Short timeline reachable goals

Found myself answering a question about time management, but my answer was goal focused, where having a bunch of small, easily reachable goals to me is the best way to build a day where you've managed your time well. Nothing like having piles of success to celebrate each day before you go to bed. And I prefer "timeline" to "term", as I think that word better emphasizes it's about time. And the less time it takes for the goal the better. So you should have PILES of such goals done every day.

Use short timeline reachable goals. Getting to where you want to go requires setting a destination, but also constantly checking on your progress to it! We take that for granted, say on a car trip but it's true for so many things in life. Know where you're going, but also have short timeline goals to give you constant positive feedback, which is necessary for both motivation and necessary course corrections. Then at the end of the day you will find you have a pile of accomplishments to consider, and can sleep peacefully knowing the next day will deliver the same.

Quietly cheer your own accomplishments as you accomplish through your day with short timeline reachable goals--STRG's--which feels GREAT. The better you feel the more you've done and the more you will do. With short timelines you can build on accomplishment, adjust goals quickly as reality shifts. And learn that delivering results is a natural state of being. It's why you have those skills. Then your day just flows. Time management is important, but I prefer thinking of it as building on success. First you have a STRG, accomplish it. Cheer your success. Move on to the next one. Repeat till day is done. Celebrate accomplishment. Relax. Repeat next day. And every once in a while do a power dance by yourself in your bedroom, because life IS great.

Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco. Photo credit: James Harris

My own view is that starting out 10 to 15 STRG's per day can give you a feel for how it's done. Eventually you'll find your STRG's will naturally separate out into supporting bigger goals including longterm ones, which I say are built on piles of STRG's like building a pyramid on so many stones.

The ultimate goal may be huge, but getting there? Yup, begins with a single step, and is accomplished by many, little steps, if you prefer to pile your days with accomplishments as I do, and STRG's can do that for you.

And another STRG nearly done as I work on concluding and begin finishing typing up this post. 

There will be STRG's for editing it as well. Now I will quietly, ok, not so quietly as I'm mentioning it, so will now cheer myself. One more thing done. Wow, that wasn't hard. Was definitely reachable, and as I copied from my LinkedIn post introducing concept, had a short timeline. I think this post took me about 10 minutes, though a lot of the writing was built up over days. 

The building blocks for success are all around us. You just have to use them.

James Harris