High achievers are often hard working people. It’s great if we have goals and work hard to achieve them. But sometimes we may try too hard and as a result we burn out and give up before we ever reach our goal.
So today I’d like to share with you an easy way for achieving goals, especially those non-urgent, long term and ambitious goals.
The method is quite simple: work on your goal in only 20 minutes everyday.
The key elements in this method are “20 minutes” and “everyday”. Limiting your time to 20 minutes will ensure you don’t procrastinate, and also never burn out or get bored with the work.
Doing it everyday will ensure you always make steady progress and maintain forward momentum, which is probably the most important factor in reaching long term goals.
For example, if your goal is to write a book, then just write a little for 20 minutes everyday. If your goal is to find a new job, do some job hunting for only 20 minutes everyday. If you want to lose weight, then do your favourite exercise for only 20 minutes everyday. You can even apply the same idea to relationships, emotional or mental health etc.
Don’t belittle this daily 20 minute effort. If you truly commit to this practice, over a year you will have worked on your goal for 365x20=7300 minutes, which is about 120 hours. You could accomplish a lot in 120 hours. You could read 10 books, run 400 miles, write 60 articles, learn 6 courses, etc. The possibilities go on and on.
This method is similar to the popular idea of mini habits. I believe they share a lot of common psychological principles. Just like habits, the power of your daily effort lies in its consistency. To make it work, the everyday part is the key.
I am using this method myself for one of my study goals, which is to memorize 300 classic Chinese poems. I’m already halfway done. This method really works for me.
Perhaps you can try it with one of your goals today, then everyday.
Harry
