Are You Setting Goals? Or Tasks?
By: Karen Parquet
Tags: Productivity, Time Management, Projects, Goals, To Do List

Are You Setting Goals? Or Tasks?

Photo by STIL on Unsplash

In a busy world, it’s easy to write down lists every day on what you need to do and count them as goals. But are you really setting goals for the day? Or are you just setting tasks and becoming overwhelmed?

Goals are something that we should all have. However, that said, sometimes we say that we have a goal, and it’s something as simple as getting the laundry done that day. This, my friends, is a task. We can control something that is easily done within one sitting unless you’re like me, and it spreads out over several days.

Projects are pieces of goals, and tasks are pieces of projects. Let’s break this down.

Goals

Goals are overarching and need a brief introduction. However, are you setting these correctly? Most people go into their day with a goal in mind. My goal for the day most days is to increase my writing performance by 50% over the course of a quarter. That said, that is a controllable goal and is more of a performance goal than an intangible uncontrollable goal.

Most goals are large and require multiple projects or tasks to complete. These are usually things that are rigid and have a number attached to them, or are something that you can reach for but may not attain right away, or will attain after a long-term plan. Setting a goal, for example, like mine, to increase my writing habit by 50% over the next quarter, I can control a degree as it’s a performance goal. However, I can’t control just how much I write because of illness, days I don’t feel like writing or other events out of my control that might affect that goal.

These are usually things that you write down and point yourself towards as an ideal way of finishing out the quarter or year. If you feel overwhelmed by setting goals like this, try to find a more flexible smaller goal to start, and then as you progress and become more confident, reach for higher goals. You may not achieve those goals in their entirety, and that's okay; this isn't something to beat yourself up about. Setting those goals is an idea of where you’d like to be, not an ultimatum on life's achievements.

Projects

Projects are smaller parts of a goal that make up the whole. This is the part where planning takes place. Usually, you’ll want to break down that mountain of a goal into smaller hills of attainable bite-sized chunks that can be attained easily within a quarter in good time. Say, for example, my goal, my projects for this would be sitting down every day and writing a medium post, writing in my book for a certain amount of words per day, or writing for clients. No matter what I’m doing, I’m focusing on a project working towards that overarching goal of increasing my productivity and habit.

Most are used to working on when it comes to productivity and looking at long term achievements. Projects are typically what people think of as goals unless it’s directly related to work, not realizing that projects are the lesser part of a whole and moving towards your ideal life goals.

Photo by Andreas Klassen on Unsplash

Tasks

Tasks are something that we do every day and make millions of decisions on what to do every month, quarter, year, or any time frame you want to reference. These are usually completed within a day and within one sitting, usually within an hour or two, and under your control on how they get completed.

Say that laundry, for example, can be done in one sitting, and you can have it done in one day. So that is a task that needs to be done and is a greater part of a project such as “Cleaning the house”. We become overwhelmed with tasks so much that we often cannot see the larger picture and focus on the small things. This makes us feel ofttimes like we’re always busy and never productive.

Breaking down goals into smaller projects and projects into tasks takes a bit of brainstorming and sometimes some soul searching into just what you want to achieve. There are worksheets out there that can help you along with this in planning, and I encourage you to look and see what suits your style. Just realize that patience will be needed, goals won’t always be met, but you’ll be pointing yourself towards your ideal life and find that you’re happier and more productive for it.