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Everyone knows that deadlines can be very motivating. Among college students, for example, about three-in-four report finishing projects precisely on the day they are due. As the deadline for a particular goal looms, people think more about that goal, and work harder toward achieving that goal. Writers, for example, typically experience a burst of productivity as they approach the completion of a manuscript. Psychologists studying animal behavior have even found that rats work harder as they get closer to their “goals.” So it makes sense that setting deadlines for your goals can help you use this “imminence” effect to your benefit.
Because people work harder as they get closer to their goals, you should set goals with a relatively short time horizon. Think weekly or monthly goals rather than yearly goals. Psychologists call these “proximal” goals, and have documented that they tend to be more motivating that longer-term goals. A Stanford University study of children doing poorly in math found that those asked to set near-term, proximal goals not only began outperforming those asked to set more distant goals, they also developed a sense of personal control, confidence, determination, and even (gasp!) an interest in math that wasn’t there before. Another Stanford University study of weight loss reached similar conclusions – proximal goals led to more weight loss than distal goals, and those who did lose weight setting distal goals did so only because they “improvised” more proximal goals as well. It is also easier to “measure” your progress toward proximal goals – you’ll quickly be able to assess if you are on track to accomplish your goal, and if not, you’ll quickly be able to devise new strategies for getting there.
Certainly there is some benefit to setting longer-term goals such as yearly ones. They can provide a clear sense of the overall objectives and outcomes that you are working toward. Businesses often emphasize yearly goals and annual sales quotas because they can help in financial planning, estimating how many new people to hire, and so on. But top businesses also set quarterly or even monthly goals because they realize that, for the most part, yearly goals are simply too far in the future to be truly motivating. Annual goals are too abstract. If you set a yearly goal, it is easy to find yourself sitting around for 9 or 10 months doing little about your goal, feeling uneasy and overwhelmed about such an ambitious goal, and then freaking out as the end of the year approaches.
So if you’re making some New Year’s Resolutions, focus less on what you want to accomplish in the coming year, and more on what you’d like to accomplish in January. Or if you’re trying to give up an addiction such as alcohol or tobacco, and abstaining for a full year seems like an overwhelming goal, focus on abstaining for the week and go from there. There’s certainly value in having a long-term vision of what you want to accomplish in the coming year, but you’ll accomplish more by also setting progressively more challenging shorter-term goals and building on your success.
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