You have listed out principles, priorities, time log, goals, objectives, and activities. Your priorities, usage of time, and principles are not going to change, but the goals can change. If setting goals changes then so will the objectives and activities. When there is a slight change, then the activities portion is what will change the most often since it outlines what needs to be done at the basic level. How do you know that your goals have changed? By regularly checking your goals and to see whether they still stand, you can check if goals have changed.
Do you think when you do these everything is done? This is the basis of setting goals and prioritizing for organizing your life. There is something in addition to setting priorities. Setting agendas is the next step to bring all this planning to reality and to ensure that your planning is something that is practical. You are in need of setting up agendas so that you can accomplish your goals. You will be well prepared when you set up the three different types of agendas.
Smart goal setting with the help of yearly, monthly, and weekly agendas
You can perform smart and practical goal setting when you set up three types of agendas; annual agenda, monthly agenda, and weekly agenda.
Annual agenda
An annual agenda or a yearly agenda is one that has all the tasks that you need to do on an annual basis. You may have to accomplish this task once a year or several times per year. You need to be thorough when it comes to the yearly agenda. It is crucial that you take your time to think about the priorities. If you do not know the specifics such as the month of the year when you have to accomplish it, then don’t do that. You can write it under the particular year as this can be enough to guide you.
The annual agenda gives you a clear overview of what you need to do in that year. You can use the yearly agenda for setting goals for the entire year. You can focus on big aspects such as planning a vacation. While it is true that you cannot plan the year to the tee, at least you will have a clear outline with which you can work. It will make it efficient for you to control whatever you can instead of leaving it to fate. You will be able to see through the annual agenda what you actually do with your time.
Monthly Agenda
You need to use the annual agenda along with your priority list to set up the monthly agenda for smart goal setting. You can set up the monthly agenda once a month. If you are aware of the week in which you are supposed to do the particular task, then you can be specific too. You can work on your monthly agenda twice if necessary and if you are not sure about the upcoming tasks that you might need to do. Like all agendas, you should regularly amend whenever it is necessary to do so as this will avoid any confusion at later stages.
Weekly agenda
The weekly agenda should be set up by using the priority list as your reference and then writing things that need to be done on a weekly basis. If possible, you can choose to do as many tasks as possible on one day. This will free up space on other days so that you can schedule other things and get more done. If you feel like Mondays are the days when you can get a lot done since you are at your prime time, then you should choose Mondays to schedule enough tasks so that you can get them done at the start of the week.
You can give yourself a day when you are not doing anything but simply relaxing. You can schedule this mid-week or at the end of the week like Sunday. This is the time that you will be relaxing completely. This will de-stress you and ensure that you are working at your best at all times. When you prioritize giving yourself a break, then the rest of the week is going to go more smoothly because you know you have that one day when you will be getting the time to do your favorite activity or to just rest.
How to use your agendas effectively for practical goal setting?
You can use the following tips to ensure you are using agendas the right way.
- It is important to reassess your requirements and needs regularly. As time passes, something new can come up that needs to be included in your agenda. You need to make changes to your agendas accordingly. Don’t forget that this is a part of setting goals.
- You should rethink your priorities every now and then to ensure that the goals that you have set reflect your priorities. You might have added responsibilities that are more important than the ones that are already in place. You should change your agenda in this case.
- There might be things that are gone from your life forever. Remove such aspects from your agendas. You don’t want things that no longer are part of your life to be there taking up space on your agendas.
- Try to make appointments months in advance if possible and write these in your agendas — the more advanced, the better. For example, if you are taking a full health checkup, then you can book your appointment in advance. Whatever you can set up in advance, do it.
- When you are setting goals, you need to ensure that there are no conflicts. You should immediately reschedule when you realize that there are conflicts in your agendas. This will help ensure that you are at the top of your game always.
- You should be prepared for what you have to do. In the evening or at night, go through what you need to do for the next day. This will ensure you remember what you need to do and you can start your next day knowing what you are supposed to do.
- Don’t forget to schedule the things that you could not complete. For example today you could not finish the task X. Ensure that you schedule X for tomorrow or some other day when you can accomplish it.
- At the end of the week, take a look at what all you have to do in the next week or two. This will give you a general overview of what needs to be done. If rescheduling is necessary, then you can do that with ease ahead of time.
- The month end is the best time to look at your annual agenda and setting goals. You can take a look at what is upcoming in the next six weeks. You can then add these activities to your planner so that you are good to go and you are aware of what tasks have to be completed.
- If you know when something is to take place, you can add the date to your planner. This will make things easier for you, and it will enable you to organize practically. It will help with goal setting too.
These smart ways of goal setting will ensure you are making use of your time wisely.
