Life Goals Are More Than a To-Do List
Checking the boxes isn’t enough.
Lots of people are obsessive with their to-do lists, myself included. There’s something immensely satisfying about crossing off an item when it’s finished or marking it “complete!” in an app.
To-do lists are amazing… but they can also be misleading. You might feel accomplished when really you’ve done nothing more than required adulting activities (clean the garage, file your tax return, buy a gift).
To-do lists can be incredibly effective if you tie your to-dos to your goals. In other words, you are identifying the incremental steps needed to reach a goal. Whether recurring tasks or one part of a longer sequence, if you incorporate your goals into your to-do list, you’ll mix the joy of progress with results you can track over time.
I had lists and plans, but they were unrelated
In 2021, I became part of The Great Resignation and left a 15-year career in fintech to pursue writing. I landed a job at a content marketing agency but also focused my attention on personal writing projects.
I made a lot of lists. I made a calendar to keep track of my writing, and what I wanted to get done each day. I dutifully checked them off, proud of myself for becoming a “real writer.”
In hindsight, that first step was necessary. I had to learn the discipline of a daily writing habit. But overall, this work wasn’t going to achieve my writing goals.
Make a plan, then work your way back to your to-do list
I realized that to move the needle, I needed to first identify the milestones, and then get specific. I had to think big before I could think small; not the other way around.
I sat down and wrote out my writing goals in a few categories:
- Where do I want to be in a year?
- Where do I want to be in three years?
- Where do I want to be in five years?
- What is my final destination?
I then attached as many steps toward each goal as possible, knowing that the further out, the less concrete my plans could be.
Anna Burgess Yang
My final destination is to publish a book. To get there, I need time to research, time to write the draft, time to edit, and time to prepare a book for publication (self-publish, traditional publishing, who knows at this point).
I also know that I want to build an audience of people who enjoy my work along the way; hence my writing efforts on various platforms.
Once I had my goals written out, I added general milestones to each year.
But at the one-year mark, I started to get really specific. I thought about the steps I would need to take this year. Each month, I set small (yet achievable) goals, such as “Increase my newsletter subscriptions by X.” If I hit that number, I increase the goal for the following month.
From there, I craft my to-do list. I know that to increase newsletter subscriptions, I need to promote my newsletter more. I can include it as a CTA on Medium, share it on LinkedIn, comment back with a link on Twitter, etc.
These to-dos become directly tied to my monthly goal, which is tied to my yearly goal, which is tied to my long-term goal.
It can become easy to think only short-term or only-long term. After all, short-term thinking can give you immediate pride in what you’ve achieved while long-term thinking represents your dreams.
It’s better to plan and then get very specific. You’ll feel better about crossing off that to-do item, knowing that it contributes to your vision for the future.
Key Message: Tie your to-do list to a short-term goal. Make sure you understand how that short-term goal is related to your long-term goal.
Want to help me reach my newsletter subscriber goal this month? You can read about the future of work, the creator economy, and work-life balance on my Substack.