3 Things to Consider When Setting Weekly Goals

In the past I’ve always been a goal setter, but for a variety of reasons I haven’t been as good about setting them this year. I realized how much this was actually dragging me down. There’s so much I’d like to do, but without these goals to map my way I wasn’t coming close to accomplishing them. So I reached out to a friend and asked if she’d like to set weekly goals. She had also been talking about all the things she wants to accomplish, but nothing was happening. We decided to start setting weekly goals, and also to meet and discuss weekly. We’re tracking our goals in a goals journal–both of us have a notebook that we write them down in. I also like to track a few other things in mine, which I’ll talk about more below.

I just looked through my goals journal and it’s crazy to realize that we’ve only been doing this for a month. It feels like we’ve been doing it longer because of how much it has improved my mindset and how much I’ve accomplished because of it so far. (Things like getting back into the routine of updating the blog.)

If you feel like you’re stuck or not making as much progress as you could in achieving your goals, I highly recommend creating a time and a place (like a goals journal) to start tracking and analyzing the things you’d like to do. Being so intentional about it has been helpful for me. I also recommend doing this with a friend, if you’re able to. The accountability is so helpful! Here are some things to consider as you set your weekly goals.

1 // Make them doable.

Choose a set number of goals you’d like to have each week and don’t go above it. Since my Top 3 works well for me each day, I made a Top 3 for the week.

[Tweet “Weekly goal setting tip: make them doable. It helps if you’re actually able to accomplish them!”]

This is where having a friend involved helps. Anna has asked if my goals are doable before. She did it again this week–I have a busy weekend ahead, so she asked if I’d still be able to accomplish them with all that’s happening. It forced me to take a minute and think through exactly how I’ll go about accomplishing them. She also encouraged me to stick to a Top 3 when I thought about setting more one week. I’m grateful she did!

2 // What types of things do you want to use your goals for?

I’m able to stay on top of work tasks without setting a goal and I also have a system that works well for keeping track of what needs to be done, but I don’t do as well with my own creative pursuits or life administration stuff. I’m always ready to go over the weekly hours that I set aside for clients to “get ahead,” but it means I don’t get at things I need to do for me. I think this is one thing that has contributed to a feeling of frustration for so much of this year. My goals are focused on writing, blogging, life “admin,” and other things I need to do for my personal wellbeing, like developing a habit of reading again (which for me also fits into writing… I need to read to be able to write)

[Tweet “Weekly goal setting tip: decide what areas in your life you’d like to focus on for your goals.”]

This really helps give focus and direction as you set your goals each week and ensures that you can use these weekly goals to help accomplish your larger goals. For me that means making progress with my writing, getting back into this blogging thing, and ensuring that I’m doing things I need to do to make life flow as smoothly as possible. (In other words, #adulting.)

3 // Take time to think about why you achieved your goals or why you didn’t.

At the end of each week, I take a look at which goals I accomplished (hopefully all!) and which ones I didn’t. First I think through why I accomplished them. (I accomplished my goal of reading a little bit every day because I made it a priority to turn off my computer at a certain time every day to get ready for bed and give myself enough time to read. I also fell asleep with a book open instead of watching a TV show.)

If I don’t make my goals, I come up with my excuses as to why. I call them my excuses for a reason. Sometimes they are legit, but sometimes they’re just excuses, so I want to see them as such. I don’t want to justify them unless I look through them and see they are justifiable. This doesn’t mean I’m hard on myself if I don’t achieve my goals. I take it as an off week and move forward. Some of my excuses have been:

• I didn’t achieve a goal I had planned because I looked into this other thing that has been on my to-do list since July. That, to me, was justifiable because it was going to become a goal at some point anyway and it needed to be done. It had actually been on my to-do list for a longer period of time than this other thing.
• Last week I didn’t do as well as I had been doing with my goals. One of them was too big and probably should have been broken down into two parts. I also felt like I was coming down with something and was pretty zapped of energy. Still, there are things I could have done that I didn’t. But I’ll move forward and continue to work toward them.

[Tweet “Take time each week to reflect on why you accomplished your goals–or why you didn’t.”]

Setting weekly goals is another thing that has helped cultivate a positive mindset. It feels good to make myself a priority and feel like I’m on top of some of these things that I kept putting off. I am a believer that we’ll make time for the things that are a priority and I needed to ensure I was doing that.

Do you make weekly goals? What do you consider to when making yours?

[Tweet “Three things to consider when setting weekly goals.”]