How do I Best Arrange My Schedule for Goal Achievement?

When talking about reaching your goals, a great question is, “How do I best arrange my schedule to support goal achievement?” Strategically planning your daily activities is crucial for reaching your goals. However, before getting into how to structure your day, let’s first look at an effective way to frame the goals themselves. This will help you to get the most out of your efforts. Work smart and work hard!

Outcome, Performance and Process Goals

Frame your goals so that they build on each other. This ensures that the effort you put in always moves you forward. An effective way to do this is to identify process, performance, and outcome goals.

Outcome goals are desired end results, for instance a yearly revenue target.

Performance goals refer to milestones or standards that are necessary to reach outcome goals, such as meeting a monthly revenue target.

Process goals are tied to actions that are fully under your control and vital for performance goals. For example, contacting a certain number of potential customers each day.

By regularly reaching out to potential clients and making sales, you will generate enough revenue to meet your monthly goals. This of course keeps you on track to fulfill your yearly revenue target.

As you see, the goals build on each other in a linear fashion. Reaching your process (short-term) goals helps you to reach your performance (mid-term) goals. This in turn enables you to attain to your outcome (long-term) goals.

So, when setting goals try to break them up into process, performance and outcome goals to form a system in which your efforts always move you forward.

One goal I had was to get a digital marketing certificate. In this case my process goals included attending classes and doing project work. This helped me to improve my skills and achieve my performance goal of passing each module. Ultimately, I gained the skills necessary to successfully complete a final project and receive the master certification as a digital marketing specialist. This was my outcome goal.

How do I Best Arrange My Schedule?

Now let’s come to arranging your daily activities. This handful of impactful tips will help you to get the most of of your day.

If you don’t schedule times to work on your goals, you probably won’t make much progress. It’s just too easy to waste time. Time that is not allocated is like a bird that flies away. Here are a few effective ways to allocate your time.

Time Block

Block off time in your schedule to work on your goals every day. I like to consider my week as a whole. Decide how many times that week you will work on your goals. First schedule these times and then plan everything else around it. During this time put away all distractions.

Work in a concentrated and deliberate way. Be consistent and always try to improve. Have a goal for each time block. Ask yourself, “What will I accomplish in this time?” Also don’t try to prioritize too much. If you accomplish 5 to 7 main things per week that is really good!

Habit Stack

Get to the point that working on your goals is part of your routine. So much so that you don’t even think about it. You probably don’t think too much about getting dressed or eating lunch. These are just things you do. It takes about 2 or 3 months to form a habit, so consistency is key. If you miss a day, forget about it, and keep going. Aim to be consistent, not perfect.

One approach to help you build a habit is to pair working on your goals with another task that you normally do. This is widely known as habit stacking.

It’s important to note that this is only effective when you work with exact timings. The tasks must always be done in the order you specify and at the time you specify. In other words, it’s important to define an exact cue. If you decide to work on your goals “whenever,” you probably won’t spend much time on them.

For example, right after my child goes to bed for the night, I spend one hour working on my blog.

Work on Your Goals First Thing

Another way to structure your day is to always work on your goals as the first item of business. This approach is know as “eating the frog”. It can be extremely motivating, because you quickly feel very productive. You’ve accomplished the most important thing that day and it is still early!

Guard Your Time

Finally, learn to value and guard your time. This is another answer to the question, “How do I best arrange my schedule to support goal achievement?” Don’t waste your time or let others use it up. Set clear boundaries. Protect your schedule. When considering if you should spend your time doing something or not, ask yourself, “Does this bring me closer to achieving my goal?”

Plan and Reflect Regularly

Arranging your schedule for goal achievement takes practice. Plan regulary! I often use the weekend to decide what I will get done each day of the following week. Also take time to reflect on how things are going. If you are not making the progress you would like to, consider what is holding you back. If things are going well, consider why this is the case and if there is anything you can do to improve even more. Be open to try new things and adjust as necessary!

You can also ask for support and feedback from others. Ask someone you trust if they have any tips on how you can better progress or if they see anything that may be holding you back. Gaining another perspective can often be enlightening.

I wish you much success in structuring your day to reach your goals!