How To Make Time For Your Goals

Goal achievement is difficult on a good day but what about when you have no time to work on your goals? Time is a hot commodity so finding the time to work on your goals can be hard. I know I struggle to get everything done in my 24 hours and sometimes my goals slip through the cracks!

Ultimately, finding the time to work on your goals really comes down to priorities! I think to say “make time” instead of “find time” because you aren’t going to magically find more time be strategic and make more time!

So, if you are looking for ways to achieve your goals this year and need some help with it, keep reading as we chat about how to make time for your goals. 

Prioritizing your goals

The definition of “prioritize” is to treat something as more important than other things. 

Simply put, in order to make time for your goals you will need to make them a priority. Your biggest goals should be important to you (even more important than nighty Netflix binges). So the idea of getting your priorities in line shouldn’t be shocking! 

Step one is making the decision that you are making your goals a priority. 

Step two is deciding what other things you do will not be priorities. This can be really hard, especially when you have certain habits and routines that you engage in. 

Something important to remember is that even though you are making your goals a priority that doesn’t mean you have to cut everything fun out of your life! You can still wind down at the end of the night by watching a TV show. The change might be only watching one episode instead of 3 or 4! 

Related reads:

• 10 Tips For Having The Most Productive Life Admin Day
• 5 Easy Steps To Prioritizing Your Goals
• How To Create A Simple Goal Focused Weekly Plan

How to make time for your goals 

01 – Make them a priority 

We just talked about it so we won’t get into this too much but just remember that the first step is making the decision that your goals are important enough to be a priority to you!

02 – Create a goal strategy 

It can be really hard to get to work on your goals without a plan. I’m sure you’ve heard of SMART goals before (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely). 

Sit down and map out your goals. Get specific about what your goal and the outcome is. Then make sure you have a way to measure your progress. Give yourself some sort of timeline for your goal. 

After that, create your goal strategy! This will look different for everyone. The way I like to do this is to work backward from the achieved goal. What needs to happen in order to achieve the goal?

Create a list of milestones you need to achieve and then create deadlines for those milestones. You can make as many or as few as you’d like! 

Example: if your goal is to start a blog your milestones might look like…

• Come up with a blog name 
• Buy domain name 
• Buy hosting for the website 
• Pick a theme 
• Write the first blog post 
• Publish the first blog post 

Again, you could break down steps into smaller milestones and do this however works best for you. 

03 – Identify time wasters 

Now that you have your goals mapped out and have a plan, you need to determine where your time is going and how you are wasting your time. 

Try this activity to really get a grasp on where your time is going: 

Draw a big circle and label it like a clock. 

Fill in chunks of the clock with the things you do. Examples:

• 10pm- 5am sleep 
• 7am-8am social media scrolling
• 8am-9am commute to work
• 9am-5pm work 
• 6pm-7pm dinner 
• 8pm-10pm tv time 

Be super honest with your time. Make sure you add in all the little things like meals, time to get ready for work/bed, time on your phone, watching TV, doing hobbies, etc. 

Look at your clock and see where you have extra time/ wasted time. Can you cut out anything like excess tv time or phone time? 

Typical time wasters: 

• Social media 
• TV
• Computer 
• Video games 
• Napping/oversleeping 

Identify a couple of ways that you waste time and determine how you can stop doing that. 

Tip: if you spend a lot of time on social media you can set timers for each app. I personally gave 1 hour for Facebook because I tend to scroll a lot. After 1 hour it kicks you off.

04 – Reduce other commitments

Sometimes we take on more than we actually need to! Look at your calendar and see what kind of commitments you have coming up.

Did you agree to host a family dinner? Or are you volunteering every weekend this month?

There is nothing wrong with family dinners or volunteering, however, you can limit how often they happen or how big of a role you play in them.

Maybe you can just attend the dinner instead of spending all day cooking and cleaning. Maybe you can volunteer once a month instead of every single week.

Determine how much time you think you need for your goals and then reduce the commitments accordingly!

05 –  Schedule time for your goals 

Grab your planner! It’s time to put all your goal-related tasks into your planner. 

Since you have deadlines for all our goal milestones, plug those in first. Then you can see the rest of your schedule and the time you can work on your goals. 

Now, start scheduling time into your week specifically to work on your goals. So, if your goal is to lose 10 pounds and your first milestone is signing up for the gym, schedule a day during the week that you will stop by the gym and sign up. 

If you schedule in set dates and times to work on your goals it will help you a) prioritize them and b) make them feel more real and important. 

Try to think of each task scheduled in your planner as an appointment. You wouldn’t just not show up to your dentist appointment so don’t do that for your goal appointments with yourself! 

06 – Improve your time management strategies 

To make the best use of your time, it’s good to have some time management strategies that work for you. Everyone is a little bit different so try out a few techniques and determine which ones help you more. 

Determine when you are most productive – some people work better in the morning, and others work better late at night. Look at your current schedule and then figure out how you can work on your goal during your peak productivity times. 

Use a timer – if you tend to get distracted, set a timer for 30 minutes and get to work. During those 30 minutes, you can’t look at your phone or talk to your spouse. Just work. After the 30 minutes is up you can take a break! Then, get back to work and set another timer. 

Create a daily plan – map out your day in the morning so you know exactly what needs to be done. You can even use my favorite technique, time blocking, to make sure you are using your time wisely when you plan out your day. 

Follow the 80/20 rule – this technique follows the basic idea that 80% of your results come from 20% of the work you do. If you can work smarter and determine what type of work is most important and will drive the most results, then you can focus most of your time on that!

In summary

When it comes to goal achievement, having time to actually work on your goals is crucial. Nothing happens overnight, nothing is magic. The people who put in the work see the most results. Ultimately, we all have busy schedules and it can be nearly impossible to FIND the time. That is why we need to MAKE the time!

I hope that you are able to make your goals and yourself a priority! I believe in you and know that with the right amount of work you can achieve amazing things ❤

Do you have any goals you are currently working towards?