First I get the general idea of what I want to accomplish for my goal. I keep it vague and simple. Usually I only use a couple words to describe it. E.g.: Learn Japanese, or start freelancing.
Second I break it down. Firstly by defining what I meant by the action. This usually involves the extents, such as other actions, that encompass the action. In our example this could be: writing and speaking Japanese, making a website for your portfolio and finding clients. From here I then answer the question how, and when. How much Japanese will I learn to speak and write, and by when? How will I make a website for my portfolio and how will I find clients, and by when? Depending on your goal you may need to take some time to do some research on setting a reasonable due date.
The rest of the steps are just a recursive process of the second step, until I'm left with simple clear tasks I know I can do within 10 minutes to 2 hours. If there's not crystal clear clarity in a task, usually you need to break it down into more tasks. I use a mind web on paper, and a text editor to do my planning. Usually my mind web and text editor can become a bit overwhelming. I put these due tasks into my day planner and realize it’s not as overwhelming as it appeared all together. After that I'm on my way, working on the tasks as they come.
However, I put my tasks in my planner the day before instead of all at once. Why do I do this? Because if I want to reform my goal, I don't have to rewrite everything in my planner and it gives the goal some flexibility. Doing the tasks as they come is normally easy. Usually they're so clear and such small time investments that there's little resistance to actually start them and finish them.
My personal experience using this system has shown notable achievement. I've been following a goal I set last December with it. I wish to learn Japanese to the extent that I'm able to challenge* Japanese 12 (which has to be done before June), take the provincial exam on it (which is on June 19th), and achieve a score of 86%+ on the provincial exam. So far I've learned 330 Chinese characters (kanji), have nearly 500 words in my vocabulary, learned the two written scripts (hiragana and katakana), basic verb conjugation, basic sentence structures and some intermediate structures, and can understand slowly spoken Japanese within my skill level. To be honest some days I don't do everything (something anything) required. It just isn’t possible to be perfect, things will always come up, and there are always other goals that need attention. I usually make up for this within the next week so I don't get behind. With a solid deadline and plan, there's really no room to get behind (another strong motivator, because it’s all or nothing).
*: A way to earn extra course credits where I live by providing evidence of strong knowledge and well understanding of the course's criteria, then taking a test on the course’s material.
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