Here are my top 10 tips to help you achieve your daily goals.

With everyone being affected by the global pandemic, it is only natural that we lose sight of hope on the horizon. Working from home may come as welcome to most but that too comes with its own set of challenges. It can be hard to separate work from personal life and the added pressure, of an uncertain career, can at times lead to depression.

The following tips are primarily to help you while working from home, but they can most certainly be applied to your personal life as well.

1. Find an inspiring purpose.

Try to keep in mind why you are doing what you are doing. At times, when you are frustrated and feel like just giving up, you should take pause and think about why you started this goal or project in the first place. Ask yourself the all-important question “Why do I want to complete this?”.

Taking some time to re-evaluate and connect with your purpose or your “Why”, can go a long way in helping you relax your stressed-out mind. You need to keep sight of why these goals are important to you.

Lists are a powerful way of helping your mind focus on what matters. A simple list of reasons why this goal is important to you and why it excites or inspires you, maybe just the push you need.

2.     Have an ‘Accountability partner’

Partnering up with someone close to you, either at home or work, can greatly help you stay focused and avoid being distracted from what you need to achieve. If all they do is check on you occasionally, that should be enough to keep you on the right track. You do not need to share just your frustrations, by all means, share your successes with them as well.

Doing this will release the chemical Serotonin in your system and elevate your mood significantly.

3.     Break It Down

Facing down a large project or goal can be daunting indeed. It is now common knowledge that the best way to tackle a difficult project is to break it down into smaller, more manageable goals. By taking one step at a time and having laser focus on just that one part and completing it, you will get all the motivation you need to follow through with the rest of the steps.

4.     It’s OK to fail

Not everything will go just the way you want it to. When something does not go according to plan or you are faced with a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, it helps to take a step back. Facing failure does not mean it is time to give up. On the contrary, this is the time to double down on the task at hand.

You must remember that dealing with failure is a very normal part of life and that it is this that tests our metal. Find the courage to overcome adversity and look to each day as one filled with opportunity.

5.     Celebrate Milestones

As mentioned earlier, sharing your progress with a friend or partner can help release beneficial chemicals in your brain. It is import that you document important events or milestones during your day or week, so that you can celebrate them. This is key to staying motivated and by proxy, help others around you get motivated as well.

Remember, there is no rule that says you must wait till you achieve your end goal to start celebrating. Successes, small or large, should be rewarded as and when they occur.

6.     Envision your goals

Out of the 8 senses our bodies are capable of, the visual system plays an important role in self-motivation. At the start of each day, it’s a great practice to spend a few minutes to visualise how achieving your goals will make you feel, what will it look like at the end.

Fine-tune this practice so you can apply it to your daily tasks, not just your long-term goals.

7.     Constructive Self-Criticism

You are not a machine, so why expect yourself to function like one? People make mistakes. That is an inherent part of nature. When you make a mistake, try not to beat yourself up about it. It is far better to analyse the situation with a bit of logic instead.

Keep your focus on the horizon and on the direction you are going in. There may be multiple paths that lead to where you are going.

If things are going slower than you would like, keep in mind that setbacks are a part of everyday life. How you chose to face them will be the difference between whether you stay motivated and strong or fail and give up.

8.     Have a Mentor or Coach

Most times, there will be someone who has already done what you want to do or at the very least have the mindset to help you on your way to achieving your goals. You can have a greater chance of success and an advantage, if you reach out to someone you know, who can help you with the necessary skills, guidance, or just helpful motivation.

If you would like to know why having a coach is a great idea, have a look here.

9.      Slow and steady wins the day

It is very easy to overwhelm yourself by setting an unrealistic number of tasks per day. This is a recipe for workplace burnout. As said before, it is better to work on smaller, more manageable tasks during the day. Yes, deadlines are import but if you burden yourself with a mountain of work each day, you will either end in failure or submit shoddy work, neither of which is acceptable.

At this time, when working from home is more commonplace, and will be for some time, having time to relax and take a break is even more necessary. It is even harder on entrepreneurs and business owners, as they have a lot of pressure on them to deliver.

10.  Healthy habits go a long way.

Having a balance between work and life is important, yes but that is not the be-all-end-all of things. Whether it is related to work or your personal life, it is important to approach any goal with a positive mindset. Creating healthy habits that will help you achieve your goal, is necessary.

For example, if you are constantly shifting between emails, WhatsApp, or your work chat forum, while trying to do your work, you will quickly find that your productivity takes a huge hit. A better way would be to have dedicated and routine times for each activity and make those times know to all stakeholders.

When you can concentrate on each task without distraction, you will find that completing them and the inevitable satisfaction that comes with it, makes the whole process worthwhile.