{"id":3690,"date":"2023-02-01T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isabelalbeldaros.com\/?p=3690"},"modified":"2023-03-02T13:16:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T13:16:00","slug":"how-to-accomplish-your-goals-and-10x-your-productivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isabelalbeldaros.com\/es\/how-to-accomplish-your-goals-and-10x-your-productivity\/","title":{"rendered":"How to accomplish all your goals (and 10x your productivity this year)"},"content":{"rendered":"
This article is part of my Systems for Success trilogy:<\/p>\n
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How are your New Years goals looking? If you feel like your days are packed, you’re always busy, and you’re making little-to-no progress, what you need is a system that takes you from to-do list to building your year (and your life) with purpose. A year sounds like plenty of time, but when you start breaking it into months (and adding in other commitments, like holidays, family time and the like), twelve months just seems too short.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So if your goals quickly get pushed to the side, and you’ve started worrying about how you’re going to accomplish them (or you just want a more efficient way of managing your life) then read on. I have the solution.<\/b><\/p>\n
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I’ve been using some version of this system for years, but the iteration I’m sharing below is the one I used in 2022 and it was my most productive year to date, both in terms of goals (moving countries included!) and in terms of fun, friends and family time. Proper systems make your life a lot easier!<\/p>\n
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So what does it look like? While I try to keep it simple, I borrow pieces from project planning, agile methodologies, time blocking and productivity methods, coaching and of course from years of experience.<\/p>\n
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My main tools are Google Calendar and Trello. Both are free to use and I’ve found them to have the best mix of features to help me keep on top of everything. But you can use any tools that provide a calendar and a to-do list.<\/p>\n
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Here’s why I recommend these two tools:<\/p>\n
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The benefit of using Trello is that it lets you 1) automate a lot of work (you can check out my automation guide for Trello here) and 2) share in real time with other people (in my case, my husband). It also makes it easy to drag and drop, change due dates, and add information, such as checklists, comments or links. You can use it on your phone, tablet or computer and it quickly syncs across devices.<\/p>\n
I keep two main boards on Trello, one for Goals (as shown in How to Set Goals for the New Year (and take your resolutions\u00a0past\u00a0January)<\/a>) and one for the daily running of the household \/ tasks, which I call The House. I use the Goals board for making sure I’m keeping on top of my goals, habits and other objectives, and The House for everyday management of what needs to be done. This set-up works for me because it gives me a place to track goals without cluttering up my everyday to-do list.<\/p>\n <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The benefit of using an online calendar is that you’re quickly able to reorganize and reschedule if needed, you can set alarms and you’re able to quickly access the latest version as long as you have access to the internet. It’s great for sharing with a partner as well, and helps you easily track your time since it’s quick and easy to edit. Google Calendar worked best for me because it integrates with other tools and systems I was already using, but if you’d rather go with a different calendar that you’re already using don’t worry, the system will work just the same with another online calendar. If you prefer to stick to paper, just be aware that editing existing entries is going to be a bit harder for you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I keep a shared calendar with my husband, to make communication easier. You can also set up a family calendar to clearly see all your family commitments, a work calendar to view your work commitments, etc.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n There are 6 key principles that drive my system:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Principles and tools are all good and well, but how does it actually work? Well, once you have your goals set (How to Set Goals for the New Year (and take your resolutions past January)<\/a>), this is how you manage them:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n Quarterly Planning<\/strong><\/p>\n Once a quarter (usually March, June, September and December) I do a quarterly review session, which takes approximately 60 minutes. I review my calendar and Goals Trello board, to make sure I’m fresh on what’s happened over the last three months. Another option is to look at your monthly reviews for the quarter.<\/p>\n These are the questions I use to guide the quarterly retrospective: <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t Review the previous quarter. Calendar and Trello goals board can be useful to guide this.\u00a0<\/p>\n What themes emerged this past quarter?<\/p>\n \u00a0What worked?<\/p>\n \u00a0What didn\u2019t work? Where did I make mistakes or fall short?<\/p>\n \u00a0What did I learn?<\/p>\n \u00a0How can I apply what I learned in the next quarter?<\/p>\n \u00a0What were the big moments, memories, and milestones from this quarter?<\/p>\n \u00a0And the most important goal(s) I achieved?<\/p>\n \u00a0What inspired\/excited me? Think people, places, habits, tasks, experiences<\/p>\n \u00a0How can I do more of those next quarter?<\/p>\n \u00a0What were the lowest point(s)?<\/p>\n \u00a0What can I do to reduce those next quarter?<\/p>\n \u00a0What\u2019s the single biggest bottleneck to my continued growth?<\/p>\n \u00a0How can I tackle it?<\/p>\n \u00a0What new skills did I learn? \/ How did I grow this quarter?<\/p>\n \u00a0What am I most grateful for this quarter?<\/p>\n \u00a0Review \u2018Wheel of life\u2019 \u2013 what are my scores for this quarter?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t Review the previous quarter. Calendar and Trello goals board can be useful to guide this.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/center>\n What themes emerged this past quarter?\u00a0<\/p>\n What worked?<\/p>\n \u00a0What didn\u2019t work? Where did we make mistakes or fall short?<\/p>\n \u00a0What did we learn?<\/p>\n \u00a0How can we apply what we learned in the next quarter?<\/p>\n \u00a0What were the big moments, memories, and milestones from this quarter?<\/p>\n \u00a0And the most important goal(s) we achieved?<\/p>\n \u00a0What inspired\/excited us? Think people, places, habits, tasks, experiences<\/p>\n \u00a0How can we do more of those next quarter?<\/p>\n \u00a0What were the lowest point(s)?<\/p>\n \u00a0What can we do to reduce those next quarter?<\/p>\n \u00a0What\u2019s the single biggest bottleneck to our continued growth?<\/p>\n \u00a0How can we tackle it?<\/p>\n \u00a0What new skills did we learn? \/ How did we grow this quarter?<\/p>\n \u00a0What are we most grateful for this quarter?<\/p>\n \u00a0Review \u2018Chore Audit\u2019 \u2013 are we still happy with the chores distribution?<\/p>\n \u00a0Review \u2018Wheel of life\u2019 \u2013 what are our scores for this quarter?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n Once you’ve completed the quarterly retrospective, it’s time to prep the coming next quarter. Start by reviewing the goals you have for the quarter. They should be sized as small, medium and large scale. Decide how you’re going to split them among the three coming months – some may start in month 1 and continue until month 3, some will be smaller and more localized – and align them to the first month you need to be working on them. Is there enough time to accomplish everything you currently have aligned to each month? Make sure to review your calendar so things like holidays, family commitments, etc. don’t trip you up later. Do you need to re-prioritise or change things? Does something need to shift in your plan based on new information and circumstances?<\/p>\n Once you’re happy with the monthly distribution of goals, I recommend copying them over to your task board with the appropriate deadlines. And then it’s time for monthly planning.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n At the start of each month I set aside 60-90 minutes for my monthly planning. I start with a review of the past month, quickly going over my calendar and reviewing and updating each of my habits and goals for the month. For long term habits I like to assign a monthly score, from 1-10 to track progress, and goals will either be moved to the\u00a0Done<\/i>\u00a0column if complete or moved to the next deadline if appropriate.<\/p>\n These are the questions that help me reflect on the month:<\/p>\n <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t From 0\u201310, how do I feel I’m doing?<\/p>\n What were the highlights (memories, accomplishments, big moments, etc.)? I.e. what made me feel proud,\u00a0happy, fulfilled, grateful? What things brought me the most energy and joy?<\/p>\n What were the lowlights? i.e. what was hard on me, drained my energy or took a negative turn (people, habits, tasks, etc.)?<\/p>\n What were the biggest lessons learned?<\/p>\n What am I most grateful for?<\/p>\n What themes emerged this past month?<\/p>\n What’s on my “best of” list this month? (books, events, articles, podcasts, purchases, new habits)<\/p>\n How did I grow as a person? (New skills, habits, priorities, preferences, relationships, perspectives, environments\u2026)<\/p>\n Is there a difficult conversation(s) I’m currently avoiding (with both myself and others)?<\/p>\n What’s something I’ve been dreaming about lately for my future?<\/p>\n Did I spend my time on the right things?<\/p>\n If not, how will I improve next month?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t From 0\u201310, how do we feel we’re doing?<\/p>\n What were the highlights (memories, accomplishments, big moments, etc.)? I.e. what made us feel proud,\u00a0happy, fulfilled, grateful? what things brought us the most energy and joy?<\/p>\n What were the lowlights? i.e. what was hard on us, drained our energy or took a negative turn (people, habits, tasks, etc.)?<\/p>\n What were the biggest lessons learned?<\/p>\n What are we most grateful for?<\/p>\n What themes emerged this past month?<\/p>\n What’s on our “best of” list this month? (books, events, articles, podcasts, purchases, new habits)<\/p>\n How did we grow as a person? (New skills, habits, priorities, preferences, relationships, perspectives, environments\u2026)<\/p>\n Is there a difficult conversation(s) you\u2019re currently avoiding (with both yourself and others)?<\/p>\n What’s something you’ve been dreaming about lately for our future?<\/p>\n Did we spend our time on the right things?<\/p>\n If not, how will we improve next month?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n Once the review is complete, it’s time to plan for the upcoming month. Look at your goals for the month, now that you’ve moved any uncompleted ones in from the past month. Is there enough time to accomplish everything you currently have aligned to this month? Make sure to review your calendar so things like holidays, family commitments, etc. don’t trip you up later. Do you need to re-prioritise or change things? Make sure your goals are reflected in the task board – you can take two approaches here, to have several items per goal (i.e. “update CV”, “update LinkedIn”, “reach out to 5 recruiters”, “apply to Job X” as individual cards or tasks) or to have a single one with a checklist (i.e. one card called “Find new job” with a checklist detailing those items). I prefer the former, since it gives me more control and using trello I can relate each of the task cards to the right goal, but do whatever feels more comfortable for you. For big items coming up this month (i.e. trips, all-day events, etc.) I try to schedule them into the calendar at this point, especially since they usually require some advance notice.<\/p>\n And then it’s time for weekly planning – you don’t want to get too granular in your monthly planning, or you risk ending up with a fairly rigid schedule for the month that doesn’t give you the flexibility you need. Unless there are items that need to happen at specific points in the month, weekly planning is your best bet for popping them in the calendar.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Set aside some time every week for planning the week ahead. I like to reserve 30-60 minutes every Friday, since that’s when I’m least productive otherwise, and I plan my week Saturday to Friday, but find a slot that works for you. Having the same slot every week helps build the habit, so if you can, keep it consistent.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I start with a review of the past week – usually with a quick flick through the calendar, and (if needed) I update the calendar to reflect what I actually did. I try to do that as I go, but it’s good to catch any changes I’ve missed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n These are the questions I use for my review, to help me reflect:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t How did last week go?<\/p>\n What’s the biggest challenge I’ve faced this week (work\/marriage\/other)?<\/p>\n What am I most proud of this week?<\/p>\n What’s one thing I’m afraid of right now?<\/p>\n What’s one thing I’m really excited about right now?<\/p>\n Did anything emerge that I need reflect on?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t How did last week go?<\/p>\n What’s the biggest challenge we’ve faced this week (work\/marriage\/other)?<\/p>\n What are you most proud of this week?<\/p>\n What’s one thing you\u2019re afraid of right now?<\/p>\n What’s one thing you\u2019re really excited about right now?<\/p>\n Share something that you’ve noticed about each other this week – something that inspired you, you’re proud of, or grateful that the other person did.<\/p>\n Did anything emerge that we need to discuss?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n Once I’ve completed the above, I go over the habits in my goals board, just to see how I’m doing and whether I need to change something that hasn’t been working this week.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Then I look at the week ahead, checking both the goals and the tasks in my Task Board, and populate my calendar with the necessary time blocks, including clean rest, tasks catch ups and being mindful of other commitments. Time blocks are most effective when you’re specific regarding the task or objective to accomplish (i.e. “identify top two options for catering” versus “working on wedding”). If any goals have been completed, then I move them to the done column of my goals board. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t Are there any goals\/tasks where I need assistance? How can I get it?<\/p>\n If I do nothing else this week, what is the one thing I should be sure to focus on or accomplish?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t What’s one thing I can do for you this week?<\/p>\n If we do nothing else as a family this week, what is the one thing you think we should be sure we focus on or accomplish?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n At the end of the weekly planning session you should have a good idea of what worked and what didn’t the previous week, what your focus item is for the coming week, and how you will be spending your time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n To make sure I’m on top of my plan for the day, and to adjust if needed, I do one daily stand-up. Borrowed from agile management, technically a daily stand-up is a short, daily meeting to discuss progress and identify blockers; I typically do this with my husband but you can do it by yourself as well. We quickly review what we’re planning to do today, make sure we’re still good for it and do a quick replan if needed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The system may seem a bit overwhelming when seeing it all on a page, but once you set it up (which you can do in a weekend) it takes very little time and effort to keep it running, and you’ll find when you’re being purposeful about it you actually have more time than you did before.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It keeps you focused on your priorities, reminds you to reflect and make conscious decisions, reduces friction when working on your goals, and keeps you from overloading yourself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Give it a try. Maybe just commit to a quarter and see how it goes. You won’t be disappointed!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And of course, tweak it, keep and discard as you will – iteration is what makes any system great.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you’re ready, here’s how you can get set up:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Make this your most productive year yet.<\/b> And let me know how it goes in the comments below!<\/p>\n <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Feel like you’re always busy, and yet you’re making little-to-no progress? You need a system that takes you from to-do list to building your year (and your life) with purpose. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_has_post_settings":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,12],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-3690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-productivity","category-trello"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tGoogle Calendar<\/strong><\/h6>\n
The Principles<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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How it works<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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(Throughout this post, I provide both the “single” version of the questions, useful if you’re planning solo, and the “couples” version, useful if you’re planning with a partner. You can also tweak some of these to include others, such an accountability partner, your kids, etc.)<\/em><\/p>\nMonthly Planning<\/strong><\/h6>\n
Weekly Planning<\/strong><\/h6>\n
These questions can also be helpful when planning the next week:<\/p>\nDaily Stand-Ups<\/strong><\/h6>\n
Why it works<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Your turn: Get set up<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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