5 Things Helping Me Stick to My Goals This Summer

School's out, neighborhood swim team is on, and the North Carolina heat is bearing down: summer is officially here!

As Cultivators, we want to continue tending to what matters in every season—but in every season, how we do that looks a bit different! Today I thought I'd share five ways I'm personally sticking to my goals and habits this summer. I hope one or two might be helpful to you as you move through your own summer days!

1. I'm keeping my goals in front of me.

With kids home from school, new weekly rhythms (hello, dinner at the pool every night), and trips dotted throughout the next few months, keeping my goals where I can see them is as important as ever. I joke that "keeping your Tending List visible" is the answer to 99% of the follow-through problems users have with their PowerSheets®, but... it's kind of true.

If you keep your PowerSheets open to your Tending List somewhere you'll see them every day (your desk, your kitchen counter, your bedside table), with a pen resting beside, you will be shocked by how easy it becomes to do a quick daily check-in, and how motivated you will be to take the next step forward. And then the next one! Even in the full summer months.

More than half the battle is simply remembering your focus, your priorities, and your big picture, and your Tending List makes that easy. Just put it somewhere you can see it!

Ask yourself: Is where I leave my PowerSheets working for me in this season? I recently moved mine next to the chair in my bedroom, which is where I work most days in the summer when my kids are home from school. 

2. I'm narrowing down my "big list" to just three projects.

In a recent Goal School Premium class, I relayed advice from Oliver Burkeman's book Four Thousand Weeks: only keep three big personal projects on your plate at one time. Why limit the list? To experience completion more often, and thus increase your energy and appetite for the next projects on your list. 

You might assume, Oliver writes, that seeing a project through to the end would leave you depleted, but it's actually the opposite—completion replenishes energy, rather than using it up. So instead of spreading yourself thin working on ten projects at once, focus your energy on just three. Once you've completed a project and a slot opens up, you can then (and only then!) add a new project to the short list. 

This summer holds a LOT of projects for me: planning two birthday parties, hosting a neighborhood kindergarten ice cream social, writing a message for a service I'm leading, creating a five-year photo album, finishing a baby book, preparing my oldest for two weeks at summer camp. It's easy to feel overwhelmed. Instead of holding all of these projects in my head at once, as I would have done before, I'm keeping just three in front of me at a time—and it's really helping!

Ask yourself: What three projects are on my list right now? Not habits, not tasks, not goals, but projects. (You might even try visualizing this in your PowerSheets by ranking your monthly action items in order of priority!)

3. I'm staying mindful about runway. 

I am a person who likes to be prepared. This is a good thing, generally, but it can lead to holding too much at once—and to clinging too tightly to plans.

Related to number two, I recently heard something from Kendra Adachi that was really helpful for me. Most things, she said, don't actually have to be planned weeks in advance. (Mind blown, ha!) Some do, and it's good to recognize those tasks when they come. But many (most?) only need a few days' preparation. For example, she contrasted preparing her remarks for an upcoming speaking engagement with choosing her outfit. Both important, but one is actually better left to closer to the event, with less time to second-guess, and one is wise to do well in advance.

Simple, yes, but this was freeing for me! Now, when I look at projects on my plate, I try to honestly evaluate how much of a runway would actually be helpful, and don't default to simply doing things as early as possible. This has lightened my task list—and led to a greater feeling of relaxation around it.

Ask yourself: How much of a runway is actually helpful? Do I have to do this now, or would it be better to do it later? 

4. I'm asking for help.

To be clear, I ask for help year round—I enjoy doing it, and am quite good at it, ha! I think relying on each other is how we build community, and I really value community. I also think people want to feel useful; asking for help is one of the best ways to build trust and deepen bonds. 

But this summer, I've noticed myself asking for help with my goals more frequently, and that's different—my goals are something I usually hold closer to the chest. In the last month, though, my Dad has helped me hang string lights, several friends have stepped in to help me with my son's birthday party, and John took over planning our weekend away. 

Does it cheapen a goal to have other people help you across the finish line? I think you know the answer to that :) 

Ask yourself: Who could help me with this goal? What parts of this goal might benefit from a lift from someone I love? 

5. I'm involving my kids.

In general, with young kids, I prefer to have quiet, uninterrupted time to work on my goals. It's better for concentration and, if it's a computer task, I don't have to work with a little face or two peering over my shoulder. 

In the summer, though, I have a choice: I can work on a goal while my kids are around... or I can wait until I have time when they're not around. As you can imagine, time when they're not around is hard to come by in the summer months. 

So! Work on my goals while my kids are around, it is. Sometimes that means welcoming them in directly (for example, I'll set them up with watercolor supplies at my side while I work on a set of postcards) and sometimes it means getting creative. One recent example: I work on my newsletter at the library one morning a week. I didn't want to give this up in the summer, but I wasn't sure how my kids would keep themselves occupied for two hours. We put our heads together and came up with a plan: they'll bring books and activity books to keep themselves busy, and they'll also use 30 minutes to practice typing on the library computers. Typing practice is something I've wanted to incorporate into our family life, but I wasn't sure how to do it since we only have one computer (the one I use for work) at home. With this plan, two birds, one stone!

Ask yourself: Is there a way I can bring my kids into my goals this summer, even if it's not my first choice of how to work?

I'd love to hear: What's helping you stick to your goals this summer? Leave a comment and let me know!