Redesign: On Goals and To-dos

OK friends, so as we adjust our expectations to be more aligned with our core values, we need to put that into practice. Today I will briefly cover our goals and to-dos.

I don’t know about you but we are a “list” kind of family so I have a daily to-do list that I adhere to for myself as well as adding in weekly time for working on larger projects.

To be honest one of my “secrets” is that I keep my to-do list intentionally short. I aim to accomplish 3 things, 5 max.

Now, those three things are usually on top of homeschooling, daily chores like (washing dishes, wiping counters, meal prep and basic pick-up), driving children around and the usual “life” kinds of things. For example yesterday my to-dos included; homeschool field trip to pumpkin patch, clean bathroom, laundry (2 loads), write guest blog post, important phone calls.

I did way more than the to-dos BUT I knew those were the things that were priority and I really needed to get to. What happens if I don’t get to a to-do? I move it along to the following day. That simple.

My thing is that I’m a pretty “glass half full” kind of gal so I like to go to bed grateful for what I was able to accomplish during the day rather than feeling angry or anxious about what I didn’t get to. It helps me sleep better 🙂

I don’t know how you tackle your to-do’s but I highly recommend going over your process with your values/priorities lenses on and taking some time to redesign your days so that you are able to live more aligned.

Regarding goals, I like using SMART goals in my personal life and I encourage clients to do the same.

SMART stands for:

• Specific
• Measureable
• Attainable
• Realistic & relevant
• Time-bound

Think about your personal and perhaps your family goals. I recommend short-term; weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals as well as longer term 1 year, 5 year, 10 year goals.

For example the Ross Family Great House Purge of 2014 is a specific goal I have set for November. Next month, I will be tackling cleaning and organization projects around the house. I want to simplify and declutter so that’s the general goal for the month. But I’ll have specific weekly tasks I want to accomplish in each room. I’ll be able to measure my progress by taking before and after photos (and by the amount of “stuff” I’ll be getting rid of), I believe this is attainable and realistic and definitely relevant as we value simplicity in our family and time-bound as I designated the month of November to work on this project.

I specifically chose November because I knew I would be done with the 31 Days series, our homeschool schedule will be a little lighter and because I know I’ll have more space in my schedule in which to take this on. (I’ll let you know how it goes) 🙂

OK your turn. How might you need to redesign your own goals and to-do lists in order to live more aligned with your values and priorities?