Mini-Goals: Small Ways to Stay Productive Throughout the Day

Today, I’m focusing on mini-goals. I’m working toward a larger goal of graduating this semester. To do so, I must meet certain tasks and stay within my timeline to get there.

Setting mini-goals to stay productive throughout the day may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t make the time. Whether you need to get out of bed and start your day earlier than usual or quit procrastinating on a report that’s due tomorrow, there are many ways to set mini-goals to achieve more throughout the day.

Here are my tips for tackling mini-goals:

1. Each day, take your big task list and write down what you can REALISTICALLY accomplish during your work hours. I capitalized realistically because I used to make my to-do list as long as humanly possible because that obviously made me more accomplished somehow. Now, I take time each morning to carefully select what I believe I can accomplish in a day. This helps eliminate some of those feelings of inadequacy at the end of the day if you didn’t get to everything on your list.
   
   
2. After that, I work in small time chunks and I set goals either with myself or my work partners. It might be something small like send off two emails or review 10 rows on a spreadsheet. A big goal that keeps us motivated should be something just out of our reach, but mini-goals are things that keep us moving forward and not stagnant. Sometimes, I’ll set time limits as well and work within those parameters before moving on to another task.
   
3. Constant reflection. This one I’m going to credit to my therapist. We are working on fact-based thinking. Anytime my mind starts to wander or worry about things I cannot control, I will bring it back to the present goal with facts and logic. I’ll keep you posted, but I’m excited at the personal development prospects that this tip has in store.

What are your tips for staying focused on your mini-goals and progress?