The Challenge of Dealing with Multiple Goals

It’s hard to imaging someone having just one goal. We all strive for multiple desires. Oftentimes this means starting multiple goals at same time. Actually this is hard to do which can lead to overwhelming and drop of motivation.

For sure having just one goal for a year is not an option too. I believe that work on goals needs to be spread. This is especially true when starting working on goals. As I described in Lifecycle Of A Goal initial phase requires lots of effort which is often hard to predict accurately.

This means that I would gradually start working on my goals one by one. Sometimes when setting a goal for a quarter I originally plan to start working on it only in second part of the quarter.

What I avoid is starting many goals at once. This proved to be a straight path to failure (at least for me).

Here is how I plan my goals over a year to avoid being overwhelmed:

  • Plan goal duration of 1-2 quarters. I avoid year-long goals. Year-long goal means that it needs to be started immediately and most likely it has too many unknowns. Limiting my goals to 1-2 quarters I let myself start working on them later in the year.
  • Evenly split goals among quarters. I strive to have goals in each quarter of roughly the same complexity, challenges, and effort. This allows me to work consistently without high spikes of stress.
  • Just one goal from specific area of responsibility in a quarter. While I have multiple goals for each area of responsibility, I spread them across the year. Each quarter I want to focus at a specific goal for area of responsibility. This gives me more clarity.
  • Leave space for operational projects. There are always some things outside goals requiring my attention. Some are small daily chores. Some are projects taking multiple weeks to complete. I call such projects “operational”. When picking goals for the quarter, I leave space for these operational projects upfront, otherwise I will have to drop some goal half-way done to free up time for operational projects. That would discourage me much more than moving slowly by having less active goals.

I view working on goals as a marathon, not a sprint. I want to consistently move forward. The speed depends on the season of life I’m in. Sometimes I can afford plan more goals in a year, sometimes less. Nevertheless I cannot push all my goals at once.