Goals and Resolutions
So, I absolutely love New Year’s Day. It’s my favorite time of year!
I find that if you take the time to reflect and plan, it can be really impactful in how you tell the story of your previous year and drive the story of your next year. There’s so much potential.
Time to reflect
Let’s talk about reflection first. So much happens in a year, it’s 365 days of activities: of wins, of new ideas, of friendship, of work, of projects, of accomplishments, of setbacks, of heartbreaks, of hard choices, of news both good and bad. I used to do Year Compass, which I highly recommend to people to get a framework of how to reflect on the previous year. I’m at a stage now where I pick and choose elements from the Year Compass. But it’s helpful to have a guide if you’re not sure of how to review your year.
Reflection is helpful to show how far you’ve come and what you’ve accomplished and overcame. I try to focus primarily on the positives. Although I do understand some people may be grieving events from the past year. Acknowledge the good and the bad, it’s part of what makes you, you!
Setting goals
After reflecting, it’s important to set goals. What I tried to do this year is think about what I am actually doing every day and what I’d like to be doing every day. This will inform what I’m actually able to get done and I can design SMARTR goals from that data.
A SMARTR goal is one that is Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Timely, Rewarded.
An example
So what does that actually look like? I’ll walk you through one of my goals for this year.
General Goal:
I want to be a better UX/UI/Experience Designer.
What do I currently do everyday?
I do design work at work, sometimes I read a design book.
What do I want to do everyday?
I’d like to have more focused design time every day or at least a few times a week.
Brainstorm time:
What Specific actions can I take to continue improving my design skills?
Practicing design, taking classes to focus my learning, reading design books, watching design videos on YouTube, reflecting on my and others’ design work.
After brainstorming I see what I have access to that can help me pick out Measurable and Actionable goals. Actionable just means that I’ll be able to complete the goal I’ve picked in the timeline I want. As a note - since we’re working top-down on goal setting, we’ll find that these sub-goals are naturally Relevant to achieving your main goal!
Experience/UX Design
I am signed up for the Interaction Design Foundation - I can take as many classes as I want there. Now, how many classes should I fit in my Timeline? Balancing this goal with my other goals, I know I can complete 1 class every quarter.
So now I break it down even further. One class will be from January through March. I’d like to complete AI For Designers. There are 5 sections in the course, so I need to complete 1 section every 2.5 weeks roughly. Sections have about 9 sub-tasks so that’s 1 sub-task every 2 days or so. I know I can do that!
The last step is to pick a Reward! Having a reward in mind can help keep you on track even when your dedication to the goal flags. There is a local video store that I love ($3 movie rentals!) so when I complete this goal, I will have a movie night.
I’m breaking down all of my sub-goals to see what the shape of my year looks like. It definitely seems like a lot! But this focus on keeping my days and weeks consistent and scheduled will ensure that I’m taking full advantage of my time.
Final Thoughts
Anyways, maybe I’ll pop back in here midyear and let you know how my new goal breakdown process is going.
Did you set goals this year? If you did, what was your process? If you didn’t, why not?
Remember, you just need to get a little bit better consistently to see amazing long-term improvements! Happy New Year!
