How To Be A Successful Planner, So You Can Actually Accomplish Your Priorities and Big Goals
How do you successfully plan your goals so that you can accomplish them?
Do you find yourself asking yourself things like:
How can I get more time in my day?
How can I remove distractions?
How can I get more done in a day?
Are you someone who feels that you are constantly frustrated with yourself about how much you got done in a day? Or maybe how much you wish you got done in a day?
Marshall Goldsmith, the renowned executive coach, said it best in his book Triggers.
People are exceptional planners and inferior doers.
So how do you get better at creating and accomplishing your plan?
Clarity and Management of Priorities
I rarely talk to someone about their goals or plans, and they are extremely clear about their priorities. Typically when asked, I get vague answers. For example:
Goal - Pay off debt
Priority - uh, to pay off debt?
A priority should be an action that, if focused on, would likely help achieve the goal.
The priority does not need to achieve the entire goal but must support the accomplishment of a goal.
Example:
Goal - Pay off debt
Priority options:
Track spending
Budget
Stop spending money
Work off cash
Say 'No' to things that cost unnecessary money
Pack your lunch
Leave your cash at home
The priority will change based on your understanding of your problem.
Suppose I want to pay off debt but have no idea where my money is going. Then my first step would be to track spending, which will help clarify where the money is going. Once I am clear about where my money is going, I can shift my priority to something else to help me pay off debt.
Clarity gives me the power to choose my next step and decide on a new priority.
Breaking Down The Process So You Can Use It
Set your goals, and then the VERY NEXT STEP you need to be taking is asking yourself questions that would prevent you from accomplishing the goal or that are clear obstacles to accomplishment.
This process will provide the clarity necessary to articulate which priorities make the most sense.
If you struggle with identifying the obstacles or struggles you might face, ask someone knowledgeable in the area for help, do your research, or start at what you know or understand and then build off that.
Sticking with the given an example: Paying off debt
Our priority options were established by asking questions.
Here are some questions I asked myself as I planned to pay off debt a few years ago.
Q. What do we spend money on?
A. I had no idea
Priority: I tracked our spending every night in an excel document.
There were many ways I could have made this easier on myself, yet I chose manually tracking using excel because it required me to look at what we spent and document it consistently. Then I used excel to show graphical data to help me visualize it easily.
Q. How much do we spend on bills?
A. I'm not sure.
Priority: Create a budget, so I know how much income is entering our bank account and how much is exiting from expenses.
The remaining priorities were derived from the above two questions, reading books that taught me about finances, wealth, debt, and seeking financial professionals.
But What About Goals That Require My Time
The budgeting example is relatable but misses the mark on some of our obstacles.
Take time, for example.
For years I worked a full-time job while attending school full-time. Then once I graduated with a master's degree after a decade of education, I started a business. Then just recently, we had our first child. I also had obligations to my wife Beca, family, and friends, and we owned a home that required upkeep.
So how did I overcome the significant obstacle of not having enough time?
Goals and Priorities were the answer to these problems for me.
I planned my weeks and months to accomplish tasks, BUT I only focused on a few priorities.
The trick is this:
You can't DO everything
During my college years, I prioritized my schoolwork using two strategies.
1st I automated my weekly schedule to address school work daily. Typically first thing in the morning OR right after I return from work if I work early in the morning.
2nd I only focused on 2-3 big goals at a time and prioritized the tasks that I would achieve daily, so I didn't have to think about when I needed to accomplish them, or on my calendar, so I knew what to expect each day and week.
This strategy is still how I plan my life and accomplish my goals and is one of the critical ways I help people take control of their lives.
I use the time left over after my priorities have been accomplished for any other task or activity I feel like completing. If things in the leftover pile are left undone, I DO NOT beat myself up.
How to set Well-rounded Goals and Priorities
My recommendation here is to set a goal for the three following areas:
Relationships
Personal
Professional
I also recommend never exceeding five priorities because doing so typically creates more stress and can more easily result in NOT accomplishing them all regularly.
If you find yourself in a situation where you are not regularly accomplishing your goals and priorities, then track which you are performing periodically and drop the ones you aren't. If they were truly important, you would focus on them more. Remember, you're human to keep things simple for yourself.
I generally hope you read this and were able to use the strategies to help you overcome your accomplishment obstacles.
If you want more helpful content or training to better guide you through aligning your goals and time management strategies with happiness and enjoyment, check this out.
Click the link, and you will be directed to a page where you can share your email with me. I will send you three days of training that will help you identify what you enjoy, then help you set goals around these things, and identify when you will spend time on these new goals.
I also have a few additional articles that relate to this topic. You can find them below:
