the most effective goal-setting plan ever

BY MELISSA JOY KONG

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The Most Effective Goal-Setting Plan Youll Ever Find. (Plus Worksheet) ... http://technori.com/2013/04/4259-the-most-effective-goal-setting-plan-you...

1 of 13 2/25/2015 12:47 PM

Recently, I taked about the #1 reason why

people dont accomplish their goals: lack

of genuine connection and commitment

to them.

But once youve gured out what you

really want to do, you still need a strategy

for accomplishing it. Your goals are not

going to get you anywhere if you dont

actually do something about them. And

not just anythingbut the right things.

So heres a very straightforward, fail-proof

plan for achieving your goals. I say its

fail-proof not because error isnt possible

(no one can predict the future or control

all circumstances), but because if you

follow this plan, youll accomplish more

than you would under any other plan

youve been testing out.

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Now that youve gured out how

youre spending time each week, lets

switch gears for a moment. Figure out

what your one major goal is this year. I

have two major goalsone personal, one

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2 of 13 2/25/2015 12:47 PM

career-drivenbut wouldnt advise

choosing more than 1-2.

This is the hardest part for most people

because choosing just one BIG goal to

pursue requires extreme focus and

connection to purpose.

But, its really important that you stick to

just 1-2 major goals. Goals to me are

different than habit changes, which I

wrote more about on my blog. Your 1-2

goals should be so big that it would take

an entire year to accomplish. If you were

to accomplish only these 1-2 things, youd

feel like you had a very successful year.

Examples:

Lose 40 pounds

Successfully launch a startup and drive

$100k in revenue

Get into a top graduate school

Learn how to code and land a job as a

front-end developer

Save for and take a month-long trip to

backpack through Southeast Asia

Based on what you really want to

accomplishwhere your deepest values,

passions, and skills intersectchoose 1-2

goals to focus on for the rest of the year.

Do not aim for reasonable. Be a bitBe a bitBe a bitBe a bit

unreasonable.unreasonable.unreasonable.unreasonable. What do you really want

to accomplish in the next 365 days? Thats

what you should make your goal.

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3 of 13 2/25/2015 12:47 PM

Once youve created your 1-2 major goals,

create monthly sub-goals for each one.

The idea is that your monthly sub-goals

would very clearly lead to you

accomplishing your 1-2 major goals for

the year. (Note: Id recommend planning

for 12 months, but you can certainly plan

for 6 months, 18 months or whatever

number you feel comfortable with.)

Example:

Big Goal:Big Goal:Big Goal:Big Goal: Learn how to code and land a

job as a front-end developer.

Sub-Goals:Sub-Goals:Sub-Goals:Sub-Goals:

AprilAprilAprilApril Apply and get into the Starter

League Beginner HTML/CSS class

MayMayMayMay Take Starter League (SL) class &

code my own personal blog for practice

JuneJuneJuneJune Continue taking SL class, nish

coding the blog, and work on a Demo

Day project

JulyJulyJulyJuly Finish SL class & nd a company

to let me do front-end coding for free

to help them redesign a website

August August August August - Apply and get into the Starter

League Advanced HTML/CSS class

SeptemberSeptemberSeptemberSeptember Continue taking SL class,

nish up coding for the company side

project

October October October October - Finish SL class and take on

one more front-end freelance project

for another company

NovemberNovemberNovemberNovember Finish freelance project

#2 and apply to a minimum of 8

front-end developer jobs

DecemberDecemberDecemberDecember Interview with companies,

apply to 5 more jobs if necessaryand

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4 of 13 2/25/2015 12:47 PM

land a full-time developer job by 12/31!

When you break your major goal down

this way, you can see the natural

progression of your goal and exactly what

needs to be done each month in order for

you to get a job as a front-end developer

by December 31st. Breaking it down this

way makes the end goal seem even more

tangible. It will get you super

excited about the idea of taking on your

plan and tackling that one big, amazing

goal of yours.

Is it possible that you could do all of this

perfectly and still not get a job as a

front-end developer? Of course. But

youre signicantly more likely to get one if

you actually plan like this, versus not

planning at allor using one of the much

more tedious, less user-friendly goal

setting strategies out there.

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If you put my post from earlier this week

into action, youve gured out the 20% of

your work thats driving 80% of your

results. Now, the question is: What

systems can you put in place to do less of

the 80% of activity that isnt generating

results, and more of the 20% activity that

is?

Example:

80% of work that isnt driving a ton of80% of work that isnt driving a ton of80% of work that isnt driving a ton of80% of work that isnt driving a ton of

results:results:results:results:

!

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5 of 13 2/25/2015 12:47 PM

Checking email for 4 hours a day1.

Using social media too often

throughout the day

2.

Taking too many meetings during the

week

3.

Strategies to eradicate the issuesStrategies to eradicate the issuesStrategies to eradicate the issuesStrategies to eradicate the issues

above:above:above:above:

Check email for only 2 hours a

dayone hour between 11-12pm, and

one hour between 4-5pm. Use Inbox

Zero techniques to answer, archive,

and delete more emails in half the time.

1.

Block social media websites between

the hours of 9am-12pm and 1pm-4pm

using one of these distraction blocking

apps.

2.

Only take meetings on Tuesdays and

Thursdays from 12-3pm. If it doesnt t

into the other persons schedule, the

meeting gets pushed to the following

week. Exceptions can be made, but

only if the meeting is of extremely high

importance and/or urgency.

3.

Once you create a list of strategies, use

thosein addition to your set of monthly

sub-goalsas a guide, and create around

50 mini goals (about 4 mini goals per

monthone for each week). Each mini

goal should take no longer than a week to

accomplish. Essentially, the mini goals are

a way to further break down your

monthly goals into highly manageable

weekly chunks.

Example:

April sub-goal -April sub-goal -April sub-goal -April sub-goal - Apply and get into


6 of 13 2/25/2015 12:47 PM

the Starter League Beginner HTML/CSS

class

April weekly mini-goals April weekly mini-goals April weekly mini-goals April weekly mini-goals

Week 1: Do research on Starter League

program

Week 2: Submit formal application for

Starter League

Week 3: Send hand-written notes to the

founders to let them know how excited

I am about taking the SL class

Week 4: Get accepted into SL and set

up coffee meetings with 3 alums to get

advice on making the most of the class

When you break your monthly sub-goals

down like this, you basically create a

detailed road map for making stuff

happen. It seems so obvious, but no one

plans like this. Thats why most people fail

(in addition to not creating strategies to

eradicate triggers that lead to wasting

time).

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Based on the weekly goals you outlined

for the current month youre in, you need

to set aside 30 minutes to create a weekly

plan of attack for accomplishing your

mini goal for the week ahead. I created

this template worksheet of what your

weekly planning sheet could look like:


7 of 13 2/25/2015 12:47 PM

Its a good idea to add in your major goal,

monthly sub-goal, and weekly mini goal at

the top of your weekly worksheet to

remind you of what the whole point is

with all this planning business and hard

work. At the beginning of every week, you

should know exactly what youre looking

to accomplish every day to achieve your

weekly mini goalso that you can move

on to your next mini goal, in order to

move on to your next sub-goal, in order to

accomplish your one major goal.

Fun to look at goal setting this way, right?

Youll see that I listed additional projects

and tasks on the weekly planning

template I created above. Thats because

none of us have just one responsibility.

Were all juggling multiple things at any

given point in time. Ill explain how to best

t these additional projects and tasks in

later this week.

The point of this sheet is to help you make

the tasks that are directly related to your

major goal a priority over the other stuff

you have to do. This is a huge part of goal

accomplishmentyou need to be willing

to get your goal-related tasks done rst,

even when youve got other important

things going on. If you dont get into the

habit of doing this, youll fail because


8 of 13 2/25/2015 12:47 PM

theres simply too much other stuff out

there to distract you from your

longer-term goal.

. ;##!. ;##!. ;##!. ;##!

Once youve done your weekly planning,

you need to set aside time to plan every

single day for the upcoming day. Ive

soaked up a ton of productivity advice

over the last several years, and this is

something I hear from pretty much every

productivity guru and successful person

out there:

You have to plan on your own success.You have to plan on your own success.You have to plan on your own success.You have to plan on your own success.

If you dont break it down to what youll

do every day, then theres no way youll

accomplish your weekly, monthly, or

annual goals. Basically, if you dont plan

daily, youre screwed. Either youre goingEither youre goingEither youre goingEither youre going

to own your day, or your day is goingto own your day, or your day is goingto own your day, or your day is goingto own your day, or your day is going

to own you.to own you.to own you.to own you.

I see an enormous difference in my own

productivity when I plan it out thoroughly

versus just wing it. Of course, your daily

plan needs to go hand-in-hand with the

strategies you implement to actively avoid

time-wasting triggers and activities.

Heres an example of what your daily

planning worksheet can look like:


9 of 13 2/25/2015 12:47 PM

As you can tell, I like using pretty colors on

my templates. You can tailor your weekly

and daily worksheets to look however you

want them to look, but these sheets work

really well for me.

Youll notice a few new sections on this

daily sheet. The rst is Todays TopTodays TopTodays TopTodays Top

TasksTasksTasksTasksthese are the top three things

you must get done for the day. If you

accomplish these three things only, your

day will have been a success. At least one

task should be related to your weekly mini

goal.

This is really important: make sure you get

this task done before you do anything else

on your daily task list. Do your top 3 tasks

in order before you do anything else, and

get them out of the way. Each task should

take no longer than 90 minutes (And

yes, its possible to get your taxes done in

under 90 minutes, depending on

complexityIve timed it).

Youll also notice a Batch TasksBatch TasksBatch TasksBatch Tasks section.

This is a list of all the basic operational

stuff you need to do your job, like coffee

meetings to build new relationships,

checking and answering email, getting


10 of 13 2/25/2015 12:47 PM

organized, sending out email newsletters,

etc. Basically, they are the tasks you need

to do to keep things going, but arent

really going to equate directly to success

at the end of the year.

For example, I need to publish content

daily for Technori.com, but if I just focus

on that, well have a lot of content, but not

that much growth. For me, a major

sub-goal would be focusing on growth

strategy. Therefore, while very important,

editing and publishing articles is

actually not a top task for meits a batch

task. You need to gure out how you

differentiate between top tasks and batch

tasks, given your own work and priorities.

Ill talk more about batch tasks soon, but I

wanted to show them to you on the daily

sheet for now, because its important to

make note of and label them as such.

As a note, I learned a lot of the above

techniques from reading Ive done over

the years. My favorite thought leaders in

this space are Steven Covey, Leo Babauta,

and Brian Tracy. I would highly

recommend reading any of the books

these three guys have written, particularly

Leos Power of Less. That being said, Ive

learned about and tested the psychology

behind why we achieve and dont achieve

what we set out to do. So, I tailored the

plan above based on what Ive seen

actually work and not work through my

various productivity testing. I believe the

plan above is the absolute best

aggregated, tailored plan for making your

goals a reality.


11 of 13 2/25/2015 12:47 PM

So there you have it! An easy-as-

they-come, fail-proof goal-setting (and

achieving) method. Five steps. A lot of

happiness and accomplished goals.

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12 of 13 2/25/2015 12:47 PM


13 of 13 2/25/2015 12:47 PM

the most effective goal-setting plan ever

Documents

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big goal topursue

major goals forthe year

plan youll

monthly subgoalswould

successful year

major goalsone personal

takean entire year