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I don’t know if it’s too soon to start thinking about goals for the next year, but approaching the holiday season and seeing those last few pages in my planner thin out as the days go by immediately makes me think about what’s to come in the next few months — what new changes, inspiration and challenges the new year will bring.
Setting goals is a simple exercise, but it does have its technique and the success of the planning stage can definitely dictate the outcome of the rest of the year. After all, not all goals are set in the same way, and there are easy rules to follow in case you want to ensure you’re maximising your chances of sticking to your habits in the long run.
And there are so many different methods and techniques to go through this brainstorming process but the most important thing is to give yourself enough space and time to really think about what’s important in your life right now. Is it health? Mental or physical? Is it financial freedom? Is it about improving your headspace or finding yourself, your likes and dislikes? Maybe changing your destination, picking a new path in the middle of an oversaturated job market?
And identifying the priority and the level of importance of your goals is an immensely worthwhile exercise, of course, but it‘s also essential to ensure that those goals are aligned with the set of values you created for yourself. Does fighting for this goal reflect the principles, lifestyle and choices that you want to see reflected in your life? Or are you searching for something that is not attuned to the person you decided you wanted to become?
This exercise of pure introspection, which you can stretch out for several days, weeks or even months, may seem like a slow mindful approach but it‘s the ground that will prepare you for the planning stage.
So after you clearly define your goal, already feeling excited for its prospects and the beneficial transformation it may bring, open your notebook and jot down the steps required to reach that goal. They don‘t need to come in any particular order — just write them down as you remember them. These steps can be small and effortless, or actually incredibly challenging. Take your time.
When your list is finished, you have all the pieces of the puzzle. These pieces, if properly placed together, will ensure your goal is completed by the end of your defined deadline. Exciting, right?
Ordering the pieces is simple. Looking at your notebook, grab your pen and simply start numbering the lines for each one of your goals. Number one is the first task to be completed to finish your goal, number two is the second task, and so on. If you remember new tasks, or believe it’s necessary to delete or merge some of them, feel free to do so. Consider this page a draft plan, so scribble and rewrite things to your heart’s desire.
As you finish numbering the tasks, start a new page. Write down those tasks by numerical order, slowly but surely preparing the pieces of the puzzle to be laid out properly.
Look at your last task — the one required for the completion of your project, your goal or the end of your habit tracking. This is your milestone — when you reach this step in your plan, your goal is complete. So this is the time to give it a proper, balanced deadline. Maybe this deadline is already set up by someone else or maybe you are lucky enough to have the autonomy to set it for yourself. And as you ponder the day when you want this milestone to be reached, think about it this way — what is a reasonable, yet challenging deadline to finish this goal? Give yourself enough time to slowly accustom yourself to all the steps in your plan but, at the same time, think about incorporating a bit of urgency as well. The human mind works better and more efficiently under a reasonable amount of pressure.
When you feel content with your choice, move to the step *before* your deadline. Give that a deadline, too. Use a bottom-to-top approach. This helps you ensure that you ponder the deadline for each step thoroughly without risking going over the deadline.
As you finish this exercise, look at your plan — what first seemed like a daunting prospect became a simple plan neatly laid out in front of you. If you have to make any more tweaks due to any imbalances in how you set your deadlines and the amount of time for each task, feel free to use a new page to correct any missed steps.
Some Notion templates:
💡Decision Making Notion Template: https://bit.ly/3PhAJOG
💡Decision Making Printable: https://bit.ly/3ysKfYH
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• Video edited by: Mary Among Stories (maryamongstories@gmail.com)
• FTC: This video is sponsored by Notion
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