Productivity Tips

2011 has come and gone and a new year is now upon us. Every year people make New Year’s resolutions in an effort to improve their lives and make progress. However, keeping those resolutions and meeting our goals is something we have trouble with as time progresses. If you have difficulty keeping your resolutions and meeting your goals, consider these tips.

 

Set Very Specific Goals

To achieve a goal, you must set a very specific goal. For example, don’t just say that you want to lose weight. Make your goal to lose 30 pounds, with the goal of losing 5 pounds a month. Don’t just say you want to make a lot of money in your business. Set a goal to make $3,000 more per month by the end of the year.

Specific goals give you something to shoot for and are achievable in your mind. Be sure your goals are realistic so that you don’t get overwhelmed and quit.

Don’t Just Set Goals – Plan Them Out in Detail

Setting a goal is not enough. You need to plan out every detail and determine exactly how you intend to get there. Otherwise, you will get overwhelmed and may choose to not do anything instead.

If you want to lose 5 pounds a month for example, your action steps might include running for half an hour a day on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays at 5pm and eating organic eggs and blueberries for breakfast every day. You might limit junk food snacks to once a week. Be very specific in the actions that you will take and include when you will do things and how. The more specific, the better.

By creating a detailed plan, you will know exactly how and when to do things. You may not be able to control the end result, but you can control the steps that you take and often that is enough to move you towards your end goal.

Create Accountability

Don’t just promise to yourself that you are going to do something. Create accountability if you are serious about getting results.

Firstly, tell other people what your goals are. Telling other people will create more motivation for you to reach your goals because people are more likely to do something when they tell other people they are going to do it.

If you want to go even further, create rewards for reaching milestones and staying on track. Create punishments for cheating or missing targets. Remember that you can only control the actions you take and not the end result, so reward yourself if you followed your plan. You can bring a friend of family member to help with this. Give them a check for $100 and tell them that every time you miss your 3 workouts a week, they get to keep the money.

Don’t Just Set Goals Once a Year

If you want to make faster progress, then perhaps you should consider setting goals more often than just on New Year’s. Reevaluate your situation every 3 months and set new goals accordingly. If you are doing well, then you may want to set more aggressive goals. If you realized that your goals are unrealistic, then take smaller steps towards your end result.

 

To reach your goals and achieve real success in your life, you need to take responsibility for your actions. Time passes quickly and whether our goals are business, health, or relationship related, we must stay focused to move forward in life. Finally, Happy New Year and best of luck in 2012 to everyone.