In the last post in the "A Better Life" series, you plotted your course from your starting point to your destination. You then set dates for when you want to hit each milestone. The "where" you want to go and "when" you want to get there are defined, so now you need to determine the "how" are you going to get there. What is the one thing you can do that will allow you to take that first step towards your goal? The answer to this becomes your Next Action.
Looking at my own life, here are a couple of examples:
Productivity
Destination: I am a GTD Master (Black Belt)
Milestones: Hit the relevant points on the GTD Mastery 100
Next Action: Review the GTD Mastery 100 list to determine which points are relevant to my life, and to determine which ones I have already achieved.
Health & Fitness
Destination: I weigh 180 lbs.
Milestones: I weigh 265 lbs. by August 1, 2008
Next Action: Schedule workouts on my Calendar for every Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
Once you complete your Next Action, immediately determine the next Next Action. Keep the ball rolling and build the momentum needed to reach your milestones.
An alternative to the above process is to plan all, or at least as many as you can, steps needed to reach your milestones. This would entail thinking of every possible action you will need to take in order to reach your goal. When using this method, I usually start brainstorming all ideas I have about reaching my milestone. I will create a mind map and note each action I think of. If I am not at my desktop PC or my Tablet PC, I will create these mind maps in my Moleskine. If I am at one of my PCs, I will create the mind maps using MindManager.
Once I have brainstormed, and all of my ideas for reaching my goal are identified, I then determine if there are any dependencies. I make a note of these in my Moleskine or I will set up a relationship in MindManager. I then determine which of these steps is my Next Action, and I put only these on my To Do list.
Often times, reaching your destination can seem like a major undertaking, sometimes becoming overwhelming. By plotting your course to establish milestones, and then determining your Next Action to reach milestone, the task becomes much less daunting.
Past posts in the A Better Life Series
Kris, I read your first post today. Great stuff! I look forward to participating in your discussion as I work towards my "GTD Mastery" as well.
Posted by: Phil Stanoch | July 14, 2008 at 12:18 PM
This is a great post on setting and reaching milestones. I actually just started a blog series going through all 100 points of the GTD Mastery list. Would you be interested in participating? I'd love your thoughts and feedback as we go!
Posted by: Kris @ Fresh Focus | July 12, 2008 at 07:07 AM