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Do you have a goal achievement routine to close the month and kick off a new month?
If not, I highly recommend you start one. Procrastination and going with the flow are not effective tactics.
Month-end is a time of reflection and planning for me. I wrap up the month that is ending, celebrating my wins and set clear intentions to guide my work for the new month.
This 1 ritual keeps me on track for my business and helps me to maintain my work life balance.
It also gives me a chance to reflect on what I want to achieve and how far I’ve progressed with my goals for the year following the guidance in Goal Achievement Simplified.
My theme and focus for May was goal achievement and I shared my strategies and tactics with Karmic Ally Coaching’s subscribers.
In this post, I’ll show you what I do to stay focused, especially when procrastination rears its ugly head.
It’s really quite simple, provided you have the Willpower to stick to it.
7 Step Process for getting monthly Goals and Tasks done
I love checklists and To Do Lists. There’s nothing like making big tick marks or crossing out actions and having a document that captures evidence of goals achieved and what needs to be tweaked to succeed. The image below captures the process.
It’s a simple 7 step formula which works because it brings your attention and awareness to where you are and where you want to go.
In fact, all Karmic Ally Coaching programs work on this premise – to move you from point A to B in the fastest and easiest manner possible.
I have another little practice that I use during steps 5 and 6 which works even for those of us who aren’t into metaphysical practices. It involves using the Power of Intention and Gratitude backed up by commitment to get the work done.
The details of this practice are given in my blog post Are You Intent on Intending?
This isn’t just a Law of Attraction or Creative Visualization Technique. It works well with time management strategies and I recommend you try it.
For example, 2 of my goals for May were to complete a new mini-course for you to help you decide what you want from your job, career or even business and launch a shorter coaching program for a career action plan that will incorporate my favorite metaphysical techniques.
I used the powers of intention and gratitude to raise my vibrations and completed these tasks while I also served my clients, had time for my family and hung out on LinkedIn and Facebook engaging in interesting Group discussions.
Are you game to try it too?
Fine-tuning your game plan for middle-term goals
When it comes to middle-term or quarterly goal achievement and results, I further fine-tune my ritual and practices for successful goal achievement.
I like to plan my main work for the middle month in any quarter and then use the 3rd month for the big push and get results.
Our business or career isn’t the only thing that is important in our life. Our life consists of various other aspects and it’s important to make sure our Wheel of Work doesn’t go wonky. (There’s an entire lesson dedicated to this in my Career or Job Change mini-course).
Considering the demands on our time whether it is work, business, health, family, community or time for spiritual practices, it’s important to run a tight ship or at least be in control of our time.
The cost of procrastination is too high!
Cost-benefit analysis approach to combating procrastination
Quite possibly it’s my finance background and love of numbers but many of my decisions are finalized after doing a cost-benefit analysis or CBA.
CBA doesn’t necessarily have to be a monetary one although money can be a cost or benefit. It’s also useful as a time management tool when we look at it from a task payoff perspective.
One thing that I do know from experience is that procrastination is a luxury that costs us more than it benefits us.
Delaying a task or action will definitely have some consequence on either our time or money.
- Time – you’ll recognize this one from standing in long queues to pay your bills because you delayed it or thought you would do it online. But you didn’t factor the minimum banking clearance time provisions in the service providers rules
- Money – ever missed the deadline for your credit card payment and got whopped with penalties and interest? Need I say more?
Not all our procrastination will cost us both at the same time but what if it did?
If you are prone to procrastinating, then the next time an urge arises to delay a task, ask yourself the simple question
Which of these 2 things will my inclination to procrastinate cost me? Time or Money or both?
Then work out the benefit that you will receive from procrastinating.
The only benefit I can think of is worry and that is not a benefit by any stretch of imagination!
Simply asking this question will raise your awareness of the issue and hopefully, you’ll take some action.
Procrastination is a habit and it can be replaced with a better habit – the habit of considered action.
There are many studies that look into the psychology of procrastination. It isn’t just a time management issue although procrastination gets bunched into it.
If you need some quick help, then my mini course How to Stop Procrastinating Right Now is a good starting point. If you need more help, then check out the additional resource at the bottom of this page.
Have you ever compromised the potential of achieving your goals by sacrificing them at the altar of Procrastination?
Or do you have a method to get back on track? Do share with me in the comments box below!
Additional Resource for Serious Procrastinators
If the habit of procrastination is deeply embedded and you need more support, then consider my How to Stop Procrastinating right now mini course. You get immediate access to this habit changing self-development course. Use it whenever the urge to procrastinate raises its ugly head. Click here or on the image below to learn more.
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What a great blog! I am a Goal-Lister, too. I really liked #3- “Get clear on what worked and what didn’t.” So important. Don’t waste time on what did not work and in order to do that you must KNOW what did not work.
Very true, Kathleen. When we are ready to let go of processes and actions that aren’t giving the desired result, we create space for new ideas and actions that can get us what we want – successful goal achievement.
What an excellent idea to incorporate intention and gratitude into the goal process, Vatsala. I like that it changes the energy. The goal process can seem rather rote, and this introduces personal insight to what the process means and the meaning of achieving the goal itself.
Thanks Joyce. When we add our need to achieve the goal and understand the difference that achieving the end result can make, it does raise our energy. Gratitude for the distance covered creates its own energy to take us to completion.
#4 on your list is the one that is most overlooked, Vatsala. We achieve our goals or even achieve some of the steps to goal achievement and we forget to celebrate. In addition to checking of the completed tasks, that is such an important part of the process. The benefits are exponential. Very informative post.
Celebrating small wins along the way with small treats creates the impetus to go for the bigger goals, Yvonne. As you rightly pointed out, we tend to forget these mini-milestones and focus on what went wrong. I believe we need to keep moving forward in positive motion.
You once said to me sometimes it’s like we’re sisters from a different mother and this is proof! This is exactly the way I end each month. I set aside a full day for planning and go through the review and plan process. Not only is the plan you’ve set out here effective month-to-month but it makes doing a year-end review a snap. I’ve never taken the time to actually write this process down but now I don’t need to because you’ve done it beautifully!
I remember saying that to you Marquita and I stand by it, especially now that we have found a process that both of us use without having known the other person was doing the same. 🙂 Planning takes time but once that’s done, it makes implementation so much easier and taking the procrastination issue head on means we are unstoppable in our quest for success.
Vatsala, this 7 step process for getting monthly goals and tasks done gives you a big overall picture. I especially like #3, #6, and #7. This is the first time I have heard of the “powers of intention”. Interesting post…thanks for sharing.
I’m delighted you liked my 7 step approach with the extra tools of Intention (and Gratitude 🙂 ) That 1 extra step creates the micro-commitment in the mind to go for the goal otherwise it’s just another paper exercise and procrastination gets an easy entry to thwart our plans.