It's a new year -- a first day of being able to start with a reset or recommitment to your goals, if you use them. A new year presents a clean break with whatever you've done in the past/prior year. Goals are simply thoughts of where we want to see ourselves by the end of the year (or over a longer-term when a project is involved). Objectives are a more defined vision of what it will take to reach the goals. Making progress on your goals means identifying the reasonable, specific and measurable steps to getting there - these are objectives.
In preparation for my goal-setting and the change in calendar years, I started with a year-end review of my accomplishments and the progress made on my goals in 2023. It was done in zine form. The front and back covers (below) bookend 6 pages of the year's highlights, efforts/activities that align with my interest areas, and actual percentages completed -- of my objectives that inform my goals.
For goal-setting to be meaningful, it's helpful to have a measurable objective(s). As an example, one of my goals in 2024 is walking regularly for 325 total miles in the year. An objective that supports achieving that -- is walking 4 days/week. (Fyi...walking 4 days/week x 52 weeks = 208 days in the year. To achieve 325 miles walked in the year, each walk will need to be 1.5 miles. Since I generally walk more than 4 days a week, the objective and goal should be achievable. So, this objective is reasonable, specific and measurable.)
How do I keep track of the progress on my objectives? I use Excel spreadsheets. In an Excel file, my overall goals are listed on the first spreadsheet. It looks like the one below. I track progress on the objectives by quarter. So, I have 4 additional Excel spreadsheets with the objectives listed and a tally by week of progress for the 13 weeks of that quarter. At the end of the year, I tally the quarter's numbers and then combine them for the year's totals and see how I've done goal-wise.
I also use some other methods to track numbers. They include the SportsTracker app that records the miles I walk each time. I also have a separate Excel file in which I keep a cumulative total of the miles walked by day/year (as the app doesn't keep the information very long). I also record each day's art/creative work, exercise, etc. in my daily planner as another method,
What I see at the end of a year is usually an impressive amount of work that I wouldn't recall without having documented it in some way. It serves to hearten me. Some of the things I might not have handily recalled doing in 2023, without the record-keeping, included:
- taking 6 classes,
- going to 4 art exhibitions,
- designing and having 4 books printed,
- creating 6 zines,
- making 111 blog posts,
- art-making 73% of my 5 days/week objective
- walking 81% of my 3 days/week objective, and
- walking 54% of my 500-mile goal
Even as I recommend considering goal-setting, if you do it start simply and take the time to think through how it can work best for you.
Happy New Year!
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