We’re thirty days into the new year, and it’s time you and I do a quick check-in on our goal(s). If you haven’t set a goal yet, write down one-two things you’d really like to accomplish this year and check out my piece A Guide to Setting Goals: SMART Goals vs Winging It to determine which method works best for what you’d like to accomplish.
If you quit your goal for any reason, revisit your goal and rewrite it. Perhaps using new words to describe what you’d like to accomplish will help you regain the energy you lost. If rewriting your goal still doesn’t spur you into action, then let go of it the way Kate let go of Jack and moved on with her life. Yes, I’m making a Titanic reference.
For those of you who managed to survive Quitter’s Day, it’s important to check in on your goal to maintain your momentum and assess your progress.
You may be thinking that it’s too early to check-in on your goal, but performing a regular check-in is a good way to keep it alive.
Check-ins: How often, and what should they look like?
Regular check-ins are a great way to assess your progress, revise your goal, if necessary, and identify actionable steps to keep you from quitting.
Before we break down what your check-in should look like, let’s address an important question: How often should you check in on your goal?
Answering this question depends on who you ask. There are some who promote daily and weekly check-ins, others who promote a monthly or quarterly check-in, and still others who promote half-year check-ins.
The daily and weekly check-ins, in my opinion, are bound to overwhelm you and do not reflect meaningful progress. Daily and weekly check-ins are similar to measuring the difference between 0° and 1℉. There’s no difference.
A more reasonable approach would be to set aside fifteen-thirty minutes at the beginning or end of each month, adding a quarterly check-in, for the same amount of time, to address large-scale concerns and questions. If the monthly check-in is too much, then stick with a quarterly check-in to address your goal as a whole but dedicate thirty minutes to an hour.
Half-year check-ins are the opposite extreme of daily and weekly check-ins. Does your goal even exist at this point? The majority of people can’t keep their goal past the first two weeks of January, so I can’t imagine your goal is alive and well in June or July without having looked at it for six months.
Now that the frequency of checking your goal has been addressed, let’s move on to what your check-in should look like. Goal check-ins are a time to reflect on what’s working and not working.
It’s here that you should take a look at the amount of time you’re dedicating to your goal. If you allotted time to your goal during the week and weekends, evaluate how well you’ve done in keeping to that schedule. Do you need to ramp it up? Or do you need to scale back?
Equally as important are the methods you’re using to accomplish your goal. Are the methods you’re using helping you progress towards your goal? Do you need to supplement an existing method? Or do you need to replace a method altogether?
Oftentimes, we have to take a fresh look at our goal because it no longer provides us with the same excitement. If you want to keep going, re-evaluate the how, the when, and the why. How much time do you need to dedicate to your goal to see meaningful progress? When can you dedicate that time to your goal? Why do you want to continue?
Be honest with yourself. There’s no point in complicating your life. If your goal no longer excites you, then let it go. Let it go, let it go. Your time would be better spent on something you enjoy doing.
A goal out of sight is out of mind. Regular goal check-ins are a helpful reminder of that thing, whatever it may be, that you want to accomplish.
Your goal is not set in stone, so use your check-ins as a way to evaluate your progress, weed out the unnecessary, and pivot based on your current standing.
These check-ins will help you succeed where many fail.
A Look at My Progress
So here I am giving you advice on the importance of checking in on your goal, but how are my goals holding up? If I’m completely honest, my three official goals are doing great.
Official goal #1: Read 52 books (one book a week)
Official goal #2: Improve my French language skills (using textbooks and language app)
Official goal #3: Save and invest $32k (monthly pre-set contributions)
Based on my Goodreads Reading Challenge, I’m on track. I read four books in January.
I practice and study French five days a week and because my confidence in the language increased, I signed up for L’academie de Français Authentique. L’academie offers daily group sessions via Zoom to practice speaking French. So far, I’ve joined three sessions and have spoken French with people from all around the world.
My financial goal is slowly being met. Through my 401k, I’m saving $395.83 per paycheck.
I contributed $540 to my Fidelity Roth IRA in January and will keep this contribution for the next ten months, completing the year with a contribution of $550 to max out my Roth IRA.
I invested $100 in my taxable brokerage account with E*Trade in January and will continue contributing this amount every month for the remainder of the year. I’m expecting a bonus in February, so I’ll transfer $1,700 to max out my 2022 Roth IRA and split the balance among my taxable brokerage account, my emergency fund and my regular savings accounts.
I stopped investing in Fundrise because I couldn’t afford it, but I will start back up after I receive my raise in April.
And finally, I contributed $400 to my emergency fund and $400 to my regular savings account in January, and will continue to do so for the remainder of the year.
This month’s accomplishments would not have been possible without a plan. I created calendar appointments on my phone for my first two official goals, and I set up an MS Excel sheet for the third official goal. See below photos.
I keep a physical calendar as well. Here, I mark my tasks with a check mark if I completed them and with an X if I didn’t. On the MS Excel sheet, I highlight what’s been completed.
The physical calendar might seem redundant and unnecessary, but it’s a good fail-safe system to keep me on track.
These steps help keep my monthly check-ins to less than thirty minutes.
Ultimately, you want your check-ins to be productive and reassuring. Keep what works. Modify what doesn’t. Don’t waste time on goals that no longer excite you. Your monthly check-ins will provide you with the insight you need to succeed.