Chris Brogan is still Getting Things Done. His latest post is on setting micro-goals. It’s like the old saying, you can eat an elephant one bite at a time.
The key is to set the goals JUST high enough that they’re not meaningless and trivial, but they’re not so big a bite that you’ve got a great excuse not to follow through.
Chris walks you through the whole thing, all the way to evaluating results and adjusting course.
A related concept is to keep your goal setting in the present moment. Wayne Dyer explained this on a really old audio book I found. As you set each goal, you keep it in the present moment.
- Just for today, can I spend one hour on planning?
- From now until closing, can I put extra effort into customer service?
- Right now, can I choose to focus on only one task?
And the answer is, “of course!” Of course you can do it for one day, one hour, right now.
By using micro-goals to keep the steps small, and by focusing on the present moment, you can turn some of those larger ambitions into meaningful actions.