Goal Setting 101: Part 2/3 - Implementing goal setting into your daily life 

Welcome back to part 2 of this 3-part Goal-Setting series! So happy to have you here! If you've missed part 1, definitely go and check that out all the basics, information and tips in that one. I will be taking you with me in how I implement goal setting into my life and how I use my planners to help me with that. Fun right!?

So... Let's dive in! 

First off, there is no right or wrong about your approach. You're planning style may be very different from mine and that's perfectly fine. I'm just going to show you how I like to do it to inspire/help you. I know seeing examples from others can be super helpful.

START THAT PREP!

In the first part of this series we talked about prepping, I'm not going to repeat myself completely but, Prep is so important. 

I like to sit down with a coffee and go through my goal pages section at the end of my Dashboard Happy Planner and my goal section in my A5 Blog planner. I actually like to go through these pages at least 2-4 times a year - not just at the beginning or end of the year. I especially like to do this after big changes like moving or switching jobs, having babies and other major life changes.

I go through a couple of subjects:

1. What has made me happy? And what goals have I accomplished?

2. This can be a hard part, but I also reflect on the things that didn't go right or as planned. Even though this can be hard, I think it's important. The purpose is not to dwell on the negative, but to acknowledge it and learn from it. To maybe even transform into something positive. 

3. Then I will brainstorm on things I want to improve. This is where I put all the goals that are in my head, like a mindmap. Jot everything down that comes to mind.  

4. After all that I will also think about what I want to let go of. Bad habits, negative thoughts, anything I want to do without.

GOALS

After that prep process is done I will start writing down actual goals and dreams. I divide these goals and dreams into a couple of categories: mom + wife + household, career, personal and financial. There are lots of ways to categorize, choose categories that matter to you and that you feel comfortable with. 

I will make lists of things focus on next for each different category. Don't worry too much about how many items you're writing down since we will be adding and editing these throughout the year.

The major prep work is done at the beginning of the year. Every couple of months I will go through these lists and add to them or cross things off. 

I will put little x-es next to the things/goals I want to make a habit of. 

GETTING INTO ACTION

Now, this is my favourite part where the pedal meets the metal, and I get to create a solid action plan. It's really simple but powerful.

First, I pick out 2-3 projects that I want to complete that month. I keep in mind all I have going on that month to be realistic about what I can accomplish. Some months, there's only one thing if a lot is going on. That way, as I go throughout the month, I'm not bogged down with a huge list of things, but I'm just focusing on what is on my list for the month. If things go really well and get the projects done early, I can always add more. Also, I don't stress if something doesn't get done - I just move it to the next month. The point for me is to get more done (or at least more of what's really important to me) than I would if I were simply winging it.

Next, I pick out 1-2 habits to focus on developing for the month(s to come). If there were habits I was working on the previous month and I don't feel like those are really deeply cemented in my life, then I won't add any new habits.

I also write habits that I already have developed but want to make sure don't fall by the wayside.

I have found that setting goals at the beginning of the year helps me when it comes to planning my months, weeks and days. When setting goals, I find it helpful to think about areas in my life that I would like to improve. My overall categories are not anything shocking or extremely unique. Things like being financially wise, being healthy, and being spiritual to name a few. Once I come up with these overall categories that help me picture who I'm building myself into, I write down the individual steps that help me get there. For example, for me to be healthy, I know I need to drink more water, drink less soda, and run multiple times per week. These become the habits that will help me attain my goals.

One thing that Laura has taught me is that you cannot realistically work on every goal all year long. Once I have all my goals for the year written out, I choose three to five habits from each category to focus on each month. By breaking down my goals into bite-sized pieces, I find that I can really focus on improving myself step by step.

PLANNING STYLE

If you're super busy, a daily plan is a great idea! My daily plans are part of my weekly planner spreads. Your daily is a great place to write down random to-do's and tasks as well as events and deadlines.

For my Clean Mama Routine I have a daily recurring household list: 

Photo credit to Clean Mama:  https://cleanmama.com/daily-tasks/ 

I have a few things that are added on multiple times a week:

• Empty dishwasher
• Clean the cat litter box
• Take out trash

I find that even on the busiest days when I make time for these small tasks, I am more productive. I work better when the space around me is clear and clean. The Clean Mama method consists of a daily routine, a weekly routine, rotating tasks and a monthly focus. Be sure to check her out! 

Each day has a different cleaning focus, which has made keeping my house clean easier than ever before! These focus areas are added to my daily to-do lists. Each month also has its own focus, I love being a part of her Homekeeping Society, I get tons of motivation from Becky and the group to tackle a lot of things around the house.

General to-do's: I rarely have random to-do lists floating around in my planner. They are usually in my weekly layouts, so I can keep track of them or in the goal section in the corresponding category. I will take some with me when it doesn't get done though. When I'm making my to-do lists I will very carefully watch what kind of big tasks I have and divide those into smaller tasks. 

My main planning style is definitely weekly. I use a weekly planner for anything personal, household, family related (Dashboard Happy Planner) a.k.a. catch-all planner, plus I have a weekly planner for work (Plum Paper Planner), memory planning is done in a vertical Happy Planner as well. My blog and social media planning is done by monthly planning mostly. 

My catch-all planner always includes a weekly meal plan. I like to use this type of weekly spread to jot down all appointments and events that affect us as a family. This is my go-to when it comes to our schedule and stuff like that. And my go-to for all my daily/weekly/monthly/yearly to-do's and chore lists.

Habit Tracking has probably been the biggest game-changer for me. I've always been overwhelmed by the thought of habits, and I've never had a great system for starting or stopping, but since starting with the Clean Mama Method and using habit trackers for my household chores I've implemented that onto other subjects as well. In my weekly planner layout, there is always some kind of habit tracking incorporated so that I'm reminded by it daily + weekly! Works like a charm for me.

I will not only do this with my household chores but with any goals or tasks, I want to make a habit of. By checking off the habit on a daily basis, I will keep my focus on it and I will remember to do it, thus making it so much easier for me to build that easy-to-maintain habit. One of those subjects is for sure unplugging, going offline and spending time on self-care. I try to incorporate this as a weekly habit, because I truly feel it's so important for us to nourish our mind and soul. 

I start my weekly plan by checking my monthly spread to see if I/we have any big events, appointments, family birthdays and so on that I need to be aware of as I plan out the week. I also have Google calendar that I use with my husband to help us stay on the same page and so that he knows what we have planned. We also have a whiteboard hanging in our hallway with a monthly calendar. In the bottom right corner, I write down big things for the month to come. On the first of each month, I grab my planner & our Google calendar and fill in the whiteboard. 

I really hope getting to see inside the goal section of my planner and how I go about things has helped you and maybe even inspired you. 

Thanks to a bunch of you who have reached out after part 1, feel free to come and chat with me when you're done with this part! I love to chat all things planning with you! xx

*All photos used in this blogpost are stock photos from Shutterstock, apart from the Clean Mama one