So, you have your notebook to hand.
Ask yourself: What do I want to get out of this journal? and make a few decisions before you get started.
- Personal or professional life or both?
My goals journal is not just about career development. It is about maintaining a work/life balance in my rather busy life, and creating a more regular personal routine aka me time and fun time.
- Style of journal – and goal targets/review
Consider – how often are you going to review your goals? and how are your targets going to be presented? The intention for this style of journal was to be a weekly one as discussed in my earlier post. (and you will see examples of this later). But it is entirely up to you as an individual whether the weekly goal with daily checklist is suitable for your needs. You may prefer a more rigid, dated structure to a free-flowing one.
- Motivation for long-term goals?
My intentions for my notebook are to have long-term goals, which the weekly ones which build up to this. Are you someone motivated by eyeing up the long-term goal or are you put off by the feeling that you won’t get there instantaneously and give up because you are “getting nowhere”?
The first type of person whose long-term goals motivates them to do the “little things” will be best using these long-term goals in their notebook. The second type of person who is more likely to throw in the towel at the thought of such goals is better to leave these out (after the first goal decisions), and focus on the weekly goals and getting satisfaction out of those achievements.
Decisions made about the notebook and the content style. Now for the hard bit, the goals themselves.
Ask yourself: What are my goals?
Open the notebook and scribble down your mission statement/long-term goals. As it stands now! These are going on the first page. You can choose to give as much thought or as little thought into this as you want (we will review this next time). This is just getting thoughts on paper, as sometimes the unplanned, first-into-my-head ideas are the best.