5 Ways to Accomplish Goals While Multitasking

Goal setting in a multitasking environment is viciously difficult.

Ideally, you want to get the most out of your productive time with the least amount of effort.

Otherwise what is the point of multitasking?

The trouble is that it is very easy to lose time and concentration when your attention is pulled from one task to another.

Here are some useful tips for how to set goals while multitasking.

1. Monitor What’s Finished

It is imperative that you are fully aware of the progress of your goals. If you are not sure of your progress, then you cannot organize your time and cannot organize your productivity. It is the same as trying to run a business without a budget or trying to steer a car with your feet.

If you know how much has been completed, then you know how much work is still left to do, and you know where to put your productive time. It also acts as a motivator when you know how much is left to do on each goal you set.

One of your goals should be to monitor and check the progress of your goals. It sounds like a paradox, but all it takes is budgeting a little time to check on your progress. The rewards far outweigh the time it takes out of your day or week.

You can also analyze your productivity if you monitor the progress of your goals. This will help you plan your future goals and set their time limits.

You do not want to risk paralysis by analysis, so justtake a little time to check on your progress at routine intervals. You do not spend hours checking what speed you are driving at, but you would be in big trouble if you didn’t check every now and again.

2. Work Out Your Priorities 

Setting a goal is pointless if the deadline and workload are incompatible. There is no point in setting a goal where the deadline is too close or the workload is too much. All you are doing is setting yourself up for a failure, which is going to damage your motivation.

There is also the fact that if you budget too little time or if there is too much work, you will miss the deadline, you will not hit your goal, and all your other deadlines and goals are going to suffer.

That is a dramatically bad thing in a multitasking environment where a certain harmony and balance must be reached in order to work productively.

If there are things that are of a low priority, can you squeeze them in during periods where you have reached and surpassed your other goals? For example, if one goal is to complete a high priority goal within three hours and you do it within two, couldn’t you squeeze in your low priority goal instead of budgeting time out of your productive (and pre-planned) time?

3. Set Up Contingencies 

This is important, albeit difficult, in a multitasking environment. The people that miss their goals and do not have a plan are the ones that have to work extra hours and are the ones that let the team down.

A contingency is a plan that you enact if it looks like you are not going to reach your goal, if you miss your goal, or if something goes wrong. Sometimes it can be as simple as asking others for help, and other times it is more complex.

Above all, make sure you have a contingency plan you can put in place if things go wrong. If you have to think on your feet or re-plan during your working process, you lose time and a lot of efficiency.

4. Look To Improve Your Process

Goal setting should have more than one purpose, and one of those purposes should be to improve your processes and surpass your goals. For example, if you have a goal that you reach every month, why not up the stakes and try to achieve more?

You can achieve more if one of your goals is self improvement and the improvement of your processes. There is always a faster and more efficient way of doing things.

Sometimes making yourself more efficient means sacrificing a little time in the moment, but it is worth it if your efficiency improves. Set goals to improve your processes and make sure that your “improvement” doesn’t simply involve doing more work or you will end up putting too much on your plate (more than you can handle in most cases).

5. Every Goal Must Have An End Point

A goal is useless if it does not have a deadline and an end point. Even if you are multitasking, you still need to know where each goal ends and what time or date the deadline is. Without these factors you are not setting goals, you are just doing chores.

“But my task is a never-ending one,” cried the overworked employee. Your task may be never ending, but your goal to complete the task is not. Just because you have to do the same thing over a period of time doesn’t mean it cannot become a goal.

When you work on your never-ending task, isn’t one of your goals to get it done by the end of the day, week, year or specific time period? A goal tells you how long you have to do it and how much you need to do before it is over.

If you cannot work this into a long-term goal, then think about milestones and how your goals can work toward reaching them. Think about how you may improve your goals and your processes so that one day the task is not never-ending.

If your goals have deadlines and end points then you have something to work toward. All of your multitasking is worth the effort if there is an end point and it becomes a big motivator.

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What about you? Do you set goals while multitasking? What tips do you have?

(Photo by EladeManu / CC BY)

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5 Secrets to Motivating Yourself

What do you do when you’re feeling kind of blah and can’t seem to shake it?

Do you have ways to snap out of those moods and create a sense of drive and purpose?

If yes, keep doing what you’re doing (and leave a comment at the end of this post with your secrets).

If you’re like most of us, you may need a little extra help to get your mojo movin’ again.

Here are five ways to inspire yourself:

1. Focus on the Future

If you dwell on the past, or even your current problems or situation, it’s easy to get down on yourself. Why not shift gears and focus on the future?

If today is not going so well, what can you do tomorrow to make it better? When you switch your focus to the future, you begin to see the world of possibilities that are open to you. Possibilities can lead to positivity, and that can lead to hope, which is what can inspire us and lift us up when we’re feeling down.

But just don’t dream about the future. Make a plan to make the bright future that you aspire to come into reality. That process of visioning and planning and action always works to bring results.

It may not bring you that dream job right away, but you will be moving in the right direction toward it if you start focusing on what is possible.

2. Read All About it

There are so many inspirational people who have written their stories and pointed the way for all of us. And at some point they were down on themselves and could not see the way forward.

One of the greatest leaders of our times, Nelson Mandela, spent 27 years in prison, most of it in the notorious Robbin Island prison until his release in 1990 after an international campaign against apartheid and his imprisonment.

If you read his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, you will hear about his long time in prison and the deprivations he suffered. But he never gave up his hope for freedom for himself and his people.

Now that’s inspiring. And there are thousands of books that tell similar stories of remarkable courage and inner strength that can help you find what you need inside of yourself to move forward.

There are people who rose out of the slums to become millionaires and women and men who were severely injured in accidents or wars who became world class athletes. Find a story that resonates with you and draw from their inspiration to inspire yourself.

3. Find a Role Model

When we were kids we often looked up and even admired certain people who inspired us. This might have included professional football stars or famous musicians or actors.

But it also probably included someone who was a little bit older than us who seemed like they had things together. It may have even been our parents or an older brother or sister.

We closely watched what they did, and we mimicked their actions and behavior because we wanted to be just like them. Having a role model as an adult is kind of the same thing, except for the hero worship. And it too can work to help inspire us.

Find someone in your life, or maybe at work, who seems like they have everything that you want. Then ask them how they got where they are today.

They will probably be happy to talk about themselves for a few minutes, but don’t be surprised to hear them say that they were exactly where you are at one point in their life. Take their story and their success with you and use it as your inspiration.

4. Act as If

One of the best ways to inspire yourself is to start acting as if you were already successful, popular, slimmer or whatever you would like to be. This time the self-inspiration might actually come from perspiration as you take actions that you hope will lead you where you want to go.

Let’s say you want to be in better physical shape. You can start with the motivation of good health and feeling better about yourself. But what might actually get you to the gym will be acting as if you were already healthier, and a healthy person just goes to the gym naturally.

It’s a bit of a ninja mind trick, but it can work to give you that spark of inspiration and when you add the perspiration you have the formula for success. As you make better choices, your self-worth rises.

When that happens, you automatically take the actions that you know you should be doing. That’s the magic of inspiring yourself.

5. Take a Break and Re-energize

Sometimes a completely different tactic is required in order to inspire yourself. If you are feeling down, you may be just tired and overwhelmed. Try taking a weekend off, just for yourself.

If you have to go away to make that happen, take the time off. You are worth it. While you’re away or just relaxing, you can take stock of your life — the good and the bad. You can examine what is working well and what needs to be fixed.

Try to have as much alone time as you can during this respite, and listen to your inner voice. It may be telling you to slow down or change careers to fix your relationships.

Just listen. You don’t have to do anything. Sometimes the inspiration to fix our problems or embark on a new adventure is already there waiting for us to pay attention. You may already have the inspiration you need inside of you. All you have to do is to let it out.

—

Inspiring yourself helps you grow and change. It can also just get you through a tough task. Regardless, it’s a great skill to have. How do you inspire yourself?

(Photo Credit: Steve Wilson)

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