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GTD Hack: Set Micro-Goals

By Becky McCray

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.

small biz rural entrepreneurship GTD goals chrisbrogan

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Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.

www.beckymccray.com
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April 14, 2006 Filed Under: planning

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