Even before the year turned 2020, I had a lot of thoughts about what I wanted to accomplish in the first year of the new decade. 2019 was a bittersweet year, where I reacted to most events in my life rather than being ready for them (to be fair, family health concerns were not exactly something I planned for, but I was consumed by worry as opposed to doing what I can to help with the situation at hand).

I knew I was looking for change, but new year’s resolutions - as they always have been for me - seemed overwhelming and daunting to come up with. Not wanting my fear of resolutions to hold me back, I instead opted for setting quarterly goals.

I decided to use the “My Dream 2020” page at the very front of my Jibun Techo to log these goals. As you may already know, the Jibun Techo in the A5 slim size is my everyday planner for this year. Since I already place my daily tasks, reminders and pretty much everything else in it (read: this planner is my brain on paper), I thought there was no better place.

When setting quarterly goals, I split them up into two areas: personal and professional. I’m at the point in my life where I need to seriously ponder long-term plans, so I gave myself room to think about the following:

What do I want to prioritize?
What do I want to try?
What do I want to integrate into my life on a regular basis?

It’s not a grand list by any means, but these questions successfully guided me towards a starting point.

For instance, one of the personal goals I set for Q1 is to keep up with weekly spreads. Not only do I want to log memories and events better, but I also want to practice reflection and gratitude on a regular basis through journaling. I may not have the most exciting life (9-5 corporate job in a major city with an hour commute each way), but I still get plenty of upsides from living this life fully (gaining stable income and professional experience while doing what I consider to be meaningful work) and I want to remember that.

In terms of professional goals, one goal I have is to research professional certifications. I haven’t committed myself to studying for a specific certification, and the biggest reason for that is I simply haven’t done enough research. Putting this down in writing reminds me of the various research tasks I’ll have to complete in the next three months: do my own research online about my line of work, talk to someone who has a certification I’m interested in, etc. At the end of it all, I may decide I don’t need or want a certification. But I won’t know for sure until I put in the time and make a solid decision based on helpful information.

I also thought about the realistic timeframe of a single quarter. The goals I set are achievable, but the nature of the goals I picked doesn’t allow me to procrastinate. I won’t be able to sit on a month’s worth of memory-keeping spreads and hope to get them done all in one day, or throw time on somebody else’s calendar in hopes that they’re available only because I need them to be.

So far, this new approach has been working well. I have already gotten started on a few things and feel good about the progress I’ve made. Small progress, but progress nonetheless. I hope to carry this continuous, daily momentum with me through the end of March, at which point I’ll reassess this method of goal setting and make up my mind on whether or not I’ll continue doing the same for Q2.

The act of writing down my goals for the first time in years is also helping me stay motivated. I wrote it down, therefore it’s real - I gave my goals life on the page, and it’s now up to me to see them through.

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Setting Quarterly Goals