New Year, New Strategies: Mastering Productivity and Goal Achievement
This Christmas break, I reflected on my productivity and goal-achievement strategies. As we step into the New Year, I’d like to share the refined approaches I’ll be adopting. Hope you can find some value in it as well!
Steps for balanced productivity and goal-achievement:
1. Meditation.
Meditation is a great way to allow yourself to mentally process all of your thoughts and feelings. By allowing your mind to run free and think things through their many possibilities and outcomes, you can arrive at a clear conclusion about how to solve a problem or the next steps toward achieving a goal. Meditation is a great first step in determining what to spend your time on, and how to go about doing it.
2. Journaling.
Journaling the outcomes of your meditations, or whenever a thought or idea arises at any time of day, is a great way to collect these outcomes and action items in a centralized location. I prefer to journal directly after meditating because usually, I can arrive at a clear list of my priorities and action plan as a result of the meditation session, and writing it down is a way to have a concrete plan to follow up on.
3. Prioritize.
Taking the items you’ve noted down and sorting them by priority helps to further clarify what needs to be worked on and when. I like to prioritize items with the following system which is similar, but not exactly, the Eisenhower matrix. My approach follows what I’m calling the 3 P’s:
- Problem-solving:
If an item is a problem, meaning there will be negative consequences of any kind that need to be addressed, that will go to the top of my list. Problems can be anything from a health issue, to a problem at work, to bills needing to be paid. These are all problems that need to be addressed ASAP, and not doing so will cause further issues, resulting in more time spent. - Being Proactive:
Being proactive is a great way to solve issues before they arise in the first place. This mitigates the potential of problems arising at all and saves you from having to stop focusing on more enjoyable tasks to take care of something pressing. - Passion Projects:
This is what we all want to spend our time on. The things that make our hearts sing. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a ‘project’. Doing things we are passionate about can involve spending more time with family, playing games, or other activities that we enjoy. By addressing your problems first, or preventing them from occurring at all by being proactive, you are setting yourself up to only focus on the things that bring true value and enjoyment in your life.
4. Be thorough.
This one is key because all of the above activities, unless done thoroughly, could cause further problems to arise in the future or the outcome of your passion projects or goals may not yield their utmost potential. This can be applied to anything. For example, if you have a goal for a great product, and you spend many hours of your time on it but you skip over things that could take it from good to great, you are watering down its potential. If you spend a bit more time and take the extra steps to do it well, you not only complete the task but also achieve something you can be incredibly proud of.
5. Lastly, be persistent.
It is hard to do anything worthwhile. Whether it is a big ambitious project, a health goal, or solving daily problems like maintaining friendships, none of these things will reap their rewards unless you are persistent and see things through. You have to recognize that struggle is a part of the process, and even if you have moments where you fall off the wagon, picking yourself up and continuing along the path is essential to reach a goal. The thing to remember is you are further along in your journey then you’ve ever been, and even if you stop, you can always pick up and continue and already be further than you’ve ever been before.
Conclusion
I hope you’ve found some value in these musings. I’m grateful that I’ve had this vacation time to spend mulling these things over, but understand that life can get hectic and we will once again be lost in the weeds, only able to focus on the here and now. By capturing this framework in written form, hopefully, it will serve as a reminder that with a few simple steps, we can be back on track toward our goals, and learn to enjoy the process, however challenging it may be.
Thanks for reading and happy holidays!
Written by Jacob Lovett
