Accomplishing More with More Goals but Less Time

Can I let you in on a bit of an experiment? I’m attempting to accomplish MORE of my goals, but I’m giving myself LESS time to accomplish said goals. Sound like a bit of a problem? Not when you are “hacking” how your brain works…

For years, I followed the idea that you should only set a certain (reasonable) number of goals, and most of those goals would follow a year long trajectory – giving me time to break each goal down smaller and also giving me plenty of time to finish each goal.

BUT.

Year after year, those goals sat forgotten, unfinished.

Each January, I’d dust off the goals that were still relevant, tossing the rest, and attempt to make a dent in the two or three goals I’d set out to accomplish. By December of each year – let’s be real – by June at the latest, I’d realize those goals had been neglected, and I probably *wouldn’t* accomplish them before the following year.

What Changed?

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I *probably* should re-read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear – an amazing book that apparently I need a refresher on – but since I haven’t re-read that book yet, that wasn’t the catalyst for change.

It was a normal late afternoon reading emails, actually.

An email from someone I’ve followed (and admired) for a long time was in my queue, and in the email she broke down how she’s decided to make her habits rotate on a monthly basis (instead of yearly). That was breakthrough number one for me.

Breakthrough number two was the sheer NUMBER of habits she wrote she wanted to accomplish each month… but probably not for the reasons you’d think.

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Breakthroughs with More Goals

To keep things simple, monthly habits can keep you focused instead of forgetting about your habits and/or goals within a few months into the year. Genius.

But the magic *experimentally, at least* happens with the NUMBER of habits and/or goals set for each month – a concept she never mentioned, but makes sense in my brain.

I’ve always set a “reasonable” number of “achievable” habits… like two or three per month, max. But those goals would roll over month after month, forgotten or simply not making progress, on the back burner.

It’s time for a WHAT IF experiment.

The Experiment

What if I wrote down ten or even fifteen habits per month – not limiting myself, just writing what I TRULY wanted to accomplish? These could be broken down into habits under areas of life that are important to me – things like marriage, family, homesteading, homeschooling, health, and nurturing All Behind A Smile… but that isn’t required.

I could brainstorm ALL of the habits/goals that are worthwhile to me.

And here’s the magic:

Instead of EXPECTING to accomplish even half of them in a month’s time, I would get the joy (ideally) of mastering a few habits on the list each month, removing them from the list, and seeing the list shrink month by month.

The end result would be (if the experiment works) a list of “accomplished” or “mastered” habits by the end of each month/year, motivation to keep tackling the list each time I was able to remove a habit, and feeling less discouraged each year when I still had unfinished habits.

Because with the old system, next to zero habits were being marked off the list, even given a year’s time.

With the new system, (hopefully) habits will be marked off month by month, keeping me motivated and “hacking” my brain so that I don’t give up early, and keep the boulder rolling. “An object in motion stays in motion.” (I learned that in physics.)

TL;DR

More goals in less time means SET more goals with a shorter time frame (like a month versus a year). Use the motivation of starting to get you into motion, and once you start checking off your ridiculously long list of goals, use that inspiration to KEEP you going.

DON’T expect to finish all goals in the shorter time frame; instead, use the shorter time frame to keep your goals up close and personal in your memory bank, and the longer list of goals to keep you moving (i.e. checking off goals and using that accomplishment to build up steam to keep going).