Has my new approach worked?

Back in January I decided to ditch formal goal setting and simply focus on feeling more like myself this year. That might sound flimsy but having come out of 2024 feeling worse for wear, I needed softer edges on the year ahead. Now that I’m through the first quarter, I’m feeling well on track, and I’ve noticed some interesting things along the way.

Open Goals, Gradual Change

SMART goals have their place, mainly when something needs to be done by a certain date (though even that is being questioned these days). They can, however, be another source of failure as they are pretty much pass/fail. Your deadline arrives, you either meet it or you don’t. Along with that, the format is often not suited to the goals I have.

Open goals, on the other hand, are more encouraging and support change over a longer term. They’re more fun and motivating because they’re immediate and you almost can’t fail them, but you can certainly do well at them. I’m using these to commit more time to the things I love, like photography, gym, being outside, and music, the stuff that really makes me feel like myself outside of work.

From Daily Grind to Weekly Rhythm

I’ve always been mad for lists, often having sublists running during really busy times. Paradoxically, I’m also pretty rubbish at accurately judging what I can accomplish in a day. Cue 5 pm feelings of failure, on repeat.

Now, I’m using lists more flexibly, in conjunction with my weekly planner. It started out to save space,  but it’s given me better visualisation of the week. This is standard task allocation stuff, but over time, it’s shifted my mindset to weekly. I aim for daily, but can comfortably carry tasks over, to be ticked off by Friday. The result is less daily pressure, more perspective and calm, and a greater sense of progress.

Accepting the Ebb and Flow

The shift to a weekly mindset has given me a lot more acceptance that some days will be more productive than others. Work-life balance is a tricky concept, and even slipperier in practice. I’ve let go of hard boundaries that never really worked for me and now view it as more an average than a balance. Some days or weeks will be heavier on work. As long as that’s offset with lighter weeks, or perhaps more personally rewarding weeks, that’s sustainable for me.

Getting out of my head

I hadn’t been prioritising mental rest. Getting out of my head and into my body has been a key strategy to change this, and I’m finding ways to move more and think less throughout the day. My goals around strength training and being outside, kicked this off, and it’s now grown into a separate strategy all together. Anything that tips more to physical over cerebral is helpful. It’s watering my house plants, emptying the dishwasher, or maybe it’s stalking a bird in my backyard to get a great photo. If I’ve ground to a halt mentally, pushing through doesn’t help, but moving my body does.

Easy, Tiger

If there’s a theme here, it’s going easier on myself. Constantly falling short of your own expectations isn’t a helpful strategy. This new approach is gentler and flexible, and I’ll keep adapting it if something stops working.

So far, so good.