It’s been a flurry of activity at ASI headquarters in 2023 and we’ve been working at max capacity to bring you new programs like Grant on Grants, the MEDAL program and the Springboard Fellowship (the deadline for which is on February 15th!).

With so many balls in the air, we’ve gotten really good at juggling multiple deadlines and we want to share our top goal management tips with you here in the hopes that it will inspire you through this dreary month of February. This post was included in our February 10th email, but we’ll go a little more in-depth here.

Tip #1

Examine the goal itself. Is it something that aligns with your personality or serves your mission or passions? It’s one thing to set a goal to workout every day, but is working out something that you enjoy doing? If it’s not, you could explore related goals like taking a walk every day or starting your morning with a stretching routine. Many of us start off the New Year with a set of resolutions and by February, two-thirds of us have given them up for one reason or another. But a good way to ensure that a goal sticks with us to the end is to make it something that we will actually enjoy doing or will lead us to a more fulfilled place.

Another important aspect to making a goal stick is to make it SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound). There are plenty of articles on the internet that go more into SMART goals with specific examples, but overall what it means is that we’re not biting off more than we can chew and that we’ll know when we’re done. Wanting to do a new habit “every day” is a goal that is often set, but when does “every day” stop? One year, one month? It’s a good question to think about, even if you already have a goal in mind.

Tip #2

Offload and delegate where possible. If achieving your goal is your priority, what tasks can you let go of or delegate to avoid burnout? As a human  person, we only have so much capacity to accomplish tasks every day so oftentimes, we can simplify things to have more capacity left for working on our goals. This will look different for everyone, but it cannot be overstated how much even one small act can have on our ability to accomplish things.

One example could be setting a vacation responder on your email for one day so you can have uninterrupted time to focus, and no, you’re not allowed to include “but call me in case you need something!” at the end. Think about your capacity like you would measure electricity use. Even if an appliance isn’t plugged in, it still could be using power. Similarly, even if your email is just open as a tab on your browser while you’re working on something else, it’s pulling just a little bit of focus away from what you’re working on and when that inbox turns to from (1) to (14), you’ll have a hard time focusing on anything else. Another example that we use a lot is auto-scheduling. Especially if you work with social media, there is a constant need for content to maintain audiences. Consider setting a day aside to batch content for an entire month and using an application like Hootsuite, Asana, or Buffer to automatically post your content every day.

Tip #3

Monitor your physical and mental health. If a task is giving you a particularly hard time on one day, instead of letting that self-judgement creep in, ask yourself why. Constantly telling yourself that you’re not smart or skilled enough to do something when one particular obstacle is standing in your way is the ultimate way to ensure that your goal will never be accomplished. Instead of turning a negative narrative inward, take a look at how you’re doing that day, your mood, and other personal factors. The answer to why this particular obstacle is so hard today could be lack of sleep, lack of specific nutrients, or maybe there are other things happening in your life that are taking up your mental bandwidth. Or, since it’s February, maybe it’s the lack of sun.

Some people do bullet journaling for this very reason; to see how what we eat, how much water we drink, or how much sleep we got can affect our moods and our habits. You don’t have to commit yourself to a life of tedious notetaking, but we do recommend just taking stock of how you’re doing can allow you to remedy the problem and forgive yourself for not being able to accomplish that task today. Always take care of yourself, even if it’s just an extra snooze on the alarm in the morning.

Tip #4

Say no! We talked about boundaries before but taking on extra work can be a huge obstacle to your goals. And, sometimes the things we’re saying no to are things that we actually really want to do like a night out with friends. But boundaries don’t have to mean saying no to everything, only the things that don’t serve us or don’t serve us currently. We talk more about boundary setting and how to say no with kindness and understanding here.

Tip #5

Celebrate achievements with coworkers and friends. Not just the big achievements, the little ones too. Celebrations can be personal, like buying yourself a latte instead of making coffee at home, or they can be with your colleagues, friends, and family and bring everyone together. If you’re inviting more people to the party, it can have a positive impact on your goals because they can boost you up even more and support you through the next steps, if there are any. As a manager, sending a big thank you email to your team after accomplishing a major lift can do wonders for morale and we’re big fans of Crumbl Cookies to celebrate a win.

Hopefully these small tidbits are enough to motivate you to apply for our Springboard Fellowship or any of our other upcoming opportunities. Let us know what you’d like to see us talk about in our next blogs. Thanks for reading!