How We're Breaking Down Our 2024 Goals

How We're Breaking Down Our 2024 Goals

You've uncovered what matters and you've set goals you believe will help you live it out this year. The calendar has flipped (it's 2024!) and you're ready to start living those goals out little by little, one day at a time... but, how?

While the PowerSheets® goal planner itself is built to guide you each step of the way, we know it can be helpful to hear from some friends as you go. Today, five members of Team Cultivate are sharing one of their 2024 goals and a bit about what it will look like to break it down over the course of this year! We'd love for you to share a goal and your own starting steps in the comments, too.

1000 hours tracker

Emily, Content Strategist:

The goal: Log 1,000 hours of deep work

How she's breaking it down: While this goal does count as a Finish Line (because there's a measurable end I'm working toward of 1,000 hours!), it's masquerading as a habit—meaning it doesn't require as much breaking down as a Big Dream! Still, there are a few things I plan to do to start well:

  • Run the numbers to figure out approximately how many hours a day I'll need to log to meet my goal by the end of the year if I'm not counting weekends. This will be key to pacing myself!
  • Clarify for myself what constitutes "deep work."
  • Make a short list of what I need to succeed for each working session: for example, a distractions notepad close at hand, turning off notifications, etc.
  • Print out a tracker

I also plan to make some notes and observations along the way, perhaps quarterly. I want to notice whether this experiment affects my attention span, the amount (and quality) of work I'm able to produce—and other areas I can't anticipate!

Alli, Marketing Specialist:

The goal: Reestablish a financial plan for our family. Our financial situation has changed over the past 1-2 years, and our family needs are changing in the coming year (with a new baby!), so this feels like a perfect and necessary time to dive into our finances on a deeper level and recalibrate our vision financially.

How she's breaking it down: First, my husband and I will schedule a kick-off financial meeting at the start of the year. Our action steps will flow from there, but I expect they'll include quarterly, monthly, and weekly check-ins on various aspects of our plan, from the budget to our larger savings goals! 

Tori, Goal Content Writer:

The goal: Establish intentional family rhythms

How she's breaking it down: I have a few ideas to get us started!

First, I'd like to implement family meetings where we can encourage each other, talk about our schedules, plan meals, and more. We worked on settling into our new home in 2023, and as we branch out and get more involved in our community this year, I think a meeting rhythm will help us stay connected as a family.

Daily, we’ll each have chore charts and habits to work on.

I’m excited to use the new Family Workbook to help make this goal a reality!

Kelley, Brand Manager:

The goal: Start a gardening journal. I have a long-term goal of starting a flower farm on my family's land to be able to donate flowers to an organization that's close to my heart, but I am a terrible gardener. Ahh! I think a journal (on paper or online) would help me to learn, explore, and track my progress.
How she's breaking it down: Because North Carolina's landscape is so diverse, part of this goal is to join a local gardening community. I'm also planning to continue the budget system I designed last year to save for future purchases, and maybe I'll set monthly goals to learn about a new facet of gardening each month.

 

We'd love to hear: What's a 2024 goal of yours, and how do you plan to break it down?

 

2 comments

Absolutely love this article! I’m new to the “measurable” part of goal-making, so I’m growing/learning about that from anyplace I can! I’d love to know where the 1,000 hours sheet came from, too! I’m an author, so it’s better for me to track time spent over words, although I still gravitate towards wordcount! Thanks again!

Angela

I love this idea and am trying to be more offline this year. Where did you find the tracker pictured in this story? Please share.

Shannon

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Emily Thomas

Emily Thomas

Emily Thomas

Emily Thomas is Cultivate What Matters' Content Strategist and Writer. With over a decade at Cultivate, Emily loves helping women uncover what matters, set good goals, and live them out with joy. Her free time is spent with her high-school-sweetheart husband and three young kiddos.