How to Organize Your Goals
Disclaimer: All of the information listed in this post is my personal opinion. I am not a professional advisor, so none of this information should be taken as professional advice. I am simply sharing my personal experience and what has worked for me.
Do you feel like there is not enough time in the day? Do you feel like you are struggling to find balance between work, health, wellness, self-care, relationships, friendships, hobbies, and fun? Do you feel like you are spreading yourself so thin and can’t sustain it any longer? This is something that I personally struggled with a lot after college, when I first started working a full time job. I always felt like there was not enough time in the day to complete all of the things that I needed and wanted to do. I had so many goals, but I couldn’t figure out how to make the time to accomplish them.
Over time, I was able to develop a system that worked for me. I learned how to categorize my goals and plan my life based on those categories. I used to stress about time management but now I have learned how to utilize my time to empower myself and reach my goals. It is a simple solution to a complex problem! With the year ending, this is a great time to learn how to organize your goals, so keep reading if you want to know more!
Category Is…
Our whole lives have been dedicated to categories. As children we go to school to learn different subjects such as math, english, art, language, etc. During school we learn how to tell our brains how to focus on the subject that we are actively working on at that time. We are conditioned from a young age to benefit from categorizing our energy! However, as I have experienced and many others have as well, when we get older we forget the benefits that these categories provide. We focus so much energy on just getting through the day without the reminder that we need to pay attention to those less “needy” categories!
In order to regain that balance that you are seeking, you need to become more aware of where your energy is needed. The best way to do this is to reflect back on the past few months. Write out the areas in your life that you have been giving the most energy towards and then add in the areas that you want to be putting more energy towards. Make the categories that best reflect YOU! Everyone will have different categories, and they will continue to change as you grow in life.
TIP: One thing to note is that I do this same routine every 3-4 months to ensure that the categories are actively reflecting what I am focusing on. So don’t worry if you leave some things out. For example, just because travel isn’t on my list right now, doesn’t mean I don’t have any trips planned, it just means that I’m not putting a lot of energy into that area of my life right now.
Examples of categories that you COULD use!
Health / wellness
Self-care / relaxation
Relationship
Wedding planning
Friendships
Hobbies
Work
Blog
Fun
Travel
Family
Clubs
School
Sports
The Menu
Now that you have chosen your categories, the next step is to learn how to implement them into your life. A category is an overarching concept, but you need to identify small, easy to accomplish tasks. I have listed below an example of tasks that you can include in this step, but make sure that you are choosing tasks that reflect yourself and your goals.
I personally outline my tasks on a weekly basis. This allows me to spread out my goals throughout the week and ensure that I am able to accomplish all of them, despite having a busy, unpredictable schedule. You want to make sure that whatever tasks you are choosing, you are able to complete them! We want to start finding more balance in our lives, but if we try to accomplish it all at once, we will get overwhelmed and discouraged. Like I said above, I do this every 3-4 months (I split my goals into quarters which I am writing another post about soon!). This allows me ample time to make each task a habit before adding new ones (see our post on micro-habits here!). -check link status
Examples of tasks I have implemented in the past!
Health / wellness
Take daily supplements
Have daily green juice
Strength train 3x / week
Self-care / relaxation
Meditate nightly
Limit screen time
Relationship
Date night every other week
Making a Plan
Now that you have identified your categories and made actionable steps to accomplish your goals, you are ready to make a plan! Like I said above, I choose to outline my goals weekly. There are two ways that I have found effective in the planning phase. The first is to actually plan out each of your tasks and write it out in your planner. This is the method I prefer, because I have a tendency to forget my long term goals when my brain gets busy with work and daily life. However, if you are more thoughtful, you can do the second method which focuses more on reflection. In this method, you can set a time at the end of each week and review your categories/goals and make notes on what you accomplished or what you could do better the next week.
Either method can be effective, it is more based on personal preference. I prefer to use it to plan my week, but on weeks that I have a lot of events or tasks that are at unpredictable times I will skip the planning and use the reflection method! As long as you are checking in with yourself at least once a week, you will likely see a noticeable difference in your ability to balance your life!
TIP: Each of my categories has a designated color that I write in my planner with and if my planner looks like a rainbow by the end of the month, I know I have done my future self justice!
The Big Picture
The reason organizing your goals this way is so beneficial is because it gives you a set reminder every week to assess where you are putting your energy. I originally started doing this after reading a finance book that stated that your top spending categories should reflect your interests. For example, if you're spending a lot of money eating out at fast food restaurants, but you value health and enjoy cooking, you should change your spending habits to reflect what you value. I thought that was great financial advice, but I felt like it could be applied to time and energy as well.
By creating categories, you will be able to quickly and easily ensure that you are achieving all of your goals, and it will help you spread your time more easily among all of the areas of your life. I hope that you try out this method and gain back that balance in your life that you deserve! You got this!
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