Summer has faded and we’re now full swing into autumn, which is the perfect time to re-examine your goals and focus on what you can achieve by the end of the year. Moira Dunne outlines five easy steps to a more productive you.

Autumn is a great time to reset and refocus. The summer months are often filled with distractions, especially as most will take the time to recharge and refresh. Now October has arrived, it is an excellent time to consider the final three months of the year.

Review your goals

Consider the goals you set at the start of the year. There may be goals you haven’t started yet or new goals that emerged as the year progressed. Now is the time to re-evaluate your priorities so you can focus on the most important things between now and December.

Be realistic

By this point, you should have a realistic view of your busy schedule. Where can you find extra time to work on your goals? Set one goal to achieve over a realistic timeframe. Once you make progress, you will feel productive and motivated to tackle the next one.

Remove the vague

The key to making progress is to break down a big goal into smaller actions; that way, you can begin to make gradual progress every week. Use short gaps in your schedule to work through a few tasks each day. They all add up and, if well planned, will result in you achieving the overall goal by your deadline.

As Tim Herrera recently said in his Smarter Living article in the New York Times: “Rather than looking at tasks, projects or decisions as items that must be completed, slice them into the smallest possible units of progress, then knock them out one at a time”.

Setting goals

Here are five simple questions to help you set a good goal.

1. What is the change I want to make?

   Be clear and specific. This will help you decide the work that needs to get done to achieve the goal.

2. Why do I want to do it?

   What is my motivation? What difference will it make? Does this fit with my overall vision and purpose?

3. When does this goal need to be achieved?

   Set a deadline for completion and then work backwards to set interim deadlines for smaller tasks along the way. This helps you stay motivated and focused throughout.

4. What are the risks, the stumbling blocks or things that may prevent you from succeeding?

   List anything that may get in the way – things that could cause you to give up, things that blocked you in the past, things to avoid this time.

5. What actual work needs to be done to achieve the goal?

This will help you develop an action plan – essentially, to map out the work you need to get done.

Action plan

Once you work out the above steps, you can start to build your action plan. Add target dates, measures and resource names for who will complete the work. A simple table or an Excel spreadsheet will help you track your progress against the plan.

How great would it feel to finish the year on a high? Now is the time to focus so you can have a productive fourth quarter.

Moira Dunne is the Founder of BeProductive.ie.