Welcome to 2022! How will this year be different for you?
If you have a clear picture of how you’d like this year to go, you’ve probably thought about your goals for the year. Unfortunately, only 1% of the population writes down their goals, and out of that 1%, 92% don’t accomplish them! 🤯
We’re all about designing your life the way you want. That includes designing your goals so that you can actually accomplish them in 2022.
Gain momentum in your life with SMART goals
This blog post covers a simple and effective system to help you set goals you can acheive without getting stuck.
A dream written down with a date becomes a GOAL. A goal broken down into steps becomes a PLAN. A plan backed by ACTION makes your dreams come true.
Greg Reid
At Momentum, our mission is to build a community of people who achieve their goals consistently — with more focus and less stress. Building the life you most want comes down to the goals you’re able to accomplish.
Step 1: Identify your goals
Prep a warm beverage, put on an inspiring playlist, and get in a comfortable spot with your computer or notepad. Once you’ve activated cozy-mode, click start on your Momentum dash Pomodoro timer. Then reflect on your dreams, what’s important to you, and what you’d like to achieve in life. Nothing is out of the question—jot down everything that comes to mind!
To help you get started, here are a few categories and goal examples:
Personal Goals
- Learn how to play the guitar
- Spend more time with friends and family
- Start my own podcast
Health Goals
- Complete a 10km run weekly
- Drink more water daily
- Meditate daily
Work Goals
- Advanced to a management position
- Become a Google Sheets master
- Improve my presentation skills
Financial Goals
- Create a monthly budget
- Finish paying off my student loans
- Save up for a trip to Japan
Step 2: Refine your goals
Once you have taken note of what goals you want to achieve, it’s time to transform them into SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals. The objective of the SMART goal format is to create clear goals that can be reached in a reasonable time frame.
Below you’ll find descriptions of the SMART goal components. To ensure you’re setting yourself up for success, apply this framework to each of your goals.
Specific
Vague goals never happen. To set a goal and not a daydream, answer these questions:
What do I want to accomplish?
Why is this important to me?
What resources do I need to achieve it?
Example: I want to improve my cardio health so I can keep up with my kids and set a good example of living a healthy lifestyle. I’ll use the Couch to 10k program to help me train. I will train 3x/week until I complete a 10km run in under 35 minutes.
Achievable
Setting a goal that challenges you is important, but if it’s too challenging or unrealistic you will set yourself up for failure. During this step, ask yourself:
Do I have the knowledge, resources, or experience to achieve the goal? If not, what am I missing?
Is this goal realistic? Has it been done before?
Example: I did some research and discovered that a good 10km time for beginners in my age group is 60 minutes. I haven’t trained for long distance running before, so my 35 minute goal is unrealistic. I will adjust it to 55 minutes instead.
I want to improve my cardio health so I can keep up with my kids and set a good example of living a healthy lifestyle. I’ll use the Couch to 10k program to help me train. I will train 3x/week until I complete a 10km run in under 55 minutes.
Relevant
To ensure the goals you set don’t fizzle out, they should be relevant to your current skillset, attitude, and interests. To test the relevancy of your goals, you should be able to answer “yes” to the following questions:
Is this goal worth the effort?
Is this a good time to start this goal?
Am I the right person to achieve this goal?
Time-bound
Last but not least, your goal should have a due date. This holds you accountable and stop goals from taking too long to complete. To help create a time-bound goal, ask yourself:
Is this goal achievable in: 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, or 3 years?
If it’s 3 years, we’d recommend revisiting the Achievable component and adjust your goal to one you can achieve in a shorter timeframe.
Are there any events or hard deadlines that I need to align with (e.g. a race date, or the end of a quarter)?
Example: I want to improve my cardio health so I can keep up with my kids and set a good example of living a healthy lifestyle. I’ll use the Couch to 10k program to help me train. I will train 3x/week until I complete a 10km run in under 55 minutes. I will start my training on January 1st and participate in the Good Vibrations 10km on April 1st.
Running your goals through the SMART goal gauntlet may seem like a lot of effort, but it is worth the investment. It creates a clear path to success so you will achieve your goals faster, easier, and more often!
Step 3: Surface your goals
The best way to stay focused on your goals is to see them often. Whether it’s a note on your desk, or a message on your screen (or both!), seeing your goals throughout the day encourages you to take action. Take some time to add your goals to a space where you will frequently see them.
Momentum is the perfect place to add your goals, because it lives right in the middle of your browser. Whenever you open a new Momentum tab you will get friendly goal reminders. On average, this will be 15 times per day!
The multi-todo feature makes it easy to organize your goals into customized categories, like Personal Goals, Work Goals, and Health Goals; and set goals for the day, week, month, year, and beyond…
Once you’ve created your custom goal categories, simply add your SMART goals to each list.
Pro Tip: Switch between your categories/lists with the arrow keys ← →
Have your goals in another service?
If you already have your goals in Asana, Trello, Todoist, Google Tasks, Microsoft To Do, Basecamp 3, BitBucket, or GitHub you can easily transfer them to Momentum with our Todo integrations.
To assist with tracking the progress you’re making towards your goals, you have Momentum’s Metrics feature. Your custom Metrics will display at the top right of your dashboard, where you can easily see and update them throughout the day.
For those who have set fitness goals, connect your Fitbit and Strava accounts to Momentum and see your live stats right on your dashboard.
Step 4: Take action on your goals
Once you’ve set your goals, the real work begins—but don’t worry—in addition to helping you set goals, Momentum has tools to help you achieve them. 💪
Today list
Before you start any work, create yourself a roadmap for the day. To create a daily roadmap, review your goal categories and then add tasks that support your goals to your Today list. Once you’re happy with your Today list tasks, prioritize the most urgent and important ones by dragging and dropping them to the top of your list.
Pro Tip: Hover your mouse over a task and then press the Spacebar to instantly move it to your Today list.
Autofocus
To reduce to-do list overwhelm it is helpful to focus on just one item at a time. Autofocus mode does just that, by connecting your active to-do list to the central focus area. Whenever you complete the central focus, the next item in your to-do list appears.
Pomodoro Timer
Time is our most valuable resource, and the Pomodoro Technique helps a lot of people get the most out of their time. This time management strategy organizes your work into two intervals: a 25-minute focus period followed by a 5-minute break. The intervals are repeated until you’ve completed all your tasks or reached the end of your workday.
Pomodoro flow
- Create a roadmap of goals/tasks that you want to focus on completing. 📋
- Start your first 25-minute Focus timer and work on your first task(s) until the timer ends — a friendly chime will sound. 🔔
- Recharge with a 5-minute Break. You will hear another chime once it's time for your next Focus session.
- Repeat the Focus and Break sessions until your daily tasks are completed or your workday ends. 😊
Momentum’s customizable Pomodoro Timer makes it easy for you to add this technique into your productivity routine. To activate the Pomodoro Timer, click the ••• next to your focus and then Start Pomodoro Timer.
Soundscapes
Sound is important for maintaining focus. It can break through ominous silence and drown out distracting noises. Momentum’s Soundscapes feature does it all with our collection of peaceful, ambient sounds. Choose between popular scenes like Campfire, Rainfall, and Café ambience, or create your own custom soundscapes.
Step 5: Reflect on your goals
Each week spend 10 minutes reviewing your goal categories and Done list. During this time celebrate your accomplishments and take note of your progress. You’re also going to put your detective hat on and ask yourself the following questions:
Did I accomplish more or less than I had planned?
If you accomplished more, challenge yourself to complete even more this week. If you accomplished less, consider breaking your goals into even smaller tasks. If you’re having trouble focusing, try Momentum’s Autofocus, Pomodoro Timer, and Soundscapes—or investigate your environment for other distractions.
Am I stuck on any goals or confused about how to achieve them?
If you are stuck or confused, it is likely that your goal isn’t specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, or time-bound. Take a few minutes to review the SMART goal guidelines and restructure your goal. If could use some help, send us a message with your goal and we will suggest how it could be improved. 🙂
Do I need to reprioritize any of my goals?
There is no shame in abandoning or postponing a goal if it’s no longer important to you. Identify what’s most important to you and adjust your priorities accordingly, either by moving it down your list or to a separate category.
Reflection reminders
To help remind yourself to reflect on your goals each week, you can set friendly reminders with Momentum’s Countdown feature.
Thanks for reading this post and joining our community of effective goal setters. We’re excited to help you get momentum towards your goals in 2022 and beyond!
What goals are you working on this year? Send us a message, we’d love to know what you’re working towards!