For a beginner basketball player, the thought of dunking on a 10 foot basketball hoop could seem insurmountable.
For a runner who just started, the idea of finishing a full 26.2 mile race could seem impossible.
However, if you break down the goal into more manageable tasks, they may not seem so daunting anymore.
In this article, we’re going to go into exactly how you could break down goals into manageable tasks. We will also provide some expert tips at the end. Lets dive into it.
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Why Breaking Down Goals Is Important For Success
When it comes to success, it almost can’t be done without breaking it down properly, and a lot of people go wrong here. Let’s go over why breaking down goals is important for success.
Boosts Your Confidence
When you break down goals into manageable tasks, completing them allows you to feel a sense of accomplishment. If you fail to do this properly, the opposite effect will happen. This is because in your brain, you’re saying you want to accomplish something, but you’re doing the opposite. In a sense, you may slowly feel like you’re failing at the goal, although in reality you’re just not breaking it down properly (& not doing anything at all).
Prevents Stress
The idea of doing everything all at once is extremely overwhelming. Trying to keep up with everything can put a real strain on your mental health. Breaking it down into manageable chunks will not only make the process easier but also less stressful.
Improves Focus
When you set goals without breaking them down, you could become scatterbrained. Let’s say you start a blog. Your topics will be all over the place, your social media strategy will be a mess, and your content will be inconsistent. This is because you’re trying to do too many things at once without breaking it down into manageable tasks.
Increases Motivation
We actually recently wrote an article on this exact topic. Long story short, small tasks being completed gives you a sense of pride and motivation to keep going.
Gives You a Realistic Idea Of What Goes Into Achieving the Goal
Breaking down goals into manageable tasks gives you a better idea of what goes into achieving the goal. You may say to yourself that you could complete the goal in 6 months at first. But after breaking everything down, you realize it may take an entire year. This can help you to plan and adjust your lifestyle accordingly.
Steps to Break Down Goals into Manageable Tasks
Now it’s time to talk about the steps needed to break down the goal into manageable tasks.
Define the Goal Clearly
It’s good to think big. However, when setting goals the goal needs to be relevant and realistic. It’s important to ensure the goal is achievable and measurable, so that you’ll know when it’s completed.
Some clearly defined goals include:
A. “I want to lose 20 pounds in six months by incorporating healthier eating habits and regular exercise into my lifestyle.”
B. “I want to improve my Spanish language skills to a B2 level within a year by taking online classes and practicing conversation with native speakers twice a week.”
C. “I want to increase my business’s monthly revenue by 15% within the next quarter by expanding our marketing efforts and introducing a new product line.”
D. “I want to write a 60,000-word novel in the next 12 months by dedicating two hours each day to writing.”
E. “I want to save $5,000 for a vacation trip to Europe in 18 months by saving $280 every month.”
Break down the goal into Subgoals
Let’s take example A. Lose 20 pounds in 6 months. You need to break this goal down into sub goals. These could include:
- Eating healthier meals 3 times a day,
- Going to the gym three times a week for 30 minutes,
- Monitor Your Weight Loss Progress consistently
There may be many more aspects of this goal, but we’re going to use this for our example.
Break down sub-goals into smaller tasks
Eating Healthier Meals 3 Times Per Day
Now even further, you need to break those sub goals down into even smaller tasks. For example you know you need to eat 3 times per day. In order to lose 20 pounds in 6 months, you need to lose .75 pounds per week.
In order to lose that .75 pounds per week you need to work out your calorie deficit.
Then you have to work that calorie deficit into those 3 meals per day.
For this to happen properly, meal prep becomes a necessity. So you’ll have to factor that into the plan as well.
In the end, you have tasks such as:
- Researching calorie deficits and macros split for weight loss goals
- Meal prepping on Sundays and wednesdays for 3 days at a time
- Eating breakfast every morning
- Eating lunch every day
- Eating
Going To The Gym 3 Times Per Week
It’s important to have a balanced gym routine. You don’t want to just do cardio the whole time, you need to incorporate weight lifting and other exercises that focus on different parts of the body.
You could divide those 3 times a week into strength training, cardio and yoga/recovery.
Monitor Progress On a Consistent Basis
Don’t weigh yourself every day throughout the process. Set one weigh in day per week. This will help to keep you sane and motivated.
Create a Schedule Based On Your Broken Down Goal
Now that you got the broad goal down to specific tasks, it’s time to create a schedule based on them. This could include setting aside certain days for certain types of workouts or meal prepping.
You want to make sure the schedule is realistic and that you can actually stick with it. Here’s a schedule based on our example.
| Day | Tasks |
| Sunday | – Meal prep for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday- Eat healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner – Gym: Strength Training – Weekly Weigh-in |
| Monday | – Eat healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner based on meal prep – Rest Day |
| Tuesday | – Eat healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner based on meal prep – Gym: Cardio |
| Wednesday | – Meal prep for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday – Eat healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner – Rest Day |
| Thursday | – Eat healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner based on meal prep – Gym: Yoga/Recovery |
| Friday | – Eat healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner based on meal prep – Rest Day |
| Saturday | – Meal prep for Saturday, Sunday, Monday <br> – Eat healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner – Gym: Strength Training |
The schedule will of course need to be adjusted based on personal preferences and daily routines, but this is a starting point that can be adapted to fit different lifestyles.
In order to make this schedule as efficient as you can, consider using tools like calendar apps, journals, platforms like Notion, etc.
Expert Tips For Breaking Down Goals Into Manageable Tasks
Simply breaking down goals is good, but there are other aspects that could help you along the way. We were lucky enough to get the opinions of a couple experts to add to this article.
Is Your Goal Attainable?
We were fortunate to hear from Kaitlin Cuevas, an esteemed life coach from Think Happy, Co. She shares her wisdom on setting and attaining goals:
‘Before you start breaking down your goal into manageable tasks, check for attainability of your ultimate goal. Ask yourself ‘is this goal possible to achieve with the necessary effort?’ If the answer is no, go back to the drawing board and re-work your ultimate goal until you can answer that question with a confident yes,’ says Cuevas.
Her advice emphasizes the critical step of validating your goals for their attainability. It is indeed futile to invest effort in breaking down an unattainable goal into tasks.
Navigating Perfectionism
We also had the opportunity to gather insights from Leslie Josel, Principal at Order Out Of Chaos, a seasoned expert in productivity and procrastination. She particularly draws attention to the concept of perfection and its impact on goal setting and task completion.
In her own words, Leslie states, “Breaking down goals into manageable tasks is just not enough for most. Because no matter how small we make them, we get caught up in making sure we do them perfectly. Some say that perfection is the enemy of completion. I agree. But I believe it’s also the enemy of activation! You may feel that you must produce your very best work the first time out of the gate. Every. Single. Time. Assuming you must do whatever task is in front of you perfectly the first time you sit down to work on it can easily prevent you from getting started.”
This statement by Leslie dives into the importance of recognizing and addressing perfectionism as a barrier to starting or accomplishing tasks, particularly when we’re trying to break our goals down into manageable steps.
If you’re someone who suffers from this type of set back, it’s important to handle it before breaking down your goals.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to break down your goals in a more efficient manner, let us know what your goals are below and how you plan to attack them efficiently. By sharing your goals below, you may inspire others as well.