Weekly Goal Setting for the Busy Mom

Hope you guys are tackling (or maybe not?) your New Year Resolutions/goals. I remember the days back when I was in Medical College when I stayed in a hostel. On New Year’s Eve, I would slip away from the New Year frenzy around 11:50 pm, go to my room, light a candle, open my Bible and offer my New Year Goals to God. But soon I realized that without a plan, a goal can remain a goal on paper. I used to be the person who would plan out every day meticulously and in fact execute most of my plans. But those days are gone. I am now a busy mom. I don’t live in a box any more. I have a family to tender to, and take care of. But even as moms, I am here to tell you that you should not give up on setting goals and trying to achieve them.

I love setting goals, because it helps me know what to do when I get free time, and also gives me motivation to work towards something. I was hoping to encourage you to not give up on any goals you have set, or resolutions you have made….., and to help with setting goals in a way you don’t neglect important aspects of your life.

On top of my to-do list of essential things for the week (which includes cooking, laundry, ‘mom-uber’ing, cleaning, taking care of children, homeschooling, and general household responsibilities), I set weekly goals of extra things I want to get done that is in my ‘wish-list’. Also, considering that a mom’s schedule is pretty unpredictable, I don’t penalize myself for not keeping up with all the goals verbatim. I don’t also very meticulously plan out every moment of my day. I like to be the master of my plan, and not let the plan rule my day! I like keeping things flexible!

You probably already have your own system of planning your week. In this post, I hope to share how I set my goals and try to keep up.

1)I first identify all the essential tasks I have for the coming days.  I make an ‘essentials list’. For immediate day to day to-do lists, I use the app ‘Google Tasks’. I have several lists under Google Tasks, including ‘to do today/tomorrow’, ‘to do soon’, ‘weekly goals’ etc. I note down tasks as and when it comes.

If you have identified the essential things you need to do on a daily basis, have already eased into a routine, and created margin for yourself, there should be enough time to add in other things from your wish-list, which I will describe below. 

2) I maintain a ‘wish-list’, and I run through it periodically. 

I first brain-dump all the things I want to do in the next few years, that will be great to do. As the name suggests, this is a ‘wish-list’. It has some things that are semi-essential, as well as others that are purely hobby related. I try to make sure to include anything I have a passion for doing but maybe haven’t quite got time lately, depending on my season of life. Some examples: making a list of all the homeschool resources we have, making a yearly digital photo-book, making a ‘memory box’ with random things we did over the years, making cute pantry labels, doing the Bible Timeline DVD Course etc. These are very good to do, but not necessary to survive. Oh by the way, I was able to make really cute pantry labels with the help of our recently purchased Cricut machine! I am a huge fan of Cricut now and this is my current hobby:) 

After all, life is more than just about running on a hamster wheel every day, doing routine essential tasks. You should be able to fit in your passions, hobbies and other things that interest you. Then only you can give back the best version of yourself.

3) I also maintain a ‘maintenance’ list. These are maintenance functions that need to be done (or is good to be done) on a weekly, biweekly, monthly, 3 month, 6 month or yearly time intervals. Eg change fire alarm batteries every year, self clean oven once a month, AC servicing once a year, etc. These are kept in a separate ‘maintenance’ list.

I keep the ‘wish-list’ and ‘maintenance list’ in an app, and sort them by category. Eg, homeschool related, digital, kitchen related, decluttering related, professional/medical, DIY house improvements, field trips to go, reading list etc. Whenever a new idea comes, I add it to the respective category. I currently use the app Trello, and I love this app! In fact I use it to pretty much organize most aspects of my life. (You can read the post on that here ) Under the categories, I move things up and down according to priority, relevance to the season of life, or what I feel like doing first.

I always like to have all the things I need/want to do, emptied from my brain, and not just floating in my head. When you write things down of what to do, its a big relief as you are then not constantly worrying about it or trying not to forget what to do! If you usually don’t brain dump to paper or apps, and just like to carry your to-do list in your head, I highly encourage you to start doing so.  You will find it very liberating and much less stressful.

I mostly do all my planning through apps. That way it is always at my fingertips, instead of having to carry around a planner all day. Besides, as moms, it will not be very practical to carry a planner the whole day, as we will most definitely be having our hands full. But I love to have a scribble note to jot down things as I love to write down things; which I then transfer to my apps.

(4) Once I go through these lists, I go on to the ‘weekly goal setting.’

I usually like to set up weekly goals in all the following areas: Home Management, Meals/Kitchen, Spiritual, Reading, Family, Homeschool, Self Care, so that I don’t end up neglecting one area.

First I say a simple prayer “Lord, you know I have all these things that I can do during my spare time. Help me to choose and focus on what you want me to do next”.

I then write down things from my wish list, depending on what I feel the mood for or is sort of pressing upon me at the moment.  If it’s something that can be broken into smaller steps, I outline the steps.

For example, sometimes I am behind on backing up photos from my computer to the hard drive. I then make that a priority and add that in. I usually make a slideshow of photos for 1-2 years worth of photos. If I haven’t caught up with that, I keep that on the list. Sometimes, I just want to learn something new, like how to take better photos. I then add that.

One way I try to get through my wish list is to do all the smaller projects first and get them over with. That will reduce the list and will help you feel motivated to do more.

Sometimes I just find myself picking a task without much forethought, but later when I look back, I see it was so necessary to have done that particular task at that moment. I believe it was God leading me to choose that task.

(5) On a daily basis, I keep checking through and see if I am moving towards achieving the goals I have set for the week. Once in a while, I find myself altering goals midweek when I see that something else has popped up that takes more precedence. I don’t penalize myself for that. As long as I am productively utilizing my time in a way that there is progress and ultimately getting to tackle stuff off the wish list, I am fine. (The exception will be if there is a specific deadline to meet) In the ‘mom reality’ of things, sometimes, what you finally end up doing may not be what you initially planned. And that’s ok. Give yourself grace.

So just follow God’s leads and leave room for flexibility and change in plans. That way, you live in the moment, be a master of your plan, and not be enslaved by your plan.

This will also avoid unnecessary frustration, especially being a mom when you are bound to have distractions pop up in between. Allowing room for flexibility, is more a change of mindset. If you are so bent over completing a task that you cannot tolerate flexibility, you will never be able to savor the moment and last minute unplanned things that pop up. So changing your mindset is very important. It also is fundamental for the peace that you will still have when a task does not happen to be completed as planned.

Also remember, it will not be possible to complete everything on your wish-list, if you are a human being, haha. The list will keep on piling as and when you get new ideas, and being able to get to all of these wishes will not be something that may be possible. But as long as you prioritize from the list and move on, and do your best, you deserve a pat on your back!

In order to make goal planning easier, I have added a free printable below. There is a weekly goal planner with a cheatsheet and a weekly to-do list.

(If you have already subscribed, you can access it from the Subscriber Resource Library)

I challenge you to make a master wish- list and get started!

Happy goal setting !

God Bless!

 

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