A lot of people espouse the idea of ‘goal setting’ as a ‘golden egg’ of opportunity and success.
Many high-achievers, successful business owners, entrepreneurs, and gurus describe the process of ‘writing down your goals’ as ‘crucial’ to achievement.
But is this true?
Will goal setting actually make that big of a difference in your life?
To put this theory to the test, one of our writers decided to start writing down his daily to-do list every day for 30 days, just to see if it made a difference.
Here’s what he discovered.
He Got A Lot More Done
One of the often touted benefits of goal setting is that it’ll empower you to get more accomplished.
And during our test, that certainly proved to be true.
Not only did our test subject get more done every day, but he also realized that getting into the habit of setting goals helped him to fit more tasks into each week—which ultimately led to a pretty dramatic increase in productivity.
He managed to get about an extra hour or two of extra focused work accomplished each day—which is no small matter.
He Made More Money
As a writer who earns more as he writes more, this increase in productivity also led to him earning more money over the course of the month.
It was a fairly substantial amount of extra as well—so much so that he was able to re-work his budget and start paying off some debt!
He Stayed More Focused
Writing down your goals is definitely said to help you stay more focused on the stuff that really matters.
And our writer reported that he found this to be true for him as well.
Not only did writing down his tasks help him to stay focused on the daily schedule, but this also empowered him to stay more focused throughout the week, and even over the course of the entire month.
He even managed to increase his exercise routine as a result of finding so much more extra time.
Are There Downsides To Writing Down Your Goals Every Day?
Overall, writing down your goals and daily tasks every day helps to keep you on track and on schedule.
But that’s not to say that the task is easy.
Our writer reported that making time for goal-setting on a daily basis took quite a bit of focus all by itself.
“It’s so easy to just neglect it,” he said. “In fact, had it not been for my intent to write this blog post about it, I probably wouldn’t have found the motivation and drive to stick with it.”
“It’s a simple enough thing, and it only takes about 10 minutes. But strangely enough—forcing yourself to ‘do it’ every single day, without fail, is a lot more challenging than it sounds.”
In Conclusion
At the end of the day, it sounds like writing down your goals on a daily basis is good not only for your productivity, but also for your overall health and wellness—especially when you apply it to things like mental health, productivity, exercise, sleep, and diet.