I have been doing a version of a while and think it's a great approach to goal setting. The pandemic really blurred time for me over the couple of years it persisted. As a response, I started to...
I have been doing a version of a while and think it's a great approach to goal setting. The pandemic really blurred time for me over the couple of years it persisted. As a response, I started to chunk out my time by seasons. (While I like the ideas of semesters, until college my semesters were nearly 19 weeks with just 11-12 weeks for summer and 2 weeks for winter. I cannot shake that mental length of semester. College always felt like an exception at 14 weeks.)
The article suggests specifying a hard date for your semesters, and I think the seasons (while a bit shorter than a semester) provide a natural, memorable date, though are a shorter time window. I think it's easy to follow time according to weather, a la the meteorological seasons:
Meteorological spring in the Northern Hemisphere includes March, April, and May; meteorological summer includes June, July, and August; meteorological fall includes September, October, and November; and meteorological winter includes December, January, and February.
These are hard dates that are easy to remember. And, I find my motivations in September will still align with my motivations In November. But, by mid December, it's cold and dark early and my day looks nothing like September. My wintertime goals shift to other activities.
All of this tracks with the paraphrased idea that people overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in three months. I have anecdotally set targets in hobbies and sport than span 3 months and it has made them far more achievable. The progress feels real and steady, as opposed to chipping away at a year-long goal and saying "how will I ever finish this? I'm only 25% through!" after the same 90 day interval.
I love your idea of making it shorter than semesters and more in rhythym with nature. I am living for the first time in my life in a place with four distinct seasons and, even though it's only...
I love your idea of making it shorter than semesters and more in rhythym with nature. I am living for the first time in my life in a place with four distinct seasons and, even though it's only been a couple years, I find that my energy levels and motivations change like yours do to match the sun and weather. Do you think there would be any value in shifting the dates to coincide with solstices and equinoxes so that goals would straddle two seasons? I feel like maybe this could help to stay on goals even as seasonal dependent motivation changes and maybe even provide insights or pivots to goals as our outlook shifts.
I found it an interesting read. Motivation, building patterns and self-improvement are tricky subjects and while I know the importance of sectioning/goal setting, I hadn't thought about it in...
I found it an interesting read. Motivation, building patterns and self-improvement are tricky subjects and while I know the importance of sectioning/goal setting, I hadn't thought about it in terms of 14-16 week chunks.
I'll probably be trying this out, if just to see if it suits me. Thanks for sharing!
I have been doing a version of a while and think it's a great approach to goal setting. The pandemic really blurred time for me over the couple of years it persisted. As a response, I started to chunk out my time by seasons. (While I like the ideas of semesters, until college my semesters were nearly 19 weeks with just 11-12 weeks for summer and 2 weeks for winter. I cannot shake that mental length of semester. College always felt like an exception at 14 weeks.)
The article suggests specifying a hard date for your semesters, and I think the seasons (while a bit shorter than a semester) provide a natural, memorable date, though are a shorter time window. I think it's easy to follow time according to weather, a la the meteorological seasons:
These are hard dates that are easy to remember. And, I find my motivations in September will still align with my motivations In November. But, by mid December, it's cold and dark early and my day looks nothing like September. My wintertime goals shift to other activities.
All of this tracks with the paraphrased idea that people overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in three months. I have anecdotally set targets in hobbies and sport than span 3 months and it has made them far more achievable. The progress feels real and steady, as opposed to chipping away at a year-long goal and saying "how will I ever finish this? I'm only 25% through!" after the same 90 day interval.
I love your idea of making it shorter than semesters and more in rhythym with nature. I am living for the first time in my life in a place with four distinct seasons and, even though it's only been a couple years, I find that my energy levels and motivations change like yours do to match the sun and weather. Do you think there would be any value in shifting the dates to coincide with solstices and equinoxes so that goals would straddle two seasons? I feel like maybe this could help to stay on goals even as seasonal dependent motivation changes and maybe even provide insights or pivots to goals as our outlook shifts.
I found it an interesting read. Motivation, building patterns and self-improvement are tricky subjects and while I know the importance of sectioning/goal setting, I hadn't thought about it in terms of 14-16 week chunks.
I'll probably be trying this out, if just to see if it suits me. Thanks for sharing!