Break it Down – Schedule ALL the Tasks Worth Doing
Another important part of setting goals in your planner is to schedule all the tasks needed to reach your goals, and not just the big overarching goal itself. This helps you break it down into manageable steps and is crucial in helping you reach what may seem unattainable at the moment.
One of the benefits of using a planner is setting up clear spaces or boundaries for each of your important goals. Break down the individual goals, and then break them down further into all the tasks needed to be completed in order to reach your big goals.
Each time you list a task to be completed for that goal or project, set a deadline. After the deadline is set, add it your calendar pages, including the monthly and weekly calendar areas.
This is going to keep you on track, reducing stress, and offering more organization and structure in your life. Each day when you check in with your planner, you know what is expected of you on that day.
Use the S.M.A.R.T. Goals Method
SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time specific. These goals are not just some big, elaborate dream, but something that is possible to achieve. You want a goal to be realistic and something where you can measure the level of success. It is also good to set a time for completing the goal, which encourages you to keep up with the tasks and have a clear set path.
Be Specific with Tasks and Deadlines
Here is where people often go wrong- they set a goal, but it is open-ended, and doesn’t really include instructions on how to complete it. When you set a goal, you should also have a broad look at tasks required to complete that goal, then each of those tasks might have more details about how to complete them.
You may dream of starting a blog, so tasks you could include are deciding on a niche, creating your brand, creating the website, and writing your first posts. But as you can imagine even those tasks/goals need to be broken down into the individual elements required to complete them. Without this step it’s so easy to get lost in the weeds of your dreams and unrealized goals!
What Type of Planner Will You Use
This is a big decision to make, and is often dictated by the types of goals you have. If you are keeping your goals fairly simple, they can definitely fit in your ordinary planner. However, some people like to be more detail specific and actually want a journal-style planner for setting and detailing their goals and the tasks involved. There are also planners specific to types of overarching goals, like starting a blog, saving to buy a house, family planning, homeschooling, etc. Many of these types of planners are actually more than a planner because they include steps to specific goals that you may have overlooked or never even realized were needed. In this case these types of planners are more like a guide and teaching tool to help you reach your goals.
The critical point to remember is that it’s more important to start figuring out and writing down the steps needed to reach your goals than knowing exactly what the steps are and what order they need to be completed. You can adjust as you go and as you learn more about your big projects and goals you’ll be better able to create a plan that will work for you!
