Eating Elephant Hamburgers

How do you go about setting goals and prioritising what needs to get done? If you have set goals at the beginning of the year, are you making headway with them?

Photo by Danielle MacInnes

These are a few thoughts on setting goals:

• It has helped me to start off  by reflecting on my dreams and aspirations for the future, specifically how I want to feel, as well as ways I would most like to be spending my time. Actually writing down a short paragraph that describes this was a lovely way to lend focus to my goal setting.
• Breaking these big picture goals into smaller steps was next. This is where the old quip of  "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!" could be helpful. My friend calls this approach "Eating Elephant Hamburgers". To me, this works well in terms of goal setting because it encourages me to focus not only on the big picture goals, but also on the smaller steps that I will do each day and each each week to achieve those goals.
• Some goals focus on forming new habits rather than completing a specific task, so the "elephant hamburger" approach can work well for this too. I think small habit changes can make a big difference. 
• Another idea I am using is to pick a day and time on which I will try to do each task. Putting the task on the calendar is a step closer to getting it done!
• Finally, being realistic about how much time and energy I really have has also been a helpful mind shift.  I sometimes find that I have a huge number of things that I would like to do, but it can be a bit overwhelming to do them all. Having big picture goals helps to sift out what is really a priority. And then eating elephant hamburgers!

Although it is already the end of January, I am hoping that setting goals will help me remain focused on what is important and to feel less frantically busy in the year ahead.

Do you set goals? If setting goals is something you do, do you have any tips about making them achievable?

Getting DIY Projects Done in 2019

Getting DIY done can be a real challenge when time is limited and the budget is tight. So how can  completing those DIY projects become a reality?

  

 

Photo by Cesar Carlevarino Aragon

This past year we have moved into a house that has lots of fixing up to do to it, and the many tasks can seem quite daunting.  As we are entering the New Year I have been reflecting on goals and priorities, and one of those needs to be doing the long list of  DIY tasks around the house.

The approach I am taking this year is to plan carefully and to actually assign a time frame and estimated budget for the various tasks. So this is my plan of action:

• First I made a list of all of the jobs, big and small, that need to be done during the course of the year. I wrote it in the back of a notebook so it can be the "Master List" to refer to.
• Next was prioritizing what is urgent. This meant thinking about what is actually necessary for us to function well and also things that need to happen before the rainy season. These items got a star.
• Then it was time to make a list of what needs to happen for each month of the year. This was a bit more tricky as I am sure things will carry over from one month to the next. So at the front of the notebook I have assigned a few pages per month to list the various jobs that need doing each month.
• Finally we made a trip to the hardware shop to get some estimated prices of materials so that we can set a realistic budget for some of the projects. I still need to write an estimated budget next to each task so that we can plan our expenses.

I am hoping that this planned approach will help us to realize our goals to get at least some of the DIY done in the coming year.

How do you tackle DIY projects? Do you try and stick to a plan and time frame or do you have a more fluid approach?