There are only so many hours in a workday, so when it comes to needing more time to finish a task, the answer isn’t always to add on more hours but to approach the situation more effectively with goal setting and time management in mind. When you and your team use the proper techniques to set goals and manage your time, achieving your company’s vision and mission becomes much easier. Below we will discuss how to effectively goal set while managing your time simultaneously.
Effective Goal Setting
You can find the key characteristics of effective goals within the useful acronym SMART goals. SMART goals help people set the most realistic and achievable goals making it easy to follow and track their progress.
SMART Goals:
Specific - The goal is well-defined, understandable, and focused on exactly what needs to be achieved.
Measurable - The goal contains a point of measurement that allows people to measure and track their progress towards completion.
Attainable - The goal is realistic, possible, and achievable.
Relevant - The goal is relevant to the overall mission and the company.
Time-bound - The goal is given a specific time limit.
When setting goals, you must keep in mind all of these essential attributes necessary for developing the best goals. If you are missing any of these critical requirements when creating your goals, you will be expending more effort and time necessary on trying to complete something that may not be relevant, attainable, or specific enough. SMART goals help keep you centered and focused on achieving what needs to be accomplished in an appropriate amount of time.
Planning Ahead
Managing your time properly stems from setting the right goals. At the beginning of the day, you should spend a few minutes creating a to-do list with small but SMART goals to help plan out your day and guide you towards your company’s overall bigger picture. Spending 10-12 minutes planning your day has saved people 2 hours that would have gone to waste.
Additionally, work becomes easier to follow and less of a mess inside your head by writing your smaller goals down, making much better use of your time. It is crucial to have a list of key smaller activities you need to achieve success on a larger scale. Goal setting helps put our day-to-day activities into terms of long-term goals.
Protecting Your Time
You must protect your time when you have deadlines that you can’t miss, and there is no room to procrastinate. For example, you have a critical task that needs to be done, but you have something else that comes up that you know is not as important. It’s okay to say no in this situation and push it to a later date. Your goals should show you which tasks are far more critical to know where to protect your time.
Ready to learn how to maximize your success by setting the right goals? At Vega Inspired Solutions, we are here to help you. Contact us today to help you strategize effective solutions to help you manage your time better while also achieving your long-term goals.