Staying on track: maintaining purposeful goal direction

Reflective pause

How do you stay on track and maintain focus on your goals amidst distractions and challenges?

Here are some tips for staying on track.

• Keep an ‘I did’ list

As a practitioner, you will probably have an endless ‘to do’ list. This can be demoralising and make you feel you are not making progress towards your goals. It is crucial to avoid task paralysis by staying focused. While ‘to do’ lists help us prioritise tasks, they often lead to unmet expectations as new tasks are added throughout the day. Maintaining an ‘I did’ list, as suggested by Greer (2016), offers a solution. This list highlights achievements, fostering a positive outlook and boosting feelings of self-efficacy. 

The ‘I did’ technique helps you identify your activities and evaluate whether they represent the most efficient use of your time and energy. By documenting your actions, you gain insight into your workload management skills.  Reviewing unplanned tasks allows you to anticipate future responsibilities and manage your time more effectively. Moreover, maintaining a record of completed tasks, especially on challenging days, promotes a sense of productivity and progress towards larger goals. Greer’s process and structure for maintaining an ‘I did’ list is detailed in FWB3 Learning Mindset (Quick Win).

• Avoid procrastination

Another reason why people fail to make progress on important tasks is because they procrastinate – they prioritise enjoyable, low priority activities while delaying or avoiding crucial responsibilities. Procrastination includes postponing decision-making and waiting to be in the ‘right mood’ to tackle tasks. Common procrastination behaviours include leaving tasks on to-do lists for long periods, starting high-priority tasks but switching to other activities, or spending excessive time checking emails under the guise of productivity.

Procrastination not only hinders goal attainment but also induces feelings of unproductivity, guilt, and shame. Recognising and understanding the reasons behind procrastination is the first step towards overcoming it. Common underlying causes include fear of failure, the daunting nature of tasks, or using procrastination as a subconscious form of rebellion.To combat procrastination, it is essential to establish clear, achievable goals rather than vague plans and minimize distractions wherever possible. FWB3 Learning Mindset introduces the Japanese Kanban technique (Quick Win), which helps us set and track goals effectively.