Hey Reader

Happy start of Quarter 2! 🥳

Last week was my "Reset Week" which is all about getting cool, calm, and collected for the quarter ahead.

Part of this includes a goal review and reset which is always one of my favourite parts.

As part of that process, I like to:

• Reflect on progress made (or not made) in the previous quarter
• Brainstorm possible goals and projects for the quarter ahead
• Plan how I'll take action on the ones I'm tackling

I always enjoy how the process gets me fired up about my goals 💪

But looking over my Q2 goals list, that all-too-familiar feeling of overwhelm started to sneak in.

When am I actually going to get to all of these?

Is this just going to be another case of piling too much on my plate and feeling defeated when it doesn't happen?

Thankfully, this time around I’m leaning into a system I know works well for me so my seemingly unrealistic list of goals and projects will actually get done 😈

Let's have a look!

The idea - Break your goals down into weekly actions

Breaking a goal down into smaller action steps makes your goal work more achievable.

It can also be overwhelming though when you look over a huge list of things that need to be done to get from where we are to where we want to be.

This is where tying the actions to specific spans of time can help.

Rather than breaking the goal into smaller steps that just sit on a to-do list which is really more of a "maybe, if I get to it" list, what we want to do it assign them to a particular block of time.

I find that tying action steps to specific weeks is a good balance between:

• Giving myself some flexibility as to when it gets done, and
• Not making it so flexible that I just end up putting things off 😅

To tie the steps to any given week, I will add them to my weekly priority list at a minimum, and even better is scheduling on my calendar when I'll do them 💪

When it comes to breaking the goal down and tying the actions to weeks, it can be really tempting to spend ages racking your brain trying to think of every single thing that needs to be done so that you can make a perfectly paced action plan.

Really, we only need the next 1 - 3 steps and to specify when we'll be getting those done.

While it might be satisfying to have steps 1 - 40 mapped out over the next 3 months, there's a decent chance that our plan will change a little over time.

You don’t need to map out every single step right now, but having at least the next action identified and assigned to a specific week means you’ll start making progress sooner rather than later 👌

While this tactic of breaking a goal into one-off actions and tying those to weeks is especially helpful for project-like goals, that doesn't mean we can't use it for other goal types too.

"But my goal isn't like a project"

Technically speaking, you can use this system for a goal like that too. It just looks a little different.

For instance, my physical health goal is more about repeated daily and weekly actions rather than individual one-off tasks.

• Weekly actions: prepare nutritious breakfasts and lunches that I can "grab and go" throughout the week
• Daily actions: go for a walk, drink water, eat the food you prepared for yourself rather than defaulting to Burger King 😅

I can still add the once-per-week actions to my weekly priorities list, and those daily actions can form either a routine/habit tracker in my journal or just go on my daily task lists.

One of the best parts about these being repeated actions though is that I can use recurring events on my calendar for them. I only have to set up the time blocks once and set them to repeat every day or week 😈 Love automation like that!

Let's take action

Thinking about one of your goals for Quarter 2, ask yourself:

1. What are the next 1 - 3 steps I need to take?
2. Which weeks in this month can I tie them to?
3. Can I schedule time in my calendar for them right now?

As said, I've got a decent list of things I'm working on (at least 4 goals and 8 projects) but tying the action steps to specific weeks will help me get them done 💪

Let’s make real progress this quarter 🥳

Until next time!

- Jess

Sick of setting goals that don't get achieved? Learn the system everyday goal-getters are using to make EPIC things happen.