planned Actions

Once the tasks to be performed have been identified and their deadlines listed, it is simply a question of slotting those actions into your daily routine. An excellent way to do this is by compiling a daily "To-Do" list. And then you can use the Personal Productivity Timer techniques described below to get the work done as efficiently as possible. If it is a regular action like going to gym, add it into your diary for the next few weeks.

Reviewing and Adapting the Plan

The plan must be regularly reviewed and the progress against it measured. If the original Goal Statement was compiled using the SMARTER rules it will makes these reviews easier and more productive. The time between these reviews will vary according to the type of project you are undertaking, but in general they should occur at least weekly. When reviewing the plan be sure to re-read all the benefits of achieving the goal you listed to remind yourself of why this goal is important.

It is a very motivating experience to be able to tick off all the sub-tasks that have been successfully completed. Identify the next few tasks that need to be completed and add them to your To-Do list. Sometimes you will find that things have turned out slightly differently from what you expected when you started, and you may need to modify and adapt your plan.

Although you will probably only perform a full review of the plan every few days, it is a good idea to keep your written goal statements where you will see them every day. While you are working on a goal do everything you can to keep it high up in your consciousness.