5 Tips to Help You Realistically Achieve Your 2022 Goals

As evaluators, we’re literally in the business of creating and measuring progress against goals.  Sure, our clients may call them something else -- annual performance measures, objectives, or SMARTIE indicators  -- but really, they are all just fancy words for goals!  And it’s great to have them. 

But just because we know that personal and professional goals are important, many of us still struggle to reach them.  That’s why we’re sharing our favorite strategies to achieving goals, one by one, year after year.

Focus on One Goal at a Time

We know you’re ambitious -- good for you. But when it comes to goal setting, you’ll go farther if you can focus on streamlining your ambitions. Committing to one goal at a time will help you find clarity, establish priorities, manage your time better, and stay motivated. After you knock that one goal out of the park, you will be more than ready to take on the next!  

Break it Down

Depending on context, big numbers can sound exciting — and also scary. Rather than taking an all-or-none approach, determine what your goal looks like when broken down by month, week, or even day.  For example, rather than having a goal of recruiting 1,000 survey respondents each year, try aiming for 84 a month, 20 a week, or 4 per workday.  Breaking down your goals into “bite size” amounts will help you to set more realistic targets that you can regularly achieve. 

Wondering what to do if you miss a week or need to direct your focus to another project? Forgive yourself and, when you’re ready, pick up where you left off.  You’ll get there!

Schedule It (or Stack It)

One of the biggest challenges in achieving goals is consistently building in time to do the work.  An effective way to do this is by simply putting a recurring task on your calendar.  For instance, you might devote from 8:30 to 10:00 AM each day to write, from 12:00 to 1:00 pm to actually do yoga each Monday, or from 4:50 – 5:00pm to update your project management system to help you prioritize.   Does that last 10-minute block surprise you?  Believe it or not, just 10 minutes of designated time to tackle one specific task per workday will result in over 40 hours a year to advance your goal!   If you don’t like the time-based strategy, you can also try “habit stacking.”  Choose a habit you already have (e.g., morning cup of coffee) and “stack” on 10 minutes to advance your top priority goal.

Track It

As data lovers, this is our favorite step, but we know it’s not everyone’s jam.  Technology offers endless ways to track and monitor progress toward your goals — from dashboards, to apps, to project management systems.  In fact, most devices you own probably offer you a tracking solution and we encourage you to play around with what works best for your lifestyle.  If technology is getting in the way or feeling overwhelming, paper and pencil can do the trick to get you started and motivated. Write down your goal in the simplest format for you to manage or try customizing our favorite planner to use for tracking daily progress.  No matter the method you choose, the important thing is to take note of the significant progress you’re making to achieving your goal over time.

Share It

You’ve heard this one before, but we’ll say it again: share your goal with those closest to you!  By telling your supervisor, work buddy, or family member what you’re planning to achieve, you’ll be more likely to reach your goal.  Telling others will keep you more accountable to reaching your own success and will give you a bigger group of fans to celebrate when you achieve it!