Set your goals 3×3

They say everything comes in threes. That doesn’t apply to work and personal goals, in my experience.

But most people and organizations would benefit from setting their goals three by three.

What do I mean?

First, I like the idea of 3 priority goals. It’s small enough to be focused, but big enough to make a difference.

Second, I like the idea of breaking goal targets down into manageable chunks of time. In this case: 3 months and 3 years.

Quarterly goals are a pretty standard practice and is preached by many productivity gurus.

Those 3 month chunks give you enough time to get something accomplished, but are near enough on the horizon that you have a strong degree of control over whether you achieve them.

The longer the time horizon, the greater the likelihood that your goal is a guess or a hope.

That’s the same reason I don’t like 5 and 10 year strategic plans. That’s just too far off to be truly predictable.

There have been very few times in my life or career when I could look back a decade and say that I would have predicted where I ended up.

And I don’t think I’m all that unusual — at least in that regard.

At the same time, one year isn’t ambitious enough. We’re already almost 10% done with 2020. When you let that sink in you realize just how short a time a year really is.

Your 3-month goals are your blocking and tackling — the basic things you need to do in the short-term to be successful.

Your 3-year goals represent your vision for where you want to go and who you want to be.

Together these goals will help steer you in the right direction.

So what are your 3 goals for the next 3 months? And 3 goals for the next 3 years?