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You are here: Home / Archives for Goal Setting

Goal Setting

Planning your week for maximum impact on the things you care about

Zoey · July 16, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Ages ago I was listening to a podcast with someone who highly advocated never checking your email in the morning – and having it be an afternoon activity (and that it should only be a once a day activity – unless you have a specific job that requires you to check more regularly than that). The reason was that if you check your email first thing, then it tends to set everyone else’s priorities for your time for the rest of the day, rather than you pursuing your own priorities first. Often that first part of the day (especially for morning people like me) is my most creative time of the day, so it’s important that I prioritise it for that type of work.

This isn’t strictly about running, but the better organised you can be with your time, the easier it will be to fit the training that you want to do in. So I thought I’d share a little bit about how I structure my priorities and my week to get the most out of it. Because let’s face it, I have a full time job, two kids (thankfully at school, most of the time!) and my personal preference is for a high volume training week, so I need all the productivity I can lay my hands on.

This is what is working for me at the moment.

Write down your priority list

I don’t like thinking of it as a to do list. To do lists are stressful. Priority lists are about making sure the most important things are the things that get done first. I tend to look at my list from the week before to get in all the things that are weekly things that don’t really change and then I add in anything else that is particular to the week or in preparation for a bigger monthly or quarterly event. Next to each thing, I estimate how many hours it will take me. I also write down training sessions in my priority list, because they are important too and note down how long they will take as well. I like to make sure that everything is written down there. So if I need half an hour a day to respond to emails, that time is not going to come out of thin air, it needs to be on the list. And then I number everything from first priority to last priority.

Break up your day into 1 hour blocks, with breaks.

I find that I like to separate out my different things into sections so I might be working on the website for an hour, then I might have lunch, then I might do a weights session, then I might come back and do an hour of programming. That’s for a few reasons. It keeps my mind nice and fresh by switching between things. It allows me to be pretty focused because I’m only working on one thing at a time for at most an hour and it means I’m not sitting down at a computer for hours at a time. An interesting study found that when you think you are being hyper-productive with multi-tasking you actually end up losing about 40% of your time by switching from task to task, and you are much better off single tasking. So that’s really what I try to do.  But make sure you have time in between your slots because you aren’t a machine, you need to create a bit of buffer space between activities which also allows for wiggle room when something comes up unexpectedly.

Before I start adding things into blocks, I add up the total hours and make sure I have enough time through the week. In a typical week I might have about 25 hours on my hands once I take out appointments, stuff for the kids, school pick up and drop off and all the rest of it. So if my number is higher than that, then I’d need to make some adjustments to my priority list and move a few things that are low down the list into next week.

Start slotting your priority list into your time blocks

Now it’s time to start adding your priorities into your time slots. I like to put the things that require the most creativity first thing in the morning when I am fresh and the things that are more purely administrative in the afternoon. It’s good to work out what your sleep style is to work out when you work best through the day. As a classic early to bed, early to rise type of person I’m pretty good for anything I need to get done in-between 5 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon but after that I don’t really have the attention for it. If you can, structure your day around what is going to work for you. I also like to put things that I have a high level of resistance to (like rehab) earlier in the day. If I leave it to the afternoon I can get decision fatigue and really struggle to push myself to do it. Whereas if I do it earlier, I find it easier to get going and then I get to feel really smug about it for the rest of the day.

The good thing about this system is you can put in all of your appointments or meetings so you can see from the outset whether you have a fair amount of time through the week or if it’s a week that is jam packed and you are only going to be able to get the necessary things done through the week. I do tend to stack things a bit more at the beginning of the week so that Friday can be a bit more of a relaxing day or a day to do errands.

If you are able to: alternate between sedentary and active things and it will make a huge difference to what you are able to get done through the week.

And remember, nothing is set in stone

Planning is all about giving yourself the maximum opportunity to get things done. But life has a way of not going according to plan, regularly! I do find it’s often necessary to move things around through the week or if something comes up get rid of things that aren’t absolutely necessary from my schedule. Remember it’s there to make your decisions easier through the day, structure the day so it’s the most enjoyable and help you to get through what you want to get through, but don’t let it become an albatross around your neck either. If a friend comes over for coffee, or if you need to just not be doing stuff for a day, don’t sweat it. It’s a priority list, not a to do list.

Podcast: Episode 77 – Beyond PBs {Creating a Layer Cake of Goals}

Zoey · June 15, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Habits are not goals, so if you aren’t a natural planner or you aren’t in a focused period of training, the idea of setting goals can seem overwhelming at best or even pointless. But there are so many ways to set goals to keep you interested in what you are doing and they don’t have to be about reaching a new distance, entering a new event, or setting a new PB.

In this episode of the podcast I talk about using goals to create your own meaning and some of the fun ways to set goals to keep things interesting too.

6 Running Goals for 2018 That Aren’t Running a Marathon

Zoey · November 13, 2017 · Leave a Comment

I love the marathon as much as the next person, but I think it’s probably misplaced as the pinnacle of all running achievements. I firmly believe that a fast or hard 5km is just as impressive as a marathon. Or whatever distance you put your mind to. It’s easy to get sucked into the lure of the marathon when a lot of the prestige appears to be around marathons. They get bigger medals. More likely to be gold than silver. And the holy grail of many a runner seems to be qualifying for Boston, for which there is no half marathon or 10km or 5km equivalent. It’s easy for those little cues to seep into your consciousness and you believe that they make the marathon more important. But it’s only as important as you make it, and if it’s not your jam, it’s not worth pursuing.

So here are some fun things to do in 2018 instead.

The Pan Pacific Masters are on the Gold Coast. If you are over 35, embrace the masters! They have a range of running events from track events to road running events to trail running events to suit most peoples interests.

The NSW Distance Running Championships. This looks SO COOL. And if the travel didn’t seem a bit difficult for me (given I am closer to Queensland than to NSW) I’d be all over this. And I think I might make it a goal in 2019 anyway. You compete for points across five events: Orange, Bathurst, Mudgee, Dubbo and Carcoar. Cannot imagine anything more fun than travelling around the place running half marathons!

Isn’t it time you got your 50 parkrun milestone t-shirt? If you haven’t checked out your local parkrun, I guarantee there is an awesome community waiting for you, and you could be on your way to your milestone in no time.

See how far you can go in Run Down Under! You can virtually run around Australia and join clubs (like the Operation Move one!) and check out the leaderboards and have fun with friends.

Want a really ambitious goal? What about a preferred start at the Gold Coast or Melbourne next year? At the Gold Coast, women earn a priority start if they have a 1:30 half marathon or a 3:15 marathon or a 43:00 10km.

What about a multi day event? You could do a two day event like Warwick Pentath (the total kilometres you run over two days adds up to a marathon)

What ideas would you add to the list?

Friday Freebie – Base Training and Half Marathon Plan

Zoey · November 10, 2017 · Leave a Comment

The cool thing about the end of the year is that I see everyone planning their events for 2018. And there’s nothing I love more than event planning. It’s always exciting seeing people set their goals and put plans in motion for what they want to accomplish. So here is a 9 week base training and 12 week half marathon training plan to get you started, if you have a half marathon on the cards for next year. You can work it as a 3 day plan, a 4 day plan a 5 day plan or even a 6 day plan if you are especially keen.

And if you want to work out your paces, this handy calculator will get you on the right track.

And remember, a half marathon isn’t half of anything.

Happy Friday!

Comparison: just add curiousity to make it great

Zoey · November 2, 2017 · Leave a Comment

How many times have we told ourselves (or others) that comparison is a bad thing? Lots I’m guessing. Things like “a flower doesn’t compare itself to others it just blooms” and “comparison is the thief of joy”. And those sentiments are admirable, but there also not real.

Humans are hardwired to engage in comparisons. We even to a certain extent base our own understanding of our abilities on the abilities of those around us and it provides the context for things that cannot be answered objectively. In Friend & Foe, the authors talk about the phenomenon of comparison and happiness. Silver medalists at the Olympics tended to be the most unhappy because they were comparing themselves to the Gold medalists, but Bronze medalists were far happier because they were comparing themselves to the people who came fourth or fifth.

Comparison is completely unavoidable, so you might as well get comfortable with it now. You aren’t going to be able to stop, and feeling like you *should* be able to stop is only going to make you even more miserable. If you think about it, so many things that you will assess in your life can’t be objectively obsessed without comparison – whether that be about what school your kids go to or how much money you earn or what kind of improvements you are making in your running. Without context, it becomes kind of meaningless.

The downside of comparison is that it can become toxic and destructive and the upside is that it can drive your motivation. For me the key way to make comparison transformative is to approach all comparisons with curiousity.

What can I learn from this person? How long did it take them to get there? What did they do or change to improve in such a dramatic way? What do they do really well that other people don’t do? How long have they dedicated to this area of their life?

Inspiration is just finding someone who started where you started and showed that they could forge a path to where you would like to go, isn’t it? Which is why for me personally, when I’m looking for inspiration, I’m not going to find it among the genetically gifted. Those people are amazing and I marvel at their ability and the hard work they’ve put in to hone that ability. But to be inspired, I want to recognise more of myself in that person, because they help me to believe that it’s possible. If you listen to coaches for any length of time (which I do!) you’ll hear them say the same thing across a range of difference sports – for the truly gifted they are outliers and they could do almost anything (in terms of training) and be amazing, so to a certain extent as long as they are doing something, it doesn’t matter. And while they are amazing to watch, from a training perspective, it’s just not that interesting. What is interesting is the people who weren’t built for it and what they had to do to create those leaps forward to make themselves competitive.

So the next time, you start feeling unhappy because of comparison, do something with it.

1) Whoever you are comparing yourself to, make sure you go back to there beginning, or ask them about it – I bet you will be surprised how many people started where you are.

2) Write down what you admire in other people and it will give you a great list of goals to work towards

3) Embrace your comparisons. They are people who can mentor you and teach you something.

And remember that one of the coolest things science has discovered about the power of comparison is that when we are surrounded by people we are cooperating with our belief in our own abilities is elevated. Which is what #opmovesisterhood is all about.

 

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