No More Overwhelm TODAY Podcast

3 Ways to break down your goals into manageable chunks

• Anna Koss • Episode 11

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Do your goals feel perhaps too big, overwhelming and out of reach? I felt like this with many of my goals for many years, but breaking them down into manageable chunks aka sub goals or milestones is the key and was a game changer.

What can I expect from this episode?
 
In this episode I go through the 3 ways you can break down your goals so you go from paralyses and abandoning your goals to taking action and making actual progress. 

I'll provide you with some examples for better understanding and to illustrate and make it more clear how to break down goals.  

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Thank you so much for listening

Hi guys and hello for a new episode of the NMOT podcast. Today I want to talk about breaking down your goals into manageable chunks aka sub goals or milestones. I always found working on my goals difficult at first, because I didn't see any progress and I consistently failed them. I got really frustrated, demotivated and in the end ditched them all together. 

But of course I had and still have high ambitions.  So, I tried to find a way that works for me to work on my goals. And of course everyone is talking about breaking your goals down into steps etc. And that's all well and good, but how do you break down goals exactly and into what? What does it even mean to break down goals into bite sized pieces?

Well, for me this means breaking my goals into several sub goals and I will only focus on working on the sub goals rather than focusing on my overall big goal. Because the big goal is scary, often feels overwhelming and out of reach. If I want to earn 100 k, but I'm only earning 20 k, that goal seems far away. And if something feels too far away and out of reach, I don't know about you, but I start to think I'll never make it or it would take too much time and effort. So, it's not really worth it. Worst case scenario I'll think it's impossible so I won't make it. Hence, I'll think what's the point. What's the point in wasting my time and energy on trying to get or reach something, if I know I won't make it?

So, if we stay with the money example, 100 k seems out of reach or at least a long shot away. But what about 30k? Surely, you can earn 30 k? Surely, you can come up with a plan how to earn an extra 10 k. Apply for a new job, maybe get a second part time job, sell stuff on eBay, start a side hustle, ask for a job promotion etc. There are many ways to earn an extra 10 k and earning an extra 10 k seems a lot more doable and within immediate reach than earning an extra 80 k. So, one sub goal can be to earn 30 k. So you'll focus and do everything possible to reach 30 k. Once you earn 30 k, you'll work towards your next sub goal, which could be 50 k. Sub goal 1 was earning 30K and sub goal 2 earning 50k. By working towards each sub goal you'll automatically work towards your big goal. And by hitting each sub goal, you get to tick of more accomplishments, build momentum and stay motivated. 

If you see results and progress, you're more likely to continue working on giving it your best and getting what you won't. If you don't see results, again you go back to the sort of what's the point attitude and give up faster or digress. 

Focusing on numbers or breaking your sub goals down by numbers is a way to set goals and sub goals. This can work for financial goals, weight loss goals, stats goals for social media and so on.  If you want to have 500 Instagram followers and are stuck at 180, your next sub goal can be 200 for instance, then 250, 300 and so on. 

Another way to break your goals down into manageable chunks could be by category.  That's what I did when I decided to start this podcast. I did a brain storming session and wrote all the things down I could come up with when I thought about starting a podcast. In the end, I grouped all the overlaying and similar tasks together into categories or groups. So, I had the research category, setting up the podcast hosting platform category, integration into my website, linking to podcast sites eg Spotify adn Apple Podcast, podcast recording and creating content. 

So, these were all different categories and I decided to work my way through each category starting with the research one.  That was about researching hosting platforms, their pros and cons, how to start a podcast, what I would need to start a podcast etc. Then I moved on to the next category and that was all about the hosting platform. I selected a hosting platform and started to set it up. Once that was done I worked on the next category until everything was good to go and I was ready to record and publish my first podcast episode. 

My goal of launching a podcast became a lot less scary this way for sure. And by working through these categories I became more and more confident and also knowledgeable about all this techy stuff, which I was surprised and proud of myself to be honest as I always labelled myself as a non-techy person. I never understood tech and didn't want to, to be honest. But I guess I was wrong. 

 And the third way I like to break down my goals is sort of by time. And I combine this last option with the numbers or category sub goals. Again, going back to my podcast example, I looked at my categories and said, alright this week I will do the research. Next week I will pick and set up my podcast hosting platform. The third week I will learn how to edit a podcast episode and so on.  

I assigned a category to each week. And each week sort of had a theme that week. I guess you could say I assigned a target date or deadline to each sub goal indirectly, which most of us do anyway. But saying for this week I do this and for one week, the next week, I do that, again felt better, more comfortable and less pressured. I had an entire week and clearly knew what I had to focus and get through that week.  

I guess it’s how we perceive time. To say I have one or two weeks sounds better in our head than I have three days or I need to reach that sub goal by, I don't know, 17th April. Saying this week I’ll work on and reach my sub goal sounds a lot better. So, that’s what I often like to do as well.  

Once I really understood how to break down my goals into manageable chunks, it became a lot easier to work on them. I saw progress a lot faster and I’m actually excited and motivated to keep going and really go for it.  

Well that’s all I have for today. Let me know if that was helpful and if you have any questions. You can always send me a DM on Instagram. You can find me @nomoreovwhelm. Also follow me on IG for daily inspiration and tips, I would like that and if you want to stay in the loop on updates, new announcements and the likes I would like to invite you to join my email list. You can join the freebie library and this way you’ll be automatically added to my email list, but of course you have the added benefit of making use of some of my free resources I put together for you, which I personally use as well.  

Thank you so much for spending your time with me and see you in the next episode, bye bye.