If you feel like you’re finding less and less time for yourself, you are the majority of moms who struggle with this.
Your to-do list continues to grow, schedules are more packed, and too many things are competing for your attention. It’s no surprise that it’s difficult for moms to even set goals let alone achieve them.
If this is you, a simplified daily goals strategy is your answer. No more waiting to get started on your goals, you can get started now even though you feel like you can’t fit it into your busy schedule.
Stick with me and I’ll guide you through a simple framework for setting daily goals while staying on top of your most important tasks. It will help you stay organized and help you make progress toward your goals.
Let’s dive in.
Why Moms need to set daily goals
First, I want to point out the importance of daily goals for moms.
Life as a mom can be hectic. You’re juggling kids, work, and home duties. Like many moms, you’re likely putting everyone else’s needs before your own. The result is never taking the time to reflect on your ambitions because there’s never enough time and you’re too exhausted to bother.
When you’re overwhelmed, ambitions get pushed further back in the queue. It doesn’t have to be this way. A small adjustment in your process and frame of mind can change this.
You can still pursue growth and find success even if you’re busy or tired. With daily goals, you can carve out small pockets of time for your personal growth.
Setting daily goals is creating your own roadmap for success. It provides clarity, direction, and purpose.
Think of it this way, if you currently set goals once a year, they are likely very big goals. Nothing wrong with that, however, big goals require multiple action steps and a timeline that needs to be followed to achieve that goal.
It can get overwhelming really fast and get discouraged.
If you are pressed for time and/or overwhelmed, it can feel near impossible to achieve because you are already struggling to manage daily life. You might give up and feel defeated after losing a lot of time spinning your wheels on your goals.
With daily goals, you can break them down one day at a time. Small, baby steps are better than no steps.
And they’re much better than overwhelming yourself even more with too large goals that are not attainable for you right now. No shame in keeping it real.
The benefits of breaking down goals
What are the perks of breaking down goals day by day?
If you’re not sold on the idea of daily goals because you think it will take too long, look at it this way, how is your current goal strategy working for you?
By breaking down big-picture goals into smaller, manageable tasks, daily goal setting will enable you to make consistent progress. Small consistent progress is still progress and you might be surprised at what you can achieve with daily goals when you stick with it.
Another thing, wouldn’t it be great to feel accomplished every day? Daily goals will give you a boost in motivation and momentum going forward.
Life as a busy mom can often feel overwhelming and chaotic. By setting daily goals, you create structure and order amid this chaos. You regain control by prioritizing tasks and managing your time effectively. This truly is progress.
The simple process of daily goal setting
Hopefully, I’ve convinced you that daily goals are amazing, and you are hyped to get started. Now let’s explore a simple process you can use to start setting daily goals asap.
1.Define Specific Goals and Prioritize
Choose a time during the day that allows you a few minutes to think about what you want to focus on. What do you value most right now? What concerns do you want to tackle?
For example, you want to feel like your old self again, you want to have more energy and feel better about yourself. This might mean committing more time to self-care.
Identify tasks that will help you consistently practice self-care. These tasks can be waking up 30 minutes earlier to exercise or meditate.
It can be adjusting your evening routine to fit in some reading time. Or it can be increasing your monthly grocery budget to include more whole foods and/or increasing your daily step count.
Always set clear and specific goals so it’s easier to take action towards them.
2. Break it down
Sometimes even waking up earlier in the morning is too big a shift for some moms. That’s okay. You can break down a task into smaller steps.
For example, if waking up earlier has always been a struggle for you, work your way up to your goal wake time. Start with five minutes and slowly increase until you’ve reached your goal wake time.
Breaking it down further is better than crashing and burning because you won’t end up having to start all over again.
Another example, you want to declutter a space in your home but it’s too overwhelming, Just the thought of it makes you defer it again and again. Break it down further.
If you want to declutter a closet, you don’t have to tackle the entire closet in one go. Start with one small section of it per week until it’s done. It might take up to a month to declutter but it’s better to take a month than to have to restart every month for several months!
3.Create your daily goal plan
Now that you’ve identified your specific goal(s), and tasks and broken them down into manageable steps, it’s time to plan it out. Mark it in your calendar, or your daily planner, and if you can let a trusted friend or loved one know about your goal too.
Studies show that if you share your goal with the right people, you can see more success than if you didn’t.
It can help to get outside support for your goals and it can keep you accountable.
Tracking and adjusting your daily goals
The idea behind setting daily goals isn’t only about crossing tasks off lists—it’s about creating purposeful habits that lead us closer every day toward our goals.
This is why the habit of tracking your goals and making adjustments where needed is just as important. As you know, mom life can be chaotic. The disorganization that comes with the chaos may throw you off track.
Stuff happens or your life changes and therefore your goals change too, so you might have to tweak your plan.
Moms know that some days just won’t go as planned – kids get sick, work calls for overtime, dinner burns…never a dull moment.
Keep in mind that if you have to make adjustments to your plan, it doesn’t mean that you are failing at goal-getting. They are necessary to realign your path to success.
That’s the benefit of being flexible and tracking your goals, you can do it even with the unpredictability of mom life.
Don’t give up on your goals!
Don’t let yourself get sidetracked, stay on top of your goals through daily tracking, and make sure you are progressing forward with small steps of action.
Sign up for my daily goals worksheet so you can get an easier head start. Daily goals are manageable if you follow my simple process.
One last thing before you begin, you can do this! If you go into setting your daily goals with the mindset that you can’t do it, you’ve already created another obstacle.
Start with my daily goals worksheet to follow my simplified goal-setting process for busy and overwhelmed moms. Show up for yourself every day and remain consistent with daily action toward your goal.
With that, you will see progress and it will get better with time if you stick with it!
Hi, I’m Melanie. I’m the woman behind Mommy Life Strategies. Here you will discover ways to manage your time more efficiently, how to create positive daily habits that stick, mindset exercises that energize, and health & wellness tips that work even for the busiest moms.