Goal Setting Strategies That Actually Work – A Step by Step Guide

It’s not enough to have goals in life. You need an actual game plan that works. Here are some ways to create goal setting strategies that you will stick with so you can achieve the things that you really want.

Often, we find the motivation to set goals when we are looking for a fresh start. It could be a new job, home, relationship, or simply the desire to turn a new page. At these key moments we create a long list of things that we want to change, accomplish, or finally get done. But then time passes, life happens, and we give up practically even before we start.

It’s a common scenario and usually we blame ourselves for not being more dedicated and disciplined.

So, what if I were to tell you that the problem isn’t you? It could be the way you went about setting up your goals in the first place.

Most of us were never really learned the true mechanics of how to set a goal. Instead we dreamed big, wrote it down, and tried to stay motivated. In this post I want to share the techniques that I use to move from “I want this” to “I did this”. And hopefully, you will find them helpful as you go about working on your goals, too.

I will walk you through the entire process from figuring out what you actually want, understanding what kind of goal you’re setting, writing it down in a way that’s actionable, and then breaking it into the small, concrete steps that turn intention into results.

First: What is Goal Setting?

In its simplest form goal setting is basically identifying an end result that you would like to achieve and creating a realistic plan to make it happen.

Take particular note of the second part of that statement: creating a realistic plan to make it happen. That is the piece where most people get tripped up. The first part is easy, setting the goal, identifying what you want. You feel good about it, and and are motivated for, like, a second. But as we know, motivation is unreliable. A plan is not.

You may have heard the quote: a goal without a plan is just a wish. It is true. Wishing for something and planning for something are completely different. Planning is what will move you closer to achieving your goal.

When my son was little he would say that he wanted to be a millionaire when he grew up. It was cute, and it was a just a wish.

The Importance of Goal Setting

So, why do we need to bother setting goals at all? Why not just live day to day and handle things as they come? Inherently, you know the answer to these questions, but I want to start with the basics so we can connect the dots.

Without goals you drift. It is easy to stay busy and look back on the day and feel like you have accomplished a lot. But being busy does not always take you to a place that is meaningful to your long term trajectory.

Goals are the tools you need to give you direction. They help you decide, in advance, where you will spend your time and energy for your long term benefit. And when life throws you a curve ball, your focused goals will get you back on track faster because you know what you’re supposed to be working toward.

For example, if your goal is to run a marathon, you need to fit your training in around your work schedule, probably mornings, evenings, and weekends. But typically, you will have other stuff to do like, laundry, cooking, cleaning, and errands. You can certainly keep yourself extremely busy doing these mundane activities and skip training, but you won’t get closer to your goal. Your defined goals will keep you on track and help you to look at alternative options for the other stuff you need to do.

Research regularly shows that people who set specific, written goals are significantly more likely to achieve them than people who don’t. Writing something down makes it real, and having a plan makes it actionable.

With goals and a plan of action, you are more likely to succeed!

Step 1: Get Clear on What You Actually Want

Before you write a single goal, you need to do a little honest reflection. This is the step most people rush past, and it’s actually the most important one.

Grab a notebook and set a timer for nor more than 15 minutes. Ask yourself the following questions and write down whatever comes to mind:

• What’s been nagging at me? What do I keep procrastinating on that I know I need to deal with?
• What area of my life feels the most out of control or unsatisfying right now?
• If I could wave a magic wand and change one thing about my daily life six months from now, what would it be?
• What have I been saying “someday I’ll do that” about for way too long?

Look back at what you wrote. You’re looking for your biggest pain points or the opposite – the things that you are most excited about getting started on. These are usually the goals that you want to start with first.

With goals and a plan of action, you are more likely to succeed!

Now comes the hard part: pick ONE. Yes, just one to start. You can always add more later, but starting with one goal and actually finishing it is far more valuable than starting five goals and abandoning all of them.

One of my favorite productivity books – The ONE Thing by Jay Papasan and Gary Keller (read my review here), is all about why you need to focus on only one thing at a time to get the best results. If you need help narrowing your list down, this book is a great resource.

Step 2: Understand What Kind of Goal You’re Setting

Not all goals are the same, and understanding the difference can help you set realistic expectations for yourself. Goals generally fall into three categories:

Outcome goals

Outcome goals focus on the end result and identify something you want to achieve.

An example of an outcome goal would be “I want to finish first in a race.”, “I want to lose 15 pounds.” or “I want to declutter my entire house.”. You could refer to these as big picture goals. One distinguishing aspect of outcome goals is that they are not entirely within your control. You can do everything right and still fall short, because external factors play a role.

Process goals

The second type of goals are process goals. These describe the actions that you will take consistently to move forward. For example, instead of a general, high level statement, you would say “I will walk for 30 minutes four times a week to lose weight.” or “I will spend one hour every Saturday morning decluttering one area of my house to get organized.”

Process goals are almost entirely within your control, because they’re about what you do, not what results from it.

Performance goals

The third type of goals, performance goals, sit somewhere in between Outcome and Process. These can be defined as personal benchmarks you set for yourself. Here are a few examples: “I want to be able to walk a mile without stopping.” or “I want to clear out one full room before the end of the month.” They are still outcome focused but you measure them against your own baseline.

The most effective goals usually combine all three types. You have a big picture outcome in mind, you set a process goal to define the actions that you will take consistently, and you use performance milestones to measure whether your process is working.

Step 3: Write It Down

Step 3 is where the real work begins. Writing your goal down is essential. Committing your goal to paper (or to an online platform) makes the goal seem real and makes it more concrete.

Be specific with the structure. One of the best ways to craft your goals is to use the information in my post about the S.M.A.R.T. goals framework here.

Here is an example of the best way to set a goal: “I want to completely declutter and reorganize my home office so it’s a space I actually enjoy working in. I’ll do this by spending 45 minutes every Sunday morning on it, starting this weekend, and I want to finish by the end of next month.”

It is specific, it includes an action (45 minutes every Sunday), a start date (this weekend), and a deadline (end of next month). You could look at it tomorrow and know exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.

For now, here’s a simple fill-in-the-blank structure you can use to write almost any goal:

I want to [specific outcome] by [deadline]. I will do this by [specific action steps], starting [start date].

Write yours out right now before you keep reading, it only takes two minutes and it makes everything that follows much easier.

Step 4: Break Your Goal Into Smaller Milestones

The next step is to break your goal down into smaller, bite sized pieces. This helps to keep you from getting too overwhelmed. Each step will be a milestone with it’s own mini deadline.

Start With Your Big Picture Goal and Work Backwards

Think about what your goal will look like when it is done. Write that down as your final milestone.

Then look at your timeline, how much time did you give yourself to get there? If it is three months, then figure out your milestones for each of the 2 months leading up it.

Then look at the milestone for the first month, divide that into 4 weekly milestones. Now look at your the milestone for your first week. What do you need to do daily for the next 7 days to be where you want to be at the end of the first week?

Now you have a daily action plan!

A Real Life Example

Imagine that your goal is to organize all your paper clutter, all the piles of mail, documents, receipts, and miscellaneous papers that have taken over your desk and kitchen counter. Your self imposed deadline is six weeks from now.

Working backwards, your milestones might look like this:

• Week 6: Everything is filed or shredded; systems are labeled and in place
• Week 5: Set up a filing system (physical folders or digital, or both); file everything that’s been sorted
• Week 4: Sort all keepers into categories (financial, medical, household, etc.)
• Week 3: Go through remaining piles — keep, shred, or recycle each item
• Week 2: Clear and sort the kitchen counter pile
• Week 1: Clear and sort the desk pile

Now take that week 1 milestone and allocate an hour a day to organize the papers on your desk. By the end of the week your desk should be organized and you should be all set to tackle the kitchen counter in week 2. By Friday, if your desk is still a mess, you can take a step back and figure out why. Did you not put in the work? Was one hour a day not enough time to get the job done? Whatever the reason, you can adjust your plan accordingly.

Step 5: Turn Milestones Into Weekly Action Steps

Milestones tell you what to accomplish each week. Action steps tell you exactly how you’re going to do it.

For each milestone, ask yourself – what are the specific things I need to do to get this done? Break it into tasks that are small enough to complete in one sitting.

Using the paper clutter example let’s take Week 1, clean and sort the paper on your desk. These are some action steps that we could do each day.

• Remove everything from the desk surface and put it in one box
• Go through the box item by item: keep, shred, or recycle
• Create a “to file” pile for things you’re keeping

That is three specific tasks that you have a whole week to finish. It seems realistic, but of course will depend on big of a pile of papers you have.

If you’re someone who loves lists follow some of the tips in my Getting Started With List Making Guide and use a dedicated notebook or planner to plan out your action steps.

Step 6: Schedule It

Remember this piece of advice: a goal with no time on the calendar is a goal that keeps getting pushed to tomorrow.

Once you have your milestones and action steps mapped out, open your planner or calendar and actually schedule them. Block off the time. Treat it like an appointment you’ve made with yourself because that is exactly what it it.

Make sure you are realistic about how long a task will take and be sure to add some time as a cushion in between the appointments on your calendar. The key here is to be true to yourself. If you put it on the calendar make sure you actually do the work during the allocated time. If you have a particularly busy week coming up, plan it by either doing a little extra the week before, or by giving yourself permission to do less this week without abandoning the goal entirely.

If you haven’t found a planner system that works for you yet, it’s worth spending some time figuring that out. The right setup makes a difference in your follow through. Check out how to pick the perfect planner for a breakdown of different layouts and styles that will help you to choose a planner that works the way you think.

Step 7: Find an Accountability Partner (Optional)

This step is optional, but used the right way, it can make a considerable difference in your motivation.

An accountability partner is someone who knows about your goal and checks in with you on your progress. This could be a friend, a family member, or even an online community of people working toward similar things. The help can go both ways if you are also helping them stay on track with their goals.

Ideally, your daily check in will take less than a minute. A short text or email about your plans for the day and a recap on how you fared the day before is all you need to do. Be careful with this though, if it turns into a longer conversation, you could be eating into your precious time.

Step 8: Track Your Progress Consistently

Setting your goal is just the beginning. What actually gets you to the finish line is showing up regularly, reviewing how things are going, and adjusting your approach when something isn’t working. This is why you should take the time to regularly track your goal progress.

There are many ways to do this but the short version is this: decide in advance how often you’ll check in (weekly, monthly, or both), schedule the time on your calendar, and when you sit down to review, ask yourself honestly what’s working, what isn’t, and what needs to change.

Finding Motivation to Follow Your Action Plan

Finding motivation to stick with your action plan can be tough. After, the initial buzz fades, the effort starts to feel like work, and all of a sudden your couch looks really appealing. Here are a few strategies that can keep you from quitting.

Reconnect with your why. Go back to what you wrote in Step 1. Why did this goal matter to you? Read it again. Sometimes that’s all it takes to get back on track.

Make your goal exciting. Michael Hyatt’s book Your Best Year Ever takes the S.M.A.R.T goals framework one step further and introduces the idea that goals need to excite you to work. If your goal feels like a chore, find a way to approach it differently so it feels more meaningful or enjoyable.

Use rewards. There is nothing wrong with bribing yourself a little and it doesn’t have to be a big bribe, just something that you enjoy. Once you finish a task, reward yourself with a cup of tea, an episode of your favorite show, or a small purchase you’ve been putting off.

Start smaller. If you’re avoiding a task because it feels too big, make it smaller. Tell yourself you’ll work on it for just ten minutes. Often that’s enough to get the momentum flowing, and you’ll end up doing more than you planned.

When is the Best Time to Set Goals?

The best time to set a goal is when you are ready to start working on it. You don’t need to wait for January 1st, or Monday, or the start of a new quarter. What matters most is not when you start, but that you actually start with a real plan rather than just a wish.

Goal Setting Books

If you want to go deeper on goal setting, these are books worth adding to your reading list:

• Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt
• The Most Powerful Goal Achievement System in the World by Mike Pettigrew (currently free with Kindle Unlimited)
• Goals: How to Get the Most out of Your Life by Zig Ziglar, and
• The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months by Michael Lennington

You can find reviews and recommendations for these and other productivity titles on my organization and productivity book list.

Let’s Put Everything Together

Here’s a quick summary of everything we’ve covered so you can come back to it as a reference:

Step 1: Reflect and identify what you genuinely want.

Step 2: Understand whether your goal is an outcome, process, or performance goal.

Step 3: Write your goal down in specific, concrete terms with a deadline.

Step 4: Break it into milestones by working backwards from the end result.

Step 5: Turn each milestone into small, specific action steps.

Step 6: Schedule those action steps in your planner or calendar.

Step 7: Find an accountability partner.

Step 8: Track your progress regularly and adjust as needed.

Start small if you need to. Pick one thing that’s been nagging at you, work through these steps, then rinse and repeat

For a deeper look at how goal setting fits into a productive, organized life, check out my Ultimate Guide to Personal Productivity.