Right across from me where I sit and do work every day, I have my goals for 2023. They are typed out and printed on a piece of paper I hung up to see every single day. This serves the very intentional purpose of keeping me aligned with my goals and not straying away from what is important. Whenever I am about to give my time to do something, that checklist is a reminder to ask myself if what I’m about to do is going to contribute to checking one of those boxes. If it isn’t, then I know that I’m about to misuse my time. Seeing the direct correlation with my daily activity and my goals is motivating and gives me a sense of purpose and accomplishment. The satisfaction I get knowing that my efforts are allowing me to check off these boxes keeps me aligned to my mission.
Determining what is a quality use of time
Time is your most valuable asset. How you spend your time means everything because, unlike money, once time is spent it’s gone and it can’t come back. Having said that, making sure that every waking moment is aligned with my goals and my mission is imperative to make sure that I keep away from procrastination and value every moment for the precious gifts they are. Many people fill their days with busy work to simply line up their calendar with things to do. Unfortunately, this is the structure of many people’s professional corporate careers. Like most people, I have been a victim of poor time usage on meaningless busywork in the past. Putting my goals up right in front of me forces me to question and scrutinize every task I do throughout any given day to make sure it is the best use of my time. If there is no direct correlation between what I intend to do and the goals I have laid out right in front of me, it simply isn’t a good use of my time. The checklist is a powerful tool to manage your time effectively and make sure every second counts.
The momentum of checking off the boxes
Slowly, one by one, going down the list and checking off the boxes on your checklist is an extremely gratifying and momentous feeling. When you can check off a box, it means you have spent your precious time in such a fashion that allowed you to accomplish a big goal of yours. Correlating your daily activities to your goals in an easily visible way may seem like something so simple, which it is, yet many don’t do it. The benefits of using such a system are enormous. Procrastination and the feeling of being lost without any idea of what to do with your time that is all too common simply seem to vanish.
Momentum is a powerful thing. It boosts your confidence and allows you the ability to keep persevering through difficulty and adversity to continually check off the boxes on your lofty list of goals. While most people will feel the heated pressure of such goals and question how to reach them, the checklist turns this right on its head! When the goals are right in front of you, the path to reach them becomes so much clearer. You can measure your daily actions against the goals you have and see if and how you’re making any tangible progress in the right direction. If you are, keep going! If not, you know to change course before you throw yourself in a loop and eventually entirely lose your sense of direction on where you were going in the first place!
Eliminating procrastination and excuses
People always make excuses for what happened to their time during the day. “There’s not enough hours in the day for me to get everything done!”. This is such a common phrase that is thrown out there all too often. Having that checklist of goals in front of you makes you take a step back to evaluate everything you do so if you’re not getting to where you want to be, you’ll have an idea as to why. It’s not that there aren’t enough hours in the day, it’s what you do during those hours that makes the difference. How long did you spend scrolling on social media? How long was your lunch break? Did any of the tasks you accomplished that day take you 1% closer to a goal on your checklist? If not, then you’re misusing your time. Like we talked about in the beginning of this blog, time is your greatest asset. Abuse your time and you’ll coast through life wondering when success will fall on your lap. People who don’t actively align themselves with their goals fall victim to victimhood itself blaming the hours in the day for their lack of progress. Take a step back, reflect inwards, and use your time wisely. Hold yourself accountable and success will have a way to find you.