Goals vs. Tasks - Part III

With our SMART goals vetted and ready for action items, we now move into the process of developing the tasks that will help us to reach our goals. While a goal is defined as, “the object of a person’s ambition or effort”, a task is defined as, “a piece of work to be done or undertaken”. Our goals are the ideals of where we want to be in the future. The tasks that stem from those ideals are where the real work begins. 

Taking a look at our weight loss SMART goal, let's see how we can break this down into digestible tasks that will amount to attaining our specific goal. If you recall, during our SMART analysis, we determined that we would need to average a loss of 5 pounds per month to reach our goal. From there, we determined that we would need to average one hour of cardio or HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts per day, for each day of the week. 

One initial task to get us started would be reviewing our schedule over the next 3 months to establish our work out times and to determine if there would be any hindrance with a cohesive schedule. Aside from the fact that we need to ensure the time is available, we also need to create some kind of consistency, or routine for this goal. This particular goal is not just a change of scenery. It is a lifestyle change, and those high-level goals really do excel when we set ourselves up for success through building healthy, complimentary habits. 

This task may reveal that we have two days a week that are simply too jam-packed to add an hour of working out successfully. Which means we have to adjust our session time each day to 1 hour and 25 minutes per day, over the course of 5 days per week, to accommodate for the two off days. If we had just blindly penciled in 1 hour of workout time each day of the week, without considering each day individually and the workload each day contained, we would have failed before even starting the first day. 

Once we have our days and times accounted for, the next sequential task may be to secure our workout location(s). Maybe we want to split the week between cardio and HIIT workouts. Maybe this entails joining a boxing gym, or circuit workout class. We may decide to look up every green belt within a 25 mile radius to our house and rotate different trails to run. However we divide up our sessions, this task is integral to the success of achieving our goal. 

Now that all of our logistics are established, our day to day tasks should reflect those logistics;

• Monday, Wednesday, & Friday

  • 1.5 hour run on a greenbelt

• Tuesdays & Thursdays

  • 15 minute bike ride to the gym

  • 1 hour HIIT class at gym

  • 15 minute bike ride home

Remember, a task is defined as, “a piece of work to be done or undertaken”. There will most likely be several pieces of work, or tasks, that need to be completed for each SMART goal. The best way to get started is simply to consider what your SMART goal requires to be successfully executed, and go from there. We will cover our second goal’s tasks next time.

When you’re ready to take the next step, we’re here for you.