Golden Oldies: Goals & To-Do Lists — Making Them Work
by Miki Saxon
Poking through 12+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.
Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.
Last Monday we considered whether your goals were your own or dictated by outside pressure. Today, we’ll look at something I wrote way back in2006 when I started this blog — my approach to making goals and to-do lists a positive experience, i.e., work.
Read other Golden Oldies here.
A client sent me a list of what he plans to accomplish in Q4—it was a very long list. I find most people have similar lists and, although all the items are necessary, the list can be daunting.
As opposed to listing just goals, most people’s lists include everything they need/want to accomplish in that time frame, both goals and to-do’s, hence the long list.
You’ll still need to do the work, but here’s a simple trick to help tame your list, raise your productivity, and give yourself more feelings of accomplishment and fewer of frustration.
I’ve found that the items on these lists fall into three categories:
- Normal work: includes all the things that you need to do that quarter that are part of your job description. (executing marketing plans, making sales calls, hiring staff; doing reviews, etc.)
- Goals: in addition to normal, daily tasks (increase manufacturing output 8% in Q4; write operating plan for 2007; reduce attrition 10%, etc.)
- Behavioral changes: refers to MAP changes (improve attitude; give and accept constructive criticism)
Goals usually require a great deal more planning and take longer to come to fruition, hence the longer deadlines. They are often more strategic and can involve other people’s activities. One major and two minor goals are the most that can be handled efficiently and be accomplished.
Normal work doesn’t need to list every single thing you do. It’s more a matter of personal taste whether you list each thing or just the major tasks that aren’t ongoing on a daily basis. When listing major tasks, e.g., hiring, be sure to set a deadline, be reasonable, but a deadline will keep you on track and keep the item from getting pushed to the back burner. It’s easy to mix up goals and work. For example, you may think of filling a req as a goal, but it’s really part of your normal work as a manager.
Behavioral changes need to be specific, so, rather than “improve attitude,” specify three things that will accomplish that (stay positive, smile, be friendly). MAP changes require staying aware until the desired change becomes a habit and three is about the max most people can monitor at once and, even that, can be a stretch. However, if you made even one MAP change each quarter the over all change in that year would be phenomenal.
Now for the trick. Using three columns with these headings,
- drag and drop your list into the appropriate column;
- keep shuffling them until you’re sure each is in the right place;
- prioritize them; and
- move any extra items (more than three each) from Behaviors or Goals to a separate holding doc—that’s why prioritizing them is so important.
Print Behavioral changes and stick them on your monitor, tape them to the dashboard, up them on a wall—somewhere you will always see it because out of site is out of mind and you need to stay constantly aware to build the habit.
Using the deadlines, incorporate the others into your normal planning process.
Be sure to do a reality check using normal and worst case analysis. You aren’t Super(wo)man, so be sure that what you want to accomplish can be done. If not, adjust your lists accordingly, keeping it firmly in mind that your object is to increase your productivity, not your frustration.
Finally, once you’re clear on the process, share it with your organization, not just the managers, but with everyone
Image credit: Aaron Davis
