Goal setting isn't something most people want to hear about. Typical comments are "Why do I need to write it down when it's all my head?" Good point, but think about it, how much other stuff is in your head, and how do you juggle it all to keep it prioritized?



Of course it's possible that you're one of those people that can keep whole diaries in your head without writing anything down, unlikely, but possible!

All joking aside when you really know what you've got to do and you want to stay on track, goal setting is the key. The simplest form of goal setting is writing a list, do know how much work you can get through if you write a list and prioritize the tasks? The answer is lots; try and you will be amazed.

Of course there is a downside to lists, and that is one of the reasons some people don't like them. If at the end of the day you didn't try too hard, the list will reveal just what you didn't do!

Years ago when our children were young, we bought an old fishing trawler and stripped it down to the bare hull. Then Trish and I and our two children lived in the bare hull whilst I rebuilt it. Every day Trish went to work, the children went to school and I worked on the boat, and every day a list of jobs went up on the bulkhead.

I can still remember how excited I was when I could take my pencil and tick off a completed job. We finally sailed that boat half way around Australia. That was another goal setting journey but I won't go into that here, my point is that without out setting goals and making lists, I don't think we would've made it. It would have been just too hard.

Goal setting is so easy and so powerful that once you make it work for yourself you will never look back. So here's a rundown on goal setting and how to make it work.

Strangely enough you need to start at the end and work back to the beginning. This is because the most powerful part of getting something done is the timeframe. Without the completion date most projects just do not get done, some in fact don't even get started.

So you start with when you would like the job completed. Now depending whether you are working in years, months, weeks or days, come back in your time frame one time unit and ask yourself, "where must I be at this point in time to complete the job on time?"

Keep coming back until you are asking yourself, "What must I complete today for the job to be on schedule?" Did you run out of days? Did you find you should have started this a week or a month ago?

If this is the case, ask yourself, can you get more done in the time? Try reworking it. Can you delegate or outsource some of the tasks? Perhaps the completion date was not realistic and will have to be moved forward.

The detail of the tasks gets greater as the time frame gets closer. For example on your list for 2 weeks time it might just say; "Get links to blog."

Now as you get close to starting this particular part of the project, you might expand it to read;

1.Find sites to link to.

2.Write descriptive text for link.

3.Write email.

4.Send out email.

5.Upload link

Each day you start with a list of goals for that day. Next you prioritize that list. If there is nothing to choose between tasks, put the one you least like doing first to make sure it gets done. What you didn't get done today must go at the top of the list tomorrow.

When setting out your time frame, don't forget your other commitments or family. Set out times for these first, then work your project around them. You will find you get more support for your project rather than rivalry for your time.

If this is a big project or there are certain parts that you know you are not going to like, reward yourself once you have completed them.

Goal setting is very important, it is one of those 80/20 rules, take the time now to set your goals, and you will be rewarded with a faster smoother running project.