It may seem like January was just yesterday, but the reality is June is on the horizon. If you find yourself looking at the middle of the year wondering where all that time went, you’re not alone. In fact, it’s perfectly normal to feel like time got away from you in the best of times, and during, well, not the best of times it’s easy for our perception of time to get even more out of whack.
Thankfully, being midway through the year doesn’t have to be viewed with trepidation. Whether you’ve really hit the ball out of the park and knocked over every 2021 domino, or stumbled a bit out of the gate, there’s no better time than now to hit RESET on your goals.
How to Hit RESET
In simplest terms, a RESET is a time to reinspect our goals. A period where we sit down, look at what we’ve accomplished, what we haven’t, and whether or not the goals we initially set for ourselves are still valid. (And it’s totally fine if they aren’t.) The RESET framework works like this:
- Reflect on your past and decide your future
- Evaluate your priorities to pursue the right goals
- Simplify instead of overcomplicating thing
- Establish a plan to achieve better results in less time
- Time block actions that fast-track extraordinary results
Reflect
Sometimes you need to look back before you can move forward. That’s why we encourage everyone to take some time and reflect before planning for the future. Take a moment to recap what has actually happened over the past 6 months. How did you first feel when you set your goals 6 months ago? Were you excited or motivated by what you wanted to achieve? Now think about where you are right now. Did you achieve what you were hoping to? Is there something you were hoping to accomplish – or something you wanted – that didn’t happen? This is the time to both celebrate your victories and identify areas for improvement.
Evaluate
The evaluation stage is where you consider the areas that aren’t necessarily going as planned. If the goals you set for yourself aren’t being accomplished, consider why. Maybe you wanted to work your way up to being marathon ready, but you’re barely able to do a 5k. You could be stalled because you haven’t been honoring your time blocks. Or because you picked the wrong lead domino. It could also mean that the goal you picked is, well, the wrong one. And there’s nothing wrong with that. What is important is engaging with your goals so you can either keep them, tailor them, or nix them for something that aligns more with your ONE thing.
Simplify
Oftentimes the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of the year are overly complicated. We’re full of excitement and energy for the coming year and have so much enthusiasm it can be easy to overbook ourselves. If after your reflection and evaluation you’ve found that you’ve set too many goals, or have goals that just aren’t working – simplify. Identify what your ONE thing is – are all of your goals serving that ONE thing? If there are some goals that aren’t, it may be time to cut them entirely. Remember, it isn’t about doing more things, it’s about doing more of the right thing. So, simplify! Figure out what your 20 percent goals are and get rid of the rest.
Establish a Plan
Now that you’ve reassessed and prioritized your goals, it’s time to establish a plan. You have your 20 percent figured out, and an eye toward your ONE thing. Take some time and try Goal Setting to the Now. The same way it is better to solve a maze by starting at the end and working backwards, planning to accomplish your goals should start at the end goal. Think about what you need to do next quarter, this month, this week, all the way down to today in order to accomplish your goal. Break each step down to smaller, measurable milestones. This way you can schedule your time out accordingly and act with priority.
Time Block
Now that you have your game plan, it’s time to time block. A time block is a method of scheduling that prioritizes what you do and when you do it. We describe it as the act of making an appointment with yourself in order to get your most important work done. When you time block, you take control of your schedule, which can help relieve time related stress. An effective time blocking system prioritizes progress towards an individual task and leads to healthy productivity. When you sit down to time block, you want to do it in the following order:
- Time block your time off
- Time block your one thing
- Time block your planning time
There are a number of great tools to help you track your time blocks, from scheduling them out in Outlook to using The ONE Thing Planner. (Which is 50 percent off on Amazon. Half the year gone, half the price.) The important thing is to keep track of your time blocks every week. How much time are you blocking for each of your goals? For your ONE thing? By keeping track of your overall time blocks each week, you’ll get a better understanding of how you’re using your time each week, and tweak to give yourself more time for your ONE thing.
What are some goals you’ve set this year that you’re wanting to hit RESET on? Drop a comment in The ONE Thing Facebook Community and let us know.