Goal Crushing 101: Techniques for Setting Deadlines and Prioritizing Tasks

You’ve narrowed down what you want and hopefully, using one of our goal-setting frameworks, now have goals written down! This is the first step towards creating your success. To turn your dreams into reality, you need a strategic approach that involves breaking down your goals, setting realistic deadlines, prioritizing tasks, and holding yourself accountable. In this post, I'll explore these crucial steps, providing actionable insights and strategies to help you navigate the path toward accomplishing your goals effectively and efficiently.

 

 

Break Down Your Goal

Once you have your long-term goals, you’ll need to break them down into smaller, short-term goals which you’ll be able to use as your milestones or checkpoints. You’ll further break down these into more manageable tasks. You can do this for every goal you are currently trying to achieve and create a core index of all of your goals and their breakdowns. 

It seems like a lot, but it’s not! By breaking down the goals, you will be able to put into perspective the deadline you need so that you’re not looking at a timeline of doom. Often, your target is out of reach which causes you to feel like you’ve failed. 

If you prefer setting more short-term goals versus long-term goals, this method can still help you in breaking down your goal into smaller realistic tasks. 

Realistic Deadlines

Now that you have a core index of your long-term goals, milestones, and tasks it’s time to set realistic deadlines. There are two ways in which you can accomplish this. 

The first is if your goal already has a specific date of completion. If you have a project due date or a marathon, then list that date as your completion date for your long-term goal. Then figure out how much time you have to allocate to each milestone and then break that time down between each task. 

The second way is if you can set your own deadline. If so, then think of your long-term goals as needing to be completed in approximately 6 months to a year. Short-term goals or milestones at about a month, and tasks to be completed either daily or weekly. Then you can work backward to set a timeline based on your tasks to complete your milestones and move even closer to accomplishing your overall goal.

Remember to be realistic about the time you have for each task. The best practice is to over-estimate the amount of time you need so that if you complete a task quickly, move to the next and you’re ahead of schedule! If it takes a little longer then you're not rushing to finish the task to get to the next one.

 

Prioritizing Tasks

To help you in setting realistic deadlines, learning how to prioritize each task can be exceedingly helpful. As a small business owner, every task may look as important as the next so finding a place to start can seem overwhelming. Learning how to prioritize can help in this instance because it will help you focus on what needs to be accomplished first. Different methods can be used to prioritize your tasks (or projects) but I'm going to concentrate on the ABC Method by Brian Tracy. 

This method is simple and efficient. You start by making a list of all your tasks (which we did above with your core index). 

Then you begin selecting which tasks are the most urgent and important. Write an A next to each. 

If you have more than one A task, then you will repeat the process of prioritizing using numbers next to your A’s. For example, A1, A2, etc. 

Next, prioritize the important but not urgent tasks. These are tasks you should do but have only mild consequences if you do not finish them today. Write a B next to each.

Again, if you have more than one B task, repeat the process of prioritizing using numbers next to each B. For example, B1, B2, etc. 

Last are C tasks. These are not important and not urgent so they have no consequence whether they are finished or not. Try to avoid these tasks as they will use you time in a less efficient way and not help towards achieving your overall goals.

 

Creating Accountability

This is a tough one. If you're setting personal goals or are a solopreneur then there is no one to keep track of your progress except for you. So how do you do that for yourself? Your mindset is a big factor in this because only some people may need to do as little as change their environment to reduce distractions while others feel like if they announce what they are doing to everyone, it will keep them on track. 

For more elaboration on this, read 3 Strategies for Holding Yourself Accountable by Diana Kander written on Feb. 2, 2022, at the Harvard Business Review. 

You have to dig deep to figure out what works best for you and if you aren’t sure, take a leap of faith and pick one method to try first. Be careful of changing it up too quickly because if you don’t give the method you picked a solid try, then it may be the main reason for not being able to stay accountable for what you want to accomplish. 

 

Achieving your goals requires a strategic approach that includes breaking them down into manageable steps, setting realistic deadlines, prioritizing tasks, and holding yourself accountable. However, it's important to remember that flexibility is key; be open to making changes as needed along the way. Also be sure to celebrate your milestones, no matter how small, to provide motivation and reinforce your progress. By incorporating these key steps into your goal-setting process and maintaining a flexible mindset, you'll be well-equipped to turn your dreams into tangible achievements. Keep pushing forward, stay focused, and celebrate each step of the journey towards success!

 

Let me know if any of these techniques have helped you and don't forget to subscribe today! 

 

Resources

https://www.briantracy.com/blog/leadership-success/practice-the-abc-method/ 

https://blog.rescuetime.com/how-to-prioritize/ 

https://hbr.org/2022/02/3-strategies-for-holding-yourself-accountable