Time to refocus on personal and professional goals you want to get done by year-end.

Week 43 – Already!

Only ten weeks remaining till year-end, and no doubt it has been quite the year for all of us professionally and personally.

Priority Refocus

Personal and Professional goals that were set at the commencement of the year, for the majority, have had to change and pivot due to COVID-19. For the remaining weeks of the year, refocus on what is important to achieve professionally and personally by year-end. Remember the 80/20 rule when refocusing on your goals for the remainder of the year. Your focus should be on the top 20% of activities that result in 80% of your results. The goals that you decide to focus on over the next two and a half months should be the ones that will give you the most positive consequences by year-end.

The first step is to block off an hour in your schedule today to work on your list of revised goals that you will concentrate on over the next ten weeks. Identify, clarify, set priorities, and plan with timelines for all that needs to be done under each goal.

What do you need to accomplish professionally that is important by year-end?

In your personal life, what do you want to accomplish by year-end?

What are your top three priorities to year-end both professionally and personally?

How much time will each of your areas of priority (defined goals) take to complete? For each of your personal and professional goals, detail the steps required and associate key tasks with a deadline. By breaking down your priorities into smaller tasks, you will be able to dig into a task and complete it quickly, which will fuel your motivation and momentum. Seeing tasks completed on your list will help ease procrastination when moving onto the next step.

Allocate time blocks into your schedule; these focused blocks of un-interruptable time will enable you to have full concentration on the task at hand and get more done in less time.

Technology Usage

The second step is to put tactics in place to achieve your priorities; this is where a digital project management tool comes into play. We have so many tools at our fingertips to help us stay on track, pick one and stick to it for the remainder of the year (e.g., Trello, Monday, Asana, Zoho…). Maximize the benefits of your software to keep on top of your digital to-do lists under each priority. Your software should help you manage resources, budget, collaboration and communication in addition to keeping on top of task lists, schedules, file sharing and reporting.

• Use technology well to stay on top of your priorities, maximize the software you have on hand to streamline your processes, communication, scheduling, and project management.
• Take control of your schedule and calendar. Only accept meetings that you need to attend—block off uninterrupted time to work on what is important.
• Relentlessly commit to the allocation of time to work on what is important daily.

Tips for retaining focus:

1) Plan your week in advance. 

Detail your top three personal or professional goals to accomplish during the week. Daily, focus on your set three priorities and, at the end of the day, list what you achieved and what you need to move onto the next day. At the end of the week, list your wins, what worked well and what didn’t, what needs to be carried over to the next week and your focus for the next week.

2) Stop multitasking and stay on point. 

Focus is a critical component to high-performance and the attainment of results. Multitasking is one behaviour that you will have to curb. Even though we may think we can manage multiple tasks simultaneously, the reality is that when focusing on the most important task at hand, we should be putting all of our energy and focus into that item when working on it to get more done. The tendency of many is to shift attention between tasks, priorities and interruptions, and this is a sure way of adding time onto your week and making it more difficult in your position. When you move from one thing to another, every shift adds on transition time to get back to the point where your attention is 100% on the task at hand. Don’t lose this precious time; use it wisely; otherwise, you will be prone to mistakes, missed deadlines and frustration as you will be working harder and longer hours.

3) Allocate time at the commencement of your day to work on identified priorities.

This may require schedule updates; however, in the long run, it will be worth it. Where you can clear your morning, do so to work on important priorities and leave the remainder of the day to deal with daily tasks and responsibilities. As tempting as it may be when you see ‘Priority Work” blocked off in your schedule, use your willpower and refrain from adding any other appointment in this area. Your productivity will increase, often threefold if you can stick to your blocked, uninterruptable time to work on priorities. Within these time chunked blocks, do not permit yourself to be distracted from personal or virtual interruptions, phone calls, email or other pressing priorities. After you have become used to this habit of working on your most important professional priorities daily, you will not look back.

4) Be in ‘action’ mode. 

To move forward and attain your defined priorities, you need to start with good momentum. Stepping into action without distraction will help you make better and faster decisions and, as you complete a task, provide you with the motivation to move forward to the next. As you are working through your task list, as items are identified that require specific action, lean in and do it!

5) Concentrate on your professional and personal priorities. 

Through blocking off time in your schedule through the workweek to work on professional priorities, and time on the weekends or evenings for personal priorities, you will be surprised how much you can get through. Your scheduled time blocks provide you with the opportunity to only work on high-value tasks that are going to positively impact you professionally and personally. I use time intervals of 30, 60 or 90 minutes when working on high-value tasks as this helps me get into a ‘flow’ state and achieve more in less time. When possible, I will have three blocks of time scheduled in the morning, set aside 100% for project work. During this time, I turn off all my computer notifications and put my phone on do not disturb.

6) Walk your talk. 

Don’t just schedule and talk about what you are focusing on; take action on the specific tasks you can complete and get started. Developing the habit of working on your professional and personal goals as a priority is a habit. Taking continuous action to move forward on a priority, ticking off specific steps or tasks on a priority through completion, will help you attain results faster. If you feel like your focus is wavering, remind yourself to step back into action mode on your high-value priorities as this is where you will see real results to your bottom line.

7) Self-discipline. 

It sounds all so easy and intuitive that we define what we need to focus on and work on and then ‘do it.’ However, in reality, we know that life simply happens, and an urgent issue often compromises our time, and we bump the time reserved to work on what is important to put out the latest fire. It took me years to step out of this mode, into being self-disciplined and working on what was important daily without being taken away from it. Self-discipline will help you focus on what you know you should be doing and focus on it through to completion.

Make the most of the next ten weeks, and I wish you all the best on your journey to accomplish your personal and professional goals for the remainder of 2020.