Setting, prioritizing and achieving goals 

Finding vision and motivation

The process of setting goals and targets allows you to choose where you want to go in life and take appropriate steps to get there. When you know what you want to achieve, you can distinguish between activities that will help you move forward and activities that will merely distract and waste your time.

A good set of goals will provide you with long-term vision and short-term motivation. You can measure and take pride in the step-by-step progress towards your target. The process of achieving goals and recognizing your accomplishments gives you the confidence to extend your personal growth by setting higher and more challenging targets.

Take a multi-level approach

Goals are usually set on a variety of different levels. Start the process by deciding what you want to achieve in your life, then establishing a corresponding set of lifetime goals. Once you’ve completed the ‘big picture’ thinking, start working through a series of lower level goal plans, breaking your large-scale goals into smaller and smaller targets.

For example, once you’ve established some basic lifetime goals, your planning process may include a five-year, one-year, six-month and one-month plan, ending with a daily ‘to-do’ list. By taking a multi-level approach, you can reduce even the biggest lifetime goal into a number of small, achievable tasks. Make a point of reviewing and updating your plans regularly, modifying them to reflect your changing priorities and experience.

Create prioritized ‘to do’ lists

While all of your goals and plans are important, your daily ‘to do’ list is the key to managing your time for maximum results. The advantage of a ‘to do’ list is that it consolidates all the jobs you have to do in one place. That enables you to prioritize each task and tackle the important ones first.

 ’To do’ lists are powerful tools for relieving stress. They reduce overwhelming jobs into smaller, bite-sized chunks and help you organize the tremendous number of demands on your time. When you follow your list, you’ll have a better chance of staying in control of your day and avoiding the feeling of being overburdened with work.

To prepare a ‘to do’ list:

• Write down all the tasks that you are responsible for completing
• If some of the tasks seem large, break them down into smaller sections
• If the tasks still seem large, break them down again until you have listed everything you have to do
• Then go through the list and prioritize each item from one (very important) to six (not important)
• If too many tasks have high priority, demote some to a lower level
• Then reorganize the list in priority order and enter it into your computer or daily planner

Now you have a precise plan to follow that will allow you to address the various demands on your time in an organized fashion. You’ll be able to easily separate the important jobs from the trivial, time-consuming ones. And if someone asks you to take on a new task or handle a crisis, you’ll know what priority to give the request and where to fit the job among your existing obligations. Your list will also help you recognize when it’s time to say ‘no’ and when to delegate a job to someone else.

Using the list

Try to keep your daily list short and aim to complete it each day. Some of your tasks may be large or dependent on input from other people. If so, you may have to keep a longer list and ‘chip away’ at it, over time. You may also have to carry some low-priority jobs from one ‘to do’ list to the next. But recording these tasks on the list will help you track progress and will keep you from worrying about losing sight of long-term commitments. As you approach your deadlines, raise the lower level jobs to a higher priority.