Hey peeps!
So I had a few goals all planned out in my head for 2018, but then I read a post written by Ken at workanywherejourney about his task goals for 2018. By the end of the post I figured I needed some task goals of my own, because the whole idea of putting more emphasis on practice rather than timed result seemed a lot more appealing.
…not to say I’m doing a complete restart on my targets and goals for 2018. Instead I’ll be giving myself specific task goals that are inline with my result oriented goals.
The whole idea of task goals is to focus on practicing or fulfilling an action. Whereas the conventional goals most people create focus on the desired result. Its obvious to see which one is easier to achieve and mentally more manageable. Giving yourself a simple task to fulfil is easier for us to mentally comprehend compared to a result goal. The big reason for this is because most people don’t focus on what they need to do in order to achieve the result goal, making the goal unclear. Thus harder to achieve.
A task goal on the other hand is more of an action and not a result. It’s a lot clearer and simpler to achieve, but it no less effective or I dare say, more effective than setting result oriented goals. Let me give you a simple example to understand why task goals are a lot more effective in self-improvement.
Imagine someone gave themselves a task goal of running for 30 minutes everyday, and they did this everyday for a year without fail. What would be the result of this task goal? The person will most likely increase their running speed and be able to run a longer distance in 30 minutes. This also means a task goal of running everyday for 30 minutes is equal to a result goal of running faster for 30 minutes.
Are you guys starting to catch my drift here?
Task goals are really powerful if you know how to shape them properly with your result goals. BUT, take a note of my example above. The result goal is still rather vague. Not many people will have such vague result goals of running faster. People are far more likely to have a result goal like: I want to run 5km under 30 minutes. So a task goal doesn’t guarantee your success of achieving a very specific result goal, but it does make it a lot more likely and easier.
So how do you shape your task goals properly?
Reverse engineer your result goals.
Take your result goal and then begin brainstorming the most effective action you could take and make it your task goal. The task goal should be clear, simple and help you fulfil your result goal. Meaning, you should be heading in the right direction. Don’t overdo it and end up with a whole laundry list of task goals to correlate with one result goal. That’s going to end up being counter productive.
Less is almost always better.
Do you guys still remember my long post about finite games vs infinite games?
Well, let’s make 2018 a year in a long infinite game called life. Take some time today and make a few task goals, keep to it and you might be surprised by the end of the year where you end up.
Other things you should check out:
- Learn how the law of attraction can actually help you achieve your goals without voodoo magic
- My review of 2017 and find out what I plan to do in 2018.
- Sticking with the theme of the new year; why not read my post on 5 books you should read for a better year.
- The best way to avoid burnout from work
- 5 easy to follow brain hacks to learn faster
