Henry Kissinger once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, every road will get you nowhere.” If this quote doesn’t fully illustrate the importance of goal setting, then I don’t know what does!
Goal setting is important in every place of our lives…financial, personal, health…and of course, in the home. I am constantly setting all sorts of goals for my home, because I have found this is really the only way that I am able to accomplish anything positive.
If I want to make progress, then I must take a few minutes to make a plan. Otherwise, my home goals will just be a dream.
There are many different ways to set goals and then plan for them. I have tried a bunch of different ways, but this is what works best for me.
Goal Setting In The Home: Short Term, Mid Term, Long Term
When I am thinking about goals, I like to have a variety of different sized goals.
Short term goals (in the home) are the type that can be completed in less than an hour, and honestly, I love these the best. They are quick, easy, but still make a big impact.
An example of a short term goal in my home is re-organizing the pantry storage. I just did this yesterday and I set a timer because I only had one hour to spend. Working quickly and with purpose, I was able to get the whole thing back into good working order.
I try to complete at least one short term goal in my home each week, it helps to keep things nice and organized!
Mid term goals (in the home) will take a bit longer. I don’t ever have a full day to dedicate to working on home goals…I don’t really ever have more than one hour at a time. So in my home, I break my mid term goals up into 1 hour increments. These types of goals will generally take me between two and five hours to complete.
I try really hard to complete one mid term goal every month, but that doesn’t always happen, which is okay…as long as I am making progress!
An example of a mid-term goal in my home would be changing over seasonal clothes, preparing curriculum for a new school year, or re-organizing storage in a bedroom.
Long term goals (in the home) will take the longest of all, but again, I still think of them in terms of hour-long increments, or even smaller…it’s the type of goal that’s not going anywhere, and needs to be approached with a long-term focus.
Sometimes, long term goals are actually ongoing goals, like “cleaning the attic”. My husband and I have an agreement, during the months of the year when it isn’t too hot to go up to the attic. We go up there for an hour each Saturday to work on organizing, and decluttering.
It’s kind of a standing date, but if we miss a week that’s okay too.
My husband doesn’t actually realize this…but that project will probably never be *done* until we have an empty nest, or significantly less children in the home. However, spending regular time moving towards the goal will result in an organized space!
BSQ- Big, Small, Quick
The BSQ goal setting framework is so helpful to me in breaking down larger goals. I use it in both my mid term goals and long term goals because it breaks the task down into smaller, more manageable pieces.
I like to think of this framework as zooming out, then zooming in.
As an aside…learning to zoom out and zoom in on the same problem is a skill that will make your life so much easier. If you haven’t yet mastered this skill, goal setting is a great way to practice.
Big. This is where you first quantify exactly what you want to accomplish. You need to be specific, but also ambitious. Write out exactly what success in this home goal will look like to you, and write it down in one to two sentences.
Small. This is where you are going to take your big, fat, hairy goal and break it down into much smaller steps. This works best for me when each step only takes me 10-30 minutes. This way, I can accomplish many steps in each 1-hour time block, which makes me feel like I have accomplished more.
When I feel like I have accomplished a lot, I am motivated to keep going, so this is a really important step for me!
I put pen to paper and write out all of the little steps that I can think of to accomplish this goal, and then I organized the steps in the best chronological order.
Quick. The quick part of the equation is scheduling in these different tasks. Once you have a chronological list, you will then assign a timeline to each task.
Now, as Freedom Moms, we already know that we have to keep our timeline extremely flexible, so I suggest doing this next part in pencil, and be extra generous with yourself.
If you think that you can complete three of your small tasks in one hour, only assign yourself two of those tasks…this will make you feel like a million bucks if you actually complete three tasks and are then ahead of schedule.
When was the last time you were ahead of schedule? Give yourself this gift, it feels amazing.
A BSQ Example From My Home
When I was getting my laundry room re-organized I used the BSQ goal setting example. The Big Goal was to have a laundry room that looked neat, was clean and organized with a place for everything.
Some of the Small Goals included: clearing off the tops of the washer and dryer and only having essentials on top of them, cleaning the utility sink, organizing the laundry cabinets, organizing the medicine cabinet, clearing the tops of the refrigerators and freezer, cleaning and organizing the inside of each refrigerator and freezer (I had this listed as three separate tasks), organizing pantry storage, organizing ironing station, organizing the hanging clothes closet.
There were many more tasks, but do you see how each task could be completed in thirty minutes or less? That’s the important part.
And for my Quick Goals, I assigned a completion date to each task, being extra generous with myself.
I actually gave myself two full months to complete this whole BSQ goal, but I finished it in five weeks. That felt amazing!!
I hope you can see that taking a systematic approach to the goal setting in your home will greatly increase your impact. If I hadn’t taken the time to write out all of these steps for my laundry room…it definitely wouldn’t have gotten done.
It’s truly amazing what can actually be accomplished when you take the time to set goals in your home. And the best part is, with each goal you accomplish, you will feel more and more capable as a home manager, which will in turn help you to become a better home manager.
