Set And Achieve Goals: My System
I have been using this system for about the last 5 years to ensure that I set and achieve goals by focusing on the goals that are most important to me and by breaking them down into manageable chunks. It has helped me achieve outstanding exam results, get into and graduate from Cambridge, stay fit, write books, and even write this blog post!
In this post, you will learn to set longer-term goals in an Impossible List, focus on a few goals each month (your Focus Goals) and break down these Focus Goals into manageable chunks so that you have a clear list of things to do for the month – your Action Plan.
The beauty of this system is that is helps you spend your time doing the things that really matter. This helps you cut out the other stuff you are wasting your time on and creates a whole load more time for doing the things you love!
This system is all about prioritisation – making sure you achieve goals not only in your academic and professional life, but also in your personal life: spending time with your boyfriend/girlfriend, playing football, getting fit, travelling and anything else you might want to do!
Systems are awesome. And here’s why.
Let’s take an old-fashioned factory line, with real people doing different jobs to eventually produce an end product, like a car.
Each day, the workers arrive to the factory and randomly assign themselves different jobs. The chances are that some of the jobs that need doing will have too many people to do them. Other, less popular jobs, such as cleaning the factory toilets, are forgotten about.
This is because humans will naturally choose what is easiest. We are hard-wired to want to succeed, but through the minimum possible effort. Therefore, we often try to avoid the trickier tasks, even if they need doing.
That’s why the factory has a system. This system ensures that every task is carried out by the minimum number of people as quickly as possible.
“Systems permit us to remove chance. They allow us to ensure that we perform as effectively as possible. They prevent us from forgetting, or just not bothering, to do something.”
The system that I use is made up of four steps, and is actually very simple. It involves:
Setting long-term goals
Focusing on a few goals each month
Breaking down these focus goals into actionable steps
Working to complete these steps and achieving my goals
Now, these 4 steps may seem obvious. However, ask yourself:
“Do I currently have a system for ensuring that I focus on specific goals and break these down into easy steps?”
If the answer is no, then the chances are you are not being as focused or as productive as you could otherwise be.
Long-term goals are the things that you really, ultimately want to achieve.
I’m not necessarily talking life goals like what job you want to have or who you want to marry (although feel free to include these if you’ve already decided 😝).
Nor am I talking about very small things like doing well in next week’s English test or making it to 12 o’clock today without eating a Mars bar.
Longer-term goals are things that might only happen every six months or year – or perhaps even longer! They can be crazy, stretching, unlikely and even outright silly, but they should all be things you genuinely would like to do or achieve.
… And these “long-term” goals go into what I like to call an Impossible List!
The Impossible List
An Impossible List is a collection of all of the long-term goals you have, divided up into different categories. These different categories could be things like: Studies, Fitness, Travel, Personal Life… You get the idea.
I recommend you carry on reading this entire post so that you have an idea how the Impossible List fits into my overall system before you go and create your own.
I’ve written another post on creating your own Impossible List, including my own list and a downloadable template for you to get creating your own.
What distinguishes an Impossible List from a Bucket List is that you take action each month towards achieve your goals, rather than keeping them on your Bucket List as things you might do at some point in the very distant future.
Focus Goals are long-term goals from your Impossible List that you choose to focus on for the month.
Each month, you review your Focus Goals to determine:
What you’ve accomplished
What you need to keep working on
What new goals you’d like to focus on for the coming month
These focus goals can come from any of the categories within your Impossible List, and should usually come from many different categories. This helps to make sure you are finding a healthy balance between the different parts of your life.
Here’s a screenshot of my focus goals from back in February 2017!
The key difference between an Impossible List and a conventional Bucket List is that the Impossible List is driven towards actually accomplishing your goals.
Let’s say that one of my overall goals were to write and publish a book. (This actually was one of my goals back in 2014!) If I weren’t using this system, I would probably be crazily overwhelmed at how much you need to do to get a book written, and I’d never even get started.
However, with this system, ‘Write a book’ is in the ‘Personal Development’ section of my Impossible List.
One month, say in January, I decide that I actually want to accomplish this goal. So, I add it to my ‘Focus Goals’ for the month.
I then create an Action Plan.
Action Plan
An Action Plan is like a to-do list. It’s a list of all of the smaller goals and tasks you would like to accomplish during the course of a month in order to get you closer to achieving your longer-term goals (such as writing a book).
Your Action Plan is split up into the different Focus Goals for the month.
For each Focus Goal, you must create a series of smaller steps that will help you get closer to your end goal.
Outline the process from beginning to end
Sticking with the example of writing a book, let’s have a look at exactly how I can go from adding ‘Writing a book’ to my focus goals for January to actually having an Action Plan I can follow.
First of all, I would have a think about the entire process to take me from where I am now to actually accomplishing my end goal of finishing the book.
This helps you assess how long it is going to take and how much you need to do each month in order to get the book completed. Something along the lines of:
“First, I need to come up with an idea for the book, then work out the overall contents and structure. Then, I need to get together a more precise plan of exact chapters. Then I can begin writing and I need to get through 20 pages a week to have a 160-page book finished in about 2 months. Then I’ll edit, check, and get it proofread. Then, I need a cover.”
… You get the picture! It’s just a general idea of what you are going to have to do to achieve your goal.
Set your actionable steps for the month
Then, I would begin writing out exactly what I need to do to get started this month:
Research possible topics for book subject and decide on a specific topic (10 hours research time)
Decide on a rough title
Plan overall progression of book (chapters + contents of each chapter)
Notice that these pointers are much smaller steps towards writing a book. These are short-term goals that contribute towards achieving a bigger, longer-term goal.
They are also very specific. As a general rule:
“When it comes to your Action Plan, the more specific, the better. Include amounts of time, word counts and any other numbers that allow you to track exactly how you are doing.”
Repeat for all of your Focus Goals for the month
Now I have the steps I’m going to take this month to get me closer to completing my book, I repeat this process for all of my other Focus Goals.
… And altogether, these small steps now make up my Action Plan for the month: a list of everything I need to do in order to feel fulfilled, in the knowledge that I am getting closer to crossing goals off my Impossible List!
Keep your action plan visible!
I keep my action plan on a piece of paper on my desk throughout the course of each month. I make sure to do my very best to complete each of the steps before the month is over.
Here’s the printed version of my Action Plan from back in February 2017!
Once you have your Action Plan, it is now up to you to schedule to complete these different steps over the course of the month.
That’s it. That is the exact system I use to ensure I set myself challenging goals, break them down into manageable steps and then work through these steps to ultimately accomplish all of my long-term goals!
The first step is to make your own Impossible List, so go and check out my own Impossible List here. Be sure to download my Impossible List template so that you know exactly what you need to do – it’s available near the end of this post!