Productivity Tip #1: Set a Goal

Productivity Tip #1: Set a Goal

If you want to achieve something big in your life, you need to start small.

Set a Goal

The first think you may want to do is, set a goal. It does not matter if it is college degree, project at work or family life or even your personal savings. For example, let's set two goals. You want to write a book and you want to save $12,000 in year 2013. So two goals in a year.

Once your goal is set, now you need to put all of your energy towards achieving that goal. There will be times, when you were not feeling motivated or didn't have enough time, you must compensate for that.

Set Short Term Goals

So, now you know you have two goals – Write a book and save $12,000 in year 2013. The next step is to break these yearly goals into smaller monthly, weekly, and even daily goals. For some work, you may even have to set hourly goals.

Let's take our first example. You want to write a book in a year and let's say, the book has total 12 chapters. Now your goal is to write one chapter a month. Let's even break it down further. Say, each chapter has an average of four categories. Now, your goal is to finish one category each week.

In the second example, your goal is to save $12,000 in a year. So your monthly goal will be to save $1,000 a month. If you get paid weekly, your weekly goal is to save $250 per week.

Exceed Your Own Expectations

Now, you have monthly and weekly goals. So the key to success is be true to yourself. You can't lie to yourself. If your goal is to finish one chapter category each week, try to give little extra each week. Try to finish one category in the first week and try to start another category in first week itself. Give little extra each week and in the end, it adds up.

Small is Big

Don't under estimate small things. Your weekly savings goal is $250. Some weeks, you may be good, spend less eating out and try to save $300 that week.

If you keep doing this, you will end up finishing your book in 10 months and you will end up $15,000 savings in a year.

Reward Yourself

So you have completed your book 2 months earlier than your target and you have saved $3,000 extra than your goal. Now it is time to celebrate. You go ahead, take a week off from work, spend $500 on a vacation and give yourself a break.

Technical Projects and Goals

While working on a project, your project manager may have some goals set for you. Besides meeting those goals, you may want to set your own personal daily and hourly goals. Let's say, you got a module that has 40 hours of work that you need to finish in a week (5 working days). Instead of working 8 hours a day, you may want to put 9 hours a day first few days and if you end up finishing your work by Friday noon, spend afternoon in learning new technology and something different.