How to set goals and keep to them
Gerry Duffy, International Speaker on Goal Setting, Leadership and Public Speaking, shares his greatest tips on managing your time and successfully achieving your goals.
I love learning from other people. A great teacher in my adult life has been a man called Jim Rohn. I love his teachings and his quotes with ‘Never start your week without finishing it first’ being one of my favourites. Rohn suggested that planning your week in advance is one of the most useful things you can do to have a productive week. Perhaps you have even more pressure at home and on farm because of COVID-19. Surely, all the more reason to do this then.
Gerry’s Guide
1. Decide what success looks like
This means sitting for 15 minutes before your week begins and mapping out (in writing) a great week. What are the most important jobs or the biggest priorities? What would you be so glad in a weeks’ time you had accomplished? People who do this, report a 80-90% success rate in getting these jobs done.
2. Schedule c. 60% activity
Filling our days with activities sounds super-efficient, but it leaves no room for the unexpected tasks or interruptions. If your diary is filled and something unexpected takes an hour of your time, all you will be thinking about that evening is the one thing you didn’t get done. If tomorrow is fully scheduled, where do you put that uncompleted task? This leads to bigger lists and more overwhelm. The 60% is not a figure to get hung up on - it’s just a principle. Don’t fill your diary to the max. Instead, underselling and overperforming will leave you in a much better state of mind.
3. Check In Wednesday
I used to wait until the end of the week to review progress. Now I realise it’s too late then to impact something I might have missed. I encourage you to stop for five minutes on a Wednesday and review your list of goals and activities. How are you doing? Are you on track or are you behind? Then react as you need to while you still have time.
4. Some Day Jobs
Perhaps use this COVID Period to do those jobs that you had earmarked for ‘Some Day’. Maybe at the start of the week, commit to one thing this week that’s been on a 'To Do List' for too long. If you don’t plan for it and schedule it, it will still be on your list this time next year.
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