BRIGHT Goal Setting Step 6: TIME
You want to have a voice in creating your own to-do list.
You can and should set your own goals and play a proactive role in setting goals with others.
You want to be in control of your own schedule, don’t you?
I’ve got an idea.
Our BRIGHT new model of goal-setting.
We’ve been spelling out the model by using the word BRIGHT to describe our goal setting: Big, Relevant, Items. Guardrails, and the How of how are you doing. And now it’s time for TIME.
There’s generally a deadline that you have to reach.
If there isn’t, that might be for a couple of reasons:
- There actually IS a deadline and you had better find out what it is so you’re not caught by surprise. Or…
- No deadline has been set which likely means this isn’t that high a priority right now.
And if it’s not a high priority for the person handing you the work, why should it be a high-pri buy-in for you?
You have to manage your own time.
So we finish our BRIGHT model, B. R. I. G. H., with T, which stands for time,
An important element is how much time you have to meet your goals. This might come from the outside, someone else telling you your deadline. But let’s, for a moment, focus on your own deadlines.
First, because you’ll want to plan to beat those other folk’s deadlines with your own. This is part of the whole underpromise/overdeliver mindset. Be done early… as long as you also do well. You will become someone that others can count on, and get better projects handed to you.
Also, because for your own projects, it’s so easy to put things on your to-do list with no deadline, or with a deadline that you allow yourself to break because…what’s gonna happen, are you going to yell at yourself?
Maybe you should.
Set a deadline for your own projects. Make them reasonable and hold yourself to these time constraints. While you’re at it, establish a set of milestones or checkpoints, so you know how well you’re doing in terms of meeting your goal and your time commitment.
Wow. We’ve taken the well-known SMART model, improved on it, made it shine… the BRIGHT model of project management. You read it here first.
What do you want to accomplish? Break it down, polish it up, do it right.
Make it BRIGHT. Create your list, create your plan.
What’s your BRIGHT big goal?
See you tomorrow!