Get Things Done With Me--Session 2: Setting measurable goals and actually accomplishing them

I recently wrote THIS blog post about getting lots of little tasks done around my home. The key is that each task was *small* and *defined*.

As much as a good friend and I want to say we will clean and organize our ENTIRE homes, we both find that to be overwhelming. Even saying, "I'm going to clean my living room" is frequently too much!

So, what do we do instead? 

We create small and measurable goals that are easy to accomplish. And, we do that over and over throughout the day.

You could argue that we are simply making to do lists, but I think that over simplifies things. We don't make a complete list of everything we plan to accomplish for the day as that can feel overwhelming. Instead, we list out just a handful of tiny tasks and micro-goals, accomplish those, and then repeat the process.

When I wrote the post linked above (and linked here), I did set a larger goal, but I broke it down into micro-goals. The larger goal was to clean up the living room, dining area, and the kitchen. Then, I took each area and created micro-goals, most of which could be taken care of in five to ten minutes, at most. By doing this over and over throughout each of these spaces over the course of a few hours, I created huge impact!

I took my dog out for a walk this morning, and even that was an exercise in micro-goals. I have been working hard at walking at least 1.5 miles per day from June 1 through the 15th (in May, my goal was 1 mile per day the entire month), and some days it just is hard. This morning, my goal was to get at least a mile done with our first walk. It's been hot lately, and getting that walk in later would be hard. I set our destination as a coffee bar about a half mile from home. I bought myself a coffee and purposely bought a treat that I could share with her so that we could work on some training. 

When we came back, we walked into our home and the whole space felt lighter and airier. The amount of clutter was so much better compared to yesterday morning. Doing all of that work yesterday also highlighted a few areas that I want to tackle later today as well--areas I likely would have totally overlooked if I'd just tried to tackle the entire living room, dining area, and kitchen as one broad goal.

SOME REASONS TO CREATE MICRO-GOALS

To some of you, this all might be an obvious approach to goal setting and getting things done, but to others it might be revelatory. Here are a handful of reasons and situations where micro-goals might be helpful:

• Anxiety cripples you and makes you freeze.
• Overwhelm (closely reated to anxiety) makes you freeze.
• You've been sick and just can't do a whole lot all at once.
• You haven't been sick but maybe aren't in your best shape, and thus trying to do too much results in very little getting done.
• You struggle to feel accomplished and thus quit before the job is done.
• You don't have much free time.

At various times in my life, every one of the above situations has resulted in my not getting anything done.

Today, I'm feeling pretty good and not experiencing any of the things on the list above, but I was so successful in getting things done yesterday, I decided to create micro-goals again today.

Yesterday, I tackled the shared living spaces of my home (my adult kiddo and their partner live with me). Today, I really wanted to tackle my bedroom.

After taking my dog on a one mile round trip walk and then after feeding her when we got home, I made my bed, just to set the tone for my day.

Then, I texted my friend a short list of tasks:

After doing each of the tasks on this little list, I sent my friend an updated list with a check mark next to each item that I completed and with a few new tasks added. Then, I repeated this process throughout the day.

At this point, I've accomplished 14 items (two don't have check marks yet) and am working on my 15th! Each of these have been quite small tasks, but I feel like I'm getting a lot done as a result. 

Throughout this, I also took before and after pictures.

If I had just said I was going to clean my room and left it at that, I probably would have just done the bare minimum of picking up some things from the floor. I want my room and my work station to feel more functional for my lifestyle and probably would not have moved my desk set up and other things if I hadn't made them explicit, small goals in and of themselves. I would have left things as they were and been annoyed all week as a result.

My next two tasks are to work on my various blogs (including this one!) and to make breakfast hand pies--notice I didn't just say meal plan or meal prep. I specifically stated the first item I'm going to make.

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After writing the above paragraph, I got up and made a sausage-based filling and while I write this, I have a potato-based vegan filling cooking on the stove. The weather is supposed to be in the mid-90s here today, so I'm only prepping the fillings right now. Later, in the evening, I will finish them off, possibly in my air fryer (I'm very new to the air fryer--do you have one? So far, I love it!).

I also took a little break to chat with my neighbor's mom for a bit which was lovely. And, I took the dog out for a potty break.

Even with our air conditioning going in two rooms, it's pretty warm. So, at this point, I'll be taking a break from doing much of anything other than tending the veggies on the stove periodically until they are cooked through and I'll spend some time reading my current book, The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore.

Later this evening, after the weather has cooled down a bit, I'll prep some tofu, bell peppers, and onion to make vegan sandwich fillings. I will also make some chickpea salad sandwich filling to keep in the fridge and use throughout the week (like tuna salad, but with chickpeas instead of tuna).

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I ended up taking a much longer break than anticipated, but it's so hot here that it felt appropriate.

When I was back at it, I adjusted the two curtains I have tacked to my wall as a backdrop for online tutoring and meetings, and I put up a curtain over my bedroom window. The window was so warm that I took another break and did some more reading.

After I felt better, I opted to take care of some indoor plant care following guidance from the app Planta (not an affiliate link). 

I recently purchased some new plants from House Plant Shop, and so far they are thriving! A few of them are in my bathroom with a grow light that I turn on occasionally as there are no windows in either of our bathrooms. I was extremely pleased with how well the plants were packaged for shipping and how healthy they were upon arrival! House Plant Shop exceeded my expectations! You can check them out HERE (not an affiliate link).

The rest of my new plants live on my bedroom windowsill. To water them all, I put them on a rimmed baking sheet and then added water to the baking sheet so they could soak it up from underneath. I then, misted the plants that need it, watered a few plants that are already in my mini indoor garden, and cleaned a few plants I've been neglecting. Finally, I completed progress updates on all of my plants in the Planta app--something I've put off for almost two years!

I also started reloading the dishwasher and turned it on when full--did I mention that I unloaded it earlier today?

I am going to wrap up this post for now, but I still plan to do the following tasks before going to bed:

1. Go to the grocery store for two pie crusts, a red onion, vegan parmesan cheese, and some russet potatoes.
2. Finish making the breakfast hand pies.
3. Make the chickpea salad.
4. Make the tofu, bell pepper, and onion sandwich filling.
5. Pull out an outfit to wear on Monday.
6. Prep my water, daily meds, and supplements for Monday--I fill three water bottles the night before so I have all my water set for the day (about 60 unces).
7. Prep the coffee maker for the morning.
8. Water patio plants.
9. Work on two new coloring pages for my Etsy shop.
10. Set my plan for the week--I have multiple appointments this week and next, and I'm helping a neighbor by dog sitting for her when she goes to her own appointments.
11. Work on my stationery themed snail mail newsletter (coming soon!).
12. Do 5 modified burpees--I'm trying to do 5 per day, every day in June. So far, I've missed three days and it's only June 8th!
13. Work on summer plan for my primary tutoring students.

That might be a bit ambitious for the rest of today though, but we'll see! Some of these likely will spill over into other days this week.

Did you get some micro-tasks and micro-goals done as you read through this? Tell me your biggest accomplishments of the day!