Updated on Jan. 29, 2021.
Have you ever made a personal or professional resolution, fully intent to achieve it - and then failed? It means you’re among the vast majority, as over 9 in 10 people don’t keep up with their resolutions. It would seem that you thought through everything and were motivated to go the whole hog!
Why does this happen and how can you prevent such failures in the future? Well, the most common reason for failing business and personal resolutions is not setting your goals correctly. Such is the power of goal setting, and yet a lot of people don’t understand it completely. Today, we are going to consider the following questions:
- Why setting proper goals is so important?
- How to set up clear and achievable goals?
- What is business goal setting software and why do you need it?
- And finally: How does KeepSolid Goals help you to succeed?
Let’s figure it all out!
Why setting proper goals is so important
Setting goals is crucial. It allows you to understand what is essential to you or your business, and focus on it. Also, when done properly, goal setting helps you measure progress, visualize your objectives, and overcome procrastination. After all, if you don’t know where you want to get, you can’t map out the way there.
Setting goals is also a neat psychological trick to keep yourself accountable. Be it personal or professional goals, once you tell others about your objectives you’re more likely to strive to accomplish them. Goal setting is a way to create the future that you desire.
Also, goal setting is vital to track your progress and stay motivated. To most people, not seeing the results of their great efforts is upsetting. Also, tracking progress helps stay on the right track.
Keep your goals simple
Before we move to more intricate advice, make sure you truly understand this one. Do NOT set extreme makeovers as your personal or business goals. While they may be a nice aspiration, for an average person this approach can be too daunting, doomed to fail. We simply have too many competing priorities in our lives, so with a goal too big you might fail to even launch.
Keep your resolution list short. Fill it with small, attainable objectives, instead of an overwhelming, singular goal. It’s actually working towards your objectives that matters, not the extent of the change you’re aiming for.
Keep your goals SMART
SMART is a goal-setting framework. It is extremely helpful for setting proper goals. This framework helps define the steps necessary for success, milestones that will indicate your progress, and resources that you’ll need to get there. It also sets important boundaries that will allow you to achieve your objectives more effectively and efficiently.
To be SMART, the goals you set should be:
Specific
Facilitate effective planning with narrow objectives. Be clear and specific as to what you’re aiming to achieve. Narrow goals will help you understand the steps necessary to achieve them.
Measurable
Define what evidence or metric will prove you’re making progress. Setting milestones along the way shall also help you course-correct and re-evaluate as needed. And don’t forget that reaching each milestone should feel like an achievement, so consider rewarding yourself and your team in meaningful ways.
Achievable
Make sure you can reasonably accomplish your goal within a certain time frame. This will keep you focused and motivated. Decide whether your goal is something you can realistically achieve or whether you’d better further split it, or take preliminary steps to become better prepared.
Relevant
Align your goals with your values and long-term objectives. Double-check that each of your goals contributes toward your overarching targets, and if it doesn’t - rethink it. Consider why the objective is important to you or your business, how hitting it will help you.
Time-bound
Use realistic deadlines for motivation and task prioritization. Also, failing to meet your goals in the chosen time frame will show that there are some problems, either internal (e.g. unrealistic time frame) or external (you might have faced unexpected roadblocks, or the goal was unrealistic in the first place).
Organize your goals and keep moving forward
Writing down your personal and professional goals will bear you many benefits and quality of life improvements:
- It will boost your motivation and confidence and will help you turn goals into habits.
- It will improve your focus and help you direct your energy towards what’s most important.
- It will reduce your stress level by removing the burden of keeping everything inside.
- It will help you achieve bigger goals without them feeling overwhelming.
- It will allow you to track your progress, learn from your experience, and analyze what worked, what didn’t, and why.
Business goal setting software and why do you need it
To streamline the goal-setting process and maximize its effectiveness, it’s highly recommended to use dedicated goal setting software. It will help you make sure that every aspect of your goals - the grand objective, the tasks that will lead you to it, the KPIs that you will use to measure your progress - all that is aligned with your overarching goal.
Why use goal setting software for personal use
The main reason to get started with goal management software is to stay goal-oriented. Structure all your thoughts, figure out your main goal, and graphically present your ideas using the Mind map feature. The structured visual presentation helps you to plan your way forward.
To create a well-organized mind map, we highly recommend using a dedicated goal management software, such as KeepSolid Goals.
Reasons to get started with a company goal setting software
Nowadays, almost all businesses use corporate goal setting software. Why?
- To collaborate with your team - setting tasks not only in words but also in the digital form is a great way not to forget about something you should do. In this way, your team is always able to see all the tasks assigned to them.
- To structure the work process - display your main goal using the Mind Map feature, figure out related key results, and add the appropriate tasks for each key result. Now all your works are structured, so you and your team can easily navigate between them.
- To increase productivity - when each team member is aware of the main goal of the project and understands the steps to achieve it, they need less time to complete their tasks.
- To plan works with no hassle - you can see the progress of each task and key results daily. So you can make immediate changes if you see that some task is going to miss its deadline. You can plan additional works based on the ongoing team workload, as well.
Achieve your goals with the KeepSolid Goals app
KeepSolid Goals is a multitasking goal setting software that helps you to be organized and see what steps you should take to achieve your goals.
To make your way towards goals more effective and hassle-free, our goal setting software provides lots of convenient visualization features:
- Mind map - See everything that's on your plate: main goal, key results, and tasks
- Roadmaps / Timeline - Plan implementation of tasks and set their deadlines vividly
- Kanban - Track the progress towards your objective daily
- Sprints - Split your time to complete all scheduled tasks by their deadlines.
Want to try? - Not another word: sign up for KeepSolid Goals and get started with your goals here and now.
