If you feel like you’re being pulled in a million different directions and there’s always more to do, welcome to the club. We’re all in it, and it very often leads to feeling stressed, frustrated, or guilty.
There always seems to be something being pushed to the bottom of the list or selectively ignored, whether it’s in your life in general or your blog or business in particular.
In this post, we look at how you can create yourself a single micro goal to move forward even in your busiest times.
Let’s get started.
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What is a single micro goal strategy?
Just as it sounds, it’s picking the smallest single achievement and making it your focus. Ideally it should be something you can do in the time you have available to you in a given day, so if it needs to be something that can be done in five minutes, it needs to be something that can be done in five minutes!
Tip: Extend your time by putting your phone out of reach or using an app like Forest (it’s free).
In this blog post we’re focusing on a micro goal for your blog or business, but there’s no reason you can’t apply it to anything in your life that you want to achieve, whether it’s related to health/fitness, learning something new, home organization, relationships, finance, or anything else.
“But when I have so many things to do, one small thing won’t make a difference…”
A lot of people find that completing one small thing is a lot more rewarding than half completing a bunch of things, or never getting round to anything that they consider “worth it”. If this sounds like you, then having a single, achievable main task is an easy way to prove to yourself that you’ve achieved something for the day.
If you’re the overachiever type, think of it as a way to test the waters to see if the tasks you do to complete your micro goal work (not only do they achieve results, but they’re practical and even enjoyable for you). If they do, scale it beyond a micro goal, or repeat it daily (or x times per week). Scale it back down or take a break to avoid burn out.
The advantages of a micro goal strategy are:
01. Having enough time to complete your goal even on your busy days (or even if you don’t have time, you don’t feel overwhelmed when you come back to it or feel like you’ve lost your place and need to review a bunch of stuff).
02. It allows you to hyperfocus on one specific thing, but achieve your aim (as opposed to burning out, losing interest halfway through, or taking on too much).
03. Helps you avoid squirrel distractions (you’re setting yourself up for success, and making what you’re doing achievable).
04. Helps you avoid overwhelm (because you aren’t working with a big stressful list or feeling paralyzed by a mountain of stuff to do).
05. No guilt you haven’t finished your endless list – it’s a single item. If you feel like doing something else after, you can. But you don’t have to. And you know you’ve achieved something for the day even if everything else goes wrong!
06. It means you focus on what’s important (as opposed to completing tasks that feel good but don’t move the needle…there’s more about this in the section below on picking your goal).
07. If you get interrupted you can pick it up again easily without feeling overwhelmed at the length of the list or the size of the task.
Set yourself up for success
A micro goal strategy is already a great foundation for success. This is because most people set a lot of goals and tasks when they’re enthusiastic, it becomes unsustainable when life happens, and they quickly get demotivated.
One smaller task you can fit into your day or week is a lot more realistic, but there are other ways you can boost your chances of success too. Here are a few ideas:
Easily distracted? Remove/fix distractions the day before (such as items in your workspace, a raggedy cable you need to replace). Doing this the day before means you can drift as much as you want without worrying about what you should be doing instead.
On goal day, make your goal the absolute first thing you do if possible. (If you need to do other things first before you have free time, like the school run, set an alarm on your phone so you have a reminder).
Analysis paralysis? Pick the top thing on the blog list or business list below if you can’t decide.
Listen to your body, brain and schedule. If you’re just too tired to focus in the time you have available, there’s no point forcing yourself to do it. You’ll just feel resentful and you won’t create something as good. Instead, give yourself permission to come back to it another time when you can give it your all. One of the big advantages of being the boss is that you get to decide what’s good for you and when things are best done.
Picking a good micro goal
Find the balance between what’s worth doing and what you have the time and energy for. It’s easy to empty your recycling bin or delete your junk emails, but they aren’t tasks that will move the needle for you.
An easy way to decide whether it’s a good micro goal for you or not is to check if it falls into “maintenance” or “moving forward”.
Maintenance = updating plugins, deleting spam comments, paying bills, brushing your teeth, taking your car for an MOT. Things you need to do anyway, that you comfortably know how to do.
Moving forward = increasing traffic, getting new sales, learning new skills. Things that may take more time and thought. They may be outside your comfort zone or require trial and error, but finding what works and repeating it is what will make you successful.
Micro goal ideas
If you need some examples of micro goals, or don’t want to think too much, below are a bunch of suggestions. Remember, you only want to pick one in total. Not one per day, not one per website, just one. (Once that one is done, you can decide to repeat it or do a different one, but not until then!).
Blog
- Get one visitor to your website today
- Improve one post today
- Do keyword research for one new post today
- Build one link to your website today
- Write one draft blog post today (just as plain text)
Business
- Get one new customer or sale today
- Launch a new offer on social media or email today
- Review your checkout process today
- Create a new landing page today
- Send one email to your client/customer list asking for a review
Completing your micro goal
Once you’ve decided which item you’ve chosen from the list, work it in the way that makes most sense for you and the goal you’ve chosen.
If you prefer to write a to do list and break your goal down into short tasks, go right ahead. If you’re the kind of person that just needs to do the thing, that’s fine too. It’s all about what works best for you and the task you’ve chosen (a landing page is a good candidate for breaking down into smaller tasks, doing keyword research for a post not so much!).
After you’re done:
- Look at what worked.
- Look at what didn’t.
- For anything you didn’t enjoy: find a way to pivot/try something new, alternate, delegate.
And then when you’re ready, repeat! If you’re a Lyrical Host customer and need some accountability buddies, we have communities on Facebook and Slack. Just raise a ticket for more details.
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