How To Slay Your Goals This Year & Get Sh*t Done

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If you’re about to get ready for the new year, I’m so excited that you’re here to join me for today’s post of tips on how to successfully slay your goals this year and get sh*t done.

The new year is a totally fresh start to the year.

Maybe you failed to do something important on your to-do list last year or you started to form a bad habit that you want to stop.

It’s okay! Come January 1st, you get to figuratively wash away all of the stuff that wasn’t so great that happened during the previous year and start anew.

Of course, if you accomplished a bunch of things and you were super proud of them, definitely don’t forget about your accomplishments and use them to help build yourself up and keep the momentum going.

So are you ready for my tips on how to slay your goals this year?  If you’re not sure of how to get started, read on my friend.

Reflect on the past year

The very first thing you can do is to reflect on everything that happened during the previous year.

Write down everything that you accomplished and compare them to the goals that you set up at the beginning of the year.

Check out my Yearly Review Journal for inspirational journal prompts that will help you review the past year. You’ll figure out what worked, what didn’t, and what to change this upcoming year for better results.

If you find that after your reflection that you were pretty far off from meeting your goals, don’t beat yourself up over it. The past is the past and you can’t change anything about it.

What you do have control over are your actions today which will shape your future.

Take what you learned from not accomplishing your goals to help yourself become more motivated so you can become a better version of yourself compared to last year.

Maybe you learned from reflecting that you’re just not able to put in the work as much time on a certain project due to your current time constraints.

Finding out what worked and what didn’t work for you is all part of the reflection and growing process and it’ll lead to making better decisions going forward.

What do you want to achieve this year?

Next, let’s list all of the goals you want to achieve this year.

Be realistic though!

Make sure you take what you learned and apply it to help you set attainable and realistic goals.

Why do you have to be realistic?

Well, if you aim too high, you’ll set yourself up for failure.

If at the end of the year, you see that you haven’t gotten anywhere close to what you had wanted to accomplish, it might even demotivate you to set any sort of goal the next year because you’ll think those goals are unattainable anyways so why bother.

Noo… You definitely want to avoid that mentality.

On the other hand, if you also aim too low, you won’t be challenging yourself enough which you need to propel yourself forward and accomplish your goals.

And so, the moral of the story is to take baby steps and make sure your goals are realistically achievable by the end of the year.

You should always have a general picture of the next 5 years to 10 years down the road so you have an idea of what you’re striving to achieve. Having this general plan can help you set shorter-term goals that are more attainable because you’ll get a better sense of what’s realistic and what isn’t.

S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Everything that I talked about above ties into S.M.A.R.T. goals, which are what you should be aiming to set.

S.M.A.R.T. goals stand for:

Specific – Answers the who, what when, where, why, and how of your goal. The goal can’t be too general.

Measurable – You need to be able to determine your goal’s progress and whether you’ve completed it.

Achievable – It needs to be attainable but also challenging enough where you feel a sense of accomplishment after it has been achieved.

Realistic – It has to be reached within the time and resources you have available to dedicate to it.

Timely – It has to have time constraints with a sense of urgency so you’ll be more inclined to complete it.

Without making sure your goals hit all of these requirements, you’ll likely to set yourself up for failure.

What Are Some Goal Ideas?

Short on time but want a great list of starter goal ideas you can brainstorm off of? Check out my post on 100 ideas for goals you can start today.

These are perfect to start aiming for no matter what time of the year it is.

Pro Tip: You might also want to try to add one or two small things to your list of goals to achieve that are out of your comfort zone this year to really grow as a person. They do say that only when you get out of your comfort zone and face adversity, do you really grow.

How to Slay Your Goals This Year

Next, let’s talk about how you’ll successfully get to where you want to be.

1. Break Down Your Goals Into An Action Plan

If you look at some of the goals that you want to achieve, just thinking about getting to the finish line can be quite daunting and can lead to procrastinating if you don’t break it down.

Let’s say you want to lose 20 pounds. That number might feel like a mountainous goal that you can’t achieve.

However, if you have a clear action plan and cut them into mini goals and steps, it might not be too bad after all.

Instead of just saying you want to lose ten pounds, you can break it up into ten smaller goals over the span of a few months. Every week, you aim to lose just one pound at a time by eating healthy and having an exercising routine.

Now, it’s not so daunting of a goal after all, right?

Consistently completing these smaller tasks and reaching your mini goals on a daily or weekly basis to all your goals will give you the motivation and confidence that you’ll get to where you need to be.

So how will you consistently complete these tasks to get to your goal?

You absolutely need to use a planner and schedule your time properly.

2. Use A Planner & Schedule Your Time

I highly recommend using a planner to break down your goals and schedule your time. It can also come in handy to take it with you wherever you go in case you want to jot down any notes, feelings, or ideas that suddenly come to your head.

Check out my Goal Setting Planner For 2024. This planner will help get you on track to reaching all your goals this year and be more productive.

Like using digital spreadsheets more? You can check out my easy to use, all-in-one Goal Planner & Tracker Spreadsheet.

Once you have a planner, brainstorm and compile a list of the smaller tasks you need to accomplish to work towards your goals.

Don’t forget to also list out projects with upcoming deadlines, errands you need to run, time to work out, and any upcoming social events.

Using your organization and prioritizing skills, slot everything into a schedule properly with generous breaks so that you have time to practice self-care. You can do this type of planning daily, weekly, and monthly depending on your preference.

Then, work really hard to stick to this schedule. It can be hard to really follow it religiously but it’s so important that you do if you want to slay your goals.

Without following a schedule, it’s easy to be careless with your time and waste a lot of precious time doing useless things (*ahem*.. social media, I’m talking about you) that don’t help you get any closer to your end goal.

Have A Morning Routine

A productive morning routine can be the difference between success and failure.

You can achieve so much in the mornings when you are the most focused and it truly sets the tone for the rest of the day. So be mindful of what you do each morning as this is most especially important.

You can read more in my posts on how to create a morning routine for success and productive morning habits to jumpstart your day.

Skills To Sharpen If Following Schedules Is Hard

If you know you have a hard time following schedules, you’ll need to work on it. Here are some key traits that you should strive to improve.

Willpower

You absolutely need the willpower and determination to follow your schedule.

Even when your body and mind is telling you that you want to quit because you’re tired, you don’t think you can do it, or you’re feeling lazy, learn to be a self-starter.

Find the motivation and drive within yourself to complete the little tasks that’ll get you closer towards your goal.

For example, if you’re trying to lose weight but you don’t have time during the day to work out due to a packed schedule, you might have to push yourself to wake up at 5 am in the morning to schedule your workouts in.

Even when your bed feels like heaven, get your butt up and go to the gym.

Consistency

You also must absolutely have the consistency to stick to your schedule.

Any successful person knows that success only comes through hard work, long hours, and being absolutely consistent in whatever they are trying to accomplish. So chip in the work little by little every day, respect the grind, and success will follow.

This is true whether you’re trying to get in shape, finishing a university course, or even starting your own business.

Productivity

Even if you set up a schedule and block out time to get work done, if you’re not productive and focused, that’s not going to help you get things done.

If you work remote or you’re your own boss, be mindful of your surroundings that are time sucks.

If you know you’re going to be distracted while you work, make sure that you minimize these distractions.

3. Celebrate The Small Wins

After you reach each milestone where you complete a mini-goal after taking multiple small action steps, it’s time to celebrate.

It’s important to celebrate small wins as it helps give a sense of accomplishment and will further help you feel motivated to do more. You can do something small for yourself as a pat on the back.

Writing in a log book on a daily basis of your accomplishments is a great way to keep track of what you’ve done throughout the year and your small wins.

It’s also great if you ever feel self-doubt about your abilities.It reminds us that we were successful in the past, that we can replicate our successes again, and that we have the ability to follow our dreams regardless of what our mind tells us.

It’s also great to have your ideas already written down in one place so that at the end of the year, you can reflect on the past year easily.

4. Re-visit your goals at checkpoints

As the year progresses, you should re-visit your goals at various checkpoints and see how far you’ve come since the beginning of the year. You can choose how frequently you want to check-in.

You can do weekly, monthly, and quarterly, and/or yearly check-ins. My Goal Setting Planner includes weekly and quarterly check-in pages to help with this.

Make notes based on your findings and be open to revising your old plan with new steps. If you find a better method to get there, there’s nothing wrong with changing things up if they’re not working for you or you find a more efficient route.

Keep Slaying Your Goals & Being Consistent

Once you get the year going, be aware that you might find a lot of the motivation you felt at the start year quickly disappearing by the end of January or the early February.

If you feel that you tend to lose motivation and can’t seem to get to where you want to be, you might want to head on over to my post on how to stay motivated to reach your goals.

It’s all about keeping consistent and motivating yourself through small wins.

Let’s all make this new year the best year ever. Good luck!

Don’t forget to check out my other posts on goal setting and being more productive with your day:

• 100 New Year’s Goal Ideas + Why Should You Set Goals This Year
• 55 Affirmations For Achieving All Your Goals
• How To Stay Motivated To Reach Your Goals
• 25 Kick-Ass Planners You Need To Get Organized
• How To Create A Productive Morning Routine For Success
• 8 Productive Morning Habits To Practice Before 9 AM
• 6 Ways To Start The Week Off Right Every Sunday
• How To Stay Healthy And Sane When You Work At A Desk Job
• 25 Self-Improvement Books To Read This Year
• How To Stop Procrastinating Once And For All
• 20 Best Books On Beating Procrastination
• 50 Daily Affirmations To Overcome Procrastination

How are you going to slay your goals this new year? Feel free to share in the comments below!