Goal setting and time management belong together.

To achieve goals, it’s important to manage your time well. To manage your time well, you must know what your goals are. They are intimately inter-connected, yet few books address these two processes together.

Setting goals is the first step in time management. The next step is to figure out how to spend your time so that you are making progress toward your goals.

The nature of time.

Time is elusive. We attempt to measure it with clocks and watches, but cannot save it up for another day. Each day, we all receive the same amount of time. It can easily slip through our fingers despite good intentions, a treasure stolen away by procrastination, interruptions, and indecision.

Managing time is really about managing activities, spaces, and information. Spaces include physical areas like our homes, offices and desks and the objects within them. There are four ways to manage time:

• Evaluate – assess the value
• Simplify – delete, decrease, declutter
• Be more effective – do the right job
• Be more efficient – do the job right

Each day 24 hours is credited to our account. We all have fixed time expenses such as working, eating and sleeping. Usually there is some discretionary time each day as well, that we have more choice in spending. A well-balanced time budget includes time for yourself and time for those you love. You can monitor your time to evaluate if you are spending it well, and make adjustments if necessary. Learn more at Time Management 101, a tutorial for increasing productivity.

“The only true measure of what you believe is what you do, not what you say.” –Brian Tracy

Life is about making choices, and the choice to act means knowing what you think is important, how you want to make a significant impact, and how you will make ideas happen. To make a choice: generate ideas, evaluate them, and choose top priorities that are meaningful. Decide whether to say yes or no to projects and goals,  Make a written plan so that goals are SMART with specific action steps, measures, and target dates set. Finally comes the hardest and most critical part: taking action on your ideas and goals.

Ideas without action are unfulfilled dreams.

Autonomy is one of the factors that influences motivation. You are the one who DIRECTS your actions.

• Decide
• Invest in independence
• Reach for reasonable risk
• Execute with agency
• Confront fear
• Take action
• Start to MOVE

Decide. Make choices about what you think is important, about what you want to do, how to make a significant impact, how to meet needs. Get clear about purpose, set priorities, find focus, and increase flow.

Invest in independence. Your life is what you make of it. It is all up to you. Own your life. “If not you, who? If not now, when?”-Hillel. Channel your inner adult to apply grit and determination.

Reach for reasonable risk. Move beyond your comfort zone and take a considered risk. Comfort zones are familiar and safe but you don’t learn and grow there. What’s the worst that could happen? How big is the risk? Helen Keller said “Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all.” Read more inspiring quotes about taking a risk.

Execute with agency. Agency is the ability to act intentionally. Motivation comes from movement, not the other way around. Work a process with small steps towards success that are rewarding. Read more about “The Motivation Myth” by Jeff Haden, TED talk The most successful person in the world.

Confront fear. The biggest obstacle we face is ourselves. Fear can cause procrastination and inaction. Challenge yourself to cultivate courage, conquer fear, and embrace the possibility of failure. Mark Twain said “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” Read more inspiring quotes about courage.

Take action. Start with one small step. What actions can you take today to move you closer to your goals? Remind Yourself by keeping your goals visual and visible with a goal master list of the top priority goal in each life area. Understand the Economy of Goals, and focus on the benefits of accomplishing your goal. Remember that time is valuable, and it is short!

Start to MOVE:

• Manage distractions and make defaults work for you
• Overcome procrastination and leverage motivation
• View progress toward results – keep goals visual and visible
• Engage focus and flow – use the power of a routine

Keep Learning. The more we learn and grow, the more we are able to direct our actions to accomplish the important. Gain mastery and develop strengths to get going. Understand why we procrastinate and counteract procrastination triggers. Set up a process to follow and make it a habit. Getting started is the hard part, but if you commit to five minutes you just might keep going. Know how to manage your time well to make the most of it.

Books and TED Talks:

• “The Execution Factor” by Kim Perell, Ted Talk The secret to success: it’s not what you think
• “The Four Disciplines of Execution” by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling. Video that describes them and a talk by Chris McChesney The four disciplines are:

1. Focus on the Wildly Important: Narrow your focus and identify what needs to be done.
2. Act on the Lead Measures: Track the most important actions to take to reach the goal.
3. Keep a Compelling Scoreboard: Highly visible measures motivate progress.
4. Create a Cadence of Accountability: Review progress weekly.

Additional reading:

• Scott H Young – Enjoy Taking Action
• Productivity501 – Behance’s Action Method Process
• Art of manliness – How to Execute: the discipline of following through
• Wings for the heart – It’s Time to Move Forward