Small Steps Guide To Goal Setting And Time Management

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• Publisher: Straightforward Publishing Digital
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781847163349
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Time Management

A Small Steps Guide to Time Management and Goal Setting is a no-nonsense guide to discovering goals and making them concrete. It is ideal for goal setting for health, career, study, family, finances, travel or leisure. Written for those who want a straightforward guide to getting their dreams on track, with special sections for those who lack motivation or who never seem to have time, readers have access to the small steps method website for further tips and advice.

Part 1: Goal setting

Chapter 1: Small Steps to Goal Setting

Small steps in a nutshell

You can take a task, however daunting, and break it down into smaller and smaller steps until it becomes manageable. You can do small things in your everyday life to allow you to achieve what you want to.

About this chapter

This chapter introduces the small steps method. I start by telling you more about how this book works. Then I’ll ask you to begin to think about yourself and your aspirations and show you the ten small steps principles. The rest of the chapter includes the basics of keeping a journal, and a definition of what a goal is and what a goal isn’t. It finishes with a brief introduction to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and some practical exercises for you to try.

Small steps to goal setting: an introduction

About this book.

This book is designed to do four things:

• You’ll be introduced to the small steps method.

• You’ll learn how to set personal, value-led goals.

• You’ll learn the principles of time management.

• You’re given a list of resources, as well as access to the Small Steps Method website, to help you take things further.

The book is divided into two halves: goal-setting and time management. This introduction gives you the basic overview of the small steps method. Both sections of the book elaborate on it. The advice in the first section is designed to fit any kind of goal-setting, whether it relates to a personal ambition, your career, a charity or business, or a group of people with a shared dream.

Discovering your goals: An overview of you.

First I’d like to invite you to do an overview of you. Right now, whatever you are doing with your life, what’s good about being you? Take a moment to appreciate yourself. What are your dreams and ambitions and your hopes for the future? Is there anything you’d like to change? Are there any skills you’d like to develop?

The small steps method

The small steps method is about taking a task – any task – and breaking it down into small steps. It doesn’t matter what that task is, the same principles apply. Here are the small step principles, in a nutshell, followed by an example. This is the first time I’ve articulated them, especially for this book. The rest of the book is dedicated to showing you how to apply the small steps method to goal setting and time management.

1. Small steps are small. Break down a task until you get to something you could easily achieve today.

2. Small steps are specific and concrete. Make the small steps as down-to-earth and measurable as possible, if it suits you.

3. Small steps don’t cost a fortune. Do as many free steps as possible first. Financing a project can also be broken down into small steps.

4. Small steps are just
like footsteps: Take one small step and take another small step after it. Keep taking small steps.

5. Small steps are just small steps. They don’t rely on luck, on other people, or on results.

6. Small steps don’t necessarily go in a straight line. One action doesn’t have to lead directly to the next, as long as they all relate back to the task.

7. Take lots of small steps, especially at the beginning.

8. Turn up. Small steps require you to get off the sofa.

9. Once you’ve prepared, you can do small steps without even thinking about it.

10. Small steps deserve to be appreciated. Pause at regular intervals to acknowledge your progress and to keep in check. Keep some kind of record in a notebook or journal, on a computer or on your blog.

What you need to do to understand and follow the small steps method:

Throughout this book, I suggest that you do some exercises. This is a common theme of the small steps method – small practical exercises that:

• Help you to be more aware of your life, your values and your goals.

• Help you to practice a technique or idea.

Do the exercises in a notebook or on your computer or hand-held device. This will form a record of your progress. The exercises are all optional. In fact, they won’t all be relevant or attractive to you. Pick those you’re interested in. Leave the others. I suggest that you do these exercises in a notebook (paper or digital) so that you can collect them in one place and look back over them. You might want separate notebooks for some of the other suggestions, like the bugs diary (in chapter twelve) or the food diary (in chapter thirteen), if you choose to do them. The notebooks are specifically for jotting down the results of the exercises in this book. Often I ask you to carry one around, so you may want to buy a portable one! By the way, some of the exercises are repeated, getting more advanced or more detailed each time. This is deliberate: so that you’re introduced to a concept first and then given time to work on it.

Keeping a journal

What is a journal?

You may find it helpful to keep a journal while you are working towards particular goals. This particularly relates to small steps principle number 10. A journal is a place to record a commentary on the process. It’s also a place to record your thoughts and feelings, dreams and ideas. You can use it like a scrapbook too. Where an exercise asks you to think about your thoughts and feelings about a particular issue, you could include this in your journal. Again, this is optional. You might feel that the more straightforward notebook is enough for you, although there are various reasons to keep a journal:

• Record it. Some people like to have a record of their progress in one particular goal or project. This kind of journal focuses on challenges and set backs, successes and unexpected pleasures resulting from the journey you’ve decided to undertake. For example, in chapter twelve I ask you to imagine a fictional person called Martin who wants to build his own house. He might want to record his progress like this.

• Practical ideas and suggestions. For his kind of project, Martin might need a place to set down practical details as he goes forward.

• Inspiration. You can also use a journal for inspirational images, words and snippets of text to help you to visualise where you want to go.

• Get it out. You can use a journal for self-expression - to vent in whatever way you want to.

Using your journal to complete your plan.

Chapter three includes a number of goal setting activities. Once you’ve worked through them you’ll have a complete list of the goals you want to achieve. If you decide to use a journal, you can include a goal plan at the beginning.

Who writes about journaling?

If you’re interested in journaling and want to take it further, you might find the following writers useful.

• Julia Cameron suggests keeping Morning Pages in the bestselling The Artist’s Way and The Sound of Paper. You can also find out more on her website. Have a look at the resources section.

• Therapeutic writing. It’s beyond the scope of this book but you can find lots of information on journaling in books on therapeutic writing. There are some suggestions in the resources section.

What is a goal?

Defining ‘a goal’

Before you start setting goals, it’s useful to figure out exactly what a goal is:

• concrete and specific (or at least can be turned this way). You will never know if a goal is achievable - or even something you actually want to do – unless you make it concrete and specific. Concrete means you’ll know if you’ve achieved it. It’s something you could actually do in real terms. Specific means getting down to the nitty-gritty of what you would have to do to achieve the goal. It’s not general or vague. If you find yourself feeling a little suspicious or cynical about specific and measurable goals, have a look at chapter seven now: I review Stephen M. Shapiro’s ‘goal-free’ approach there.

• something you want to achieve. It’s odd when you think about it but a lot of us go round with (usually rather vague and non-specific) goals that come from what other people expect of us, or that we have heard somewhere are good ideas. Let go of it if you don’t really want to do it.

• a goal is attached to a reason (even if it’s ‘because I fancy it’). One danger with goal setting is that we make up goals to do with something we’re not really interested in, just because it’s become a habit. A goal has a reason attached to it – you know why you want to do it.

• a goal is often time-limited (or at least can be turned this way). Many writers on goal-setting agree that we need to be able to tell whether we’ve achieved a goal or not by using a timeframe. This is scary because it means committing to do something by a particular date, which is why many of our goals remain unformed in our heads and we never let go of those we don’t really want to do. However, not all goal-setting gurus agree: for other approaches to goal setting, have a look at chapter seven.

• a goal is achievable (but it can be a challenge). This seems obvious at first sight but it’s the chief paradox of goal-setting advice. Many writers tell us to dream big or even to dream the impossible. Some even seem to tell us that we don’t need to take any action – just thinking about it enough will make it happen. A goal needs to be challenging and achievable.

And now, just to make sure, let’s look at what a goal isn’t:

• What you think you should do. A goal isn’t guilt-laden; a goal is about what you want to achieve: sometimes a subtle difference, sometimes a huge one.

• What other people think you should do: it’s impossible to dispel other people’s expectations entirely – especially when they are close friends or relatives – but your heart will never be in it if you follow society’s agenda or your parent’s or next door neighbour’s. Make sure they are your goals.

• What you could do: perhaps you could train to cross the Sahara Desert, win a pie eating contest, hike in the Andes – but do you want to? Idiomatic goals (used in the media as short-hand for high achievement) like writing a novel, running a marathon, swimming the Amazon and climbing Kilimanjaro can catch us out – it’s ok if you don’t.

• Inflexible or set in stone: a myth put about in some goal-setting self-help books is that we must do anything and everything to strive towards our goals. Not true! They might change. You might change.

• A promise or a guilt trip. You can change your mind; if you don’t achieve your goal you’ve learnt something along the way.

Do you need a goal?

Bear in mind the results of the following exercise when considering whether you need to set a goal or goals in a part of your li...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Part 1: Goal setting
• Part 2: Time Management