1. Set goals with the SMART framework
People who lack a clear sense of direction often share a few challenges:
- Unclear goals: They do not know why they are studying or working, and end up going along with the crowd.
- Inconsistent follow-through: They are easily influenced by others, feel anxious or uncertain, and still do not take action.
A good goal can help you build a sense of direction. Management literature offers standards for setting one, such as the SMART framework. It may seem abstract at first, so the example below shows how to apply it.
After setting a goal, the next step is to break it down. This step is important, so take time to work through it.
2. Manage goals with the OKR framework
OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. It is a method for defining goals and tracking progress. The core idea is to break a seemingly difficult objective down into smaller results and actions, helping people stay connected to the goal. Companies such as Google, Facebook, Tencent, and Huawei have used OKRs to improve organizational performance.
O means Objective. KR means Key Result: a measurable outcome that contributes to the objective.
Why use OKRs?
As one line from the Chinese talk show Roundtable puts it: “The opposite of anxiety is specificity.”
Along with setting a clear goal, plan a concrete path to achieve it. When an abstract goal is broken down into everyday actions, a distant outcome becomes a series of steps anyone can take. That can make uncertainty and anxiety easier to manage.
Imagine you need to finish a group-project presentation by the weekend. You feel frustrated because you were not involved in the earlier work, do not know the current progress, and are not confident in your presentation skills. You worry that you will not finish in time.
Start by asking what key results would lead to the finished presentation:
- Objective: Finish the group presentation by the weekend.
- KR 1: Collect the work completed by the other team members.
- KR 2: Read and combine the material into an outline.
- KR 3: Find a presentation template.
- KR 4: Put the outline into the template.
The work is already much clearer. If it still feels difficult, start with the easiest steps, such as collecting the existing work and finding a template. Once those are done, you may find that you are already close to halfway through.
Elisi makes it easy to set goals and supports different ways to act on them.
For complex goals, you can also use the Pyramid Principle. It offers three ways to organize your thinking:
- Time or sequence: Identify causes and outcomes, list the actions, and put them in chronological order. Be careful not to confuse cause and effect. For example, if successful swimmers are fit, that alone does not tell us whether swimming made them fit or their fitness helped them swim well.
- Structure or space: Divide a whole into parts, or combine parts into a whole. For example, a target of scoring 410 on a graduate entrance exam can be broken down into minimum scores for each subject.
- Degree or importance: Group similar items and order them by importance. Address the most important or strongest items first.
For example, if your goal is to learn data analysis in two months, you might define these key results:
- Learn essential tools such as MySQL.
- Study relevant theories, such as statistical methods.
- Read books that develop advanced data-analysis skills.
3. Stay committed with positive feedback and useful consequences
When we lack motivation, is it simply because we are lazy? Often, we have not learned how to guide our own thinking and give ourselves balanced feedback.
Does your brain need guidance? Yes. If not, why can it feel as though the bed has trapped you when you know you need to get up?
Motivation grows when you genuinely connect with what you are doing. It helps power intrinsic motivation.
Imagine a car with no fuel or a horse with no grass. Pushing harder from behind will not make either go faster. Motivation needs support. Two useful forms are positive feedback and an awareness of what is at stake.
Positive feedback means encouraging yourself. One approach is to picture the result before you begin, rather than focusing on the process. Before studying, imagine how it would feel to earn a scholarship instead of dwelling on how boring studying might be.
A useful consequence can also help. People naturally avoid losses, and the negative feelings from losing something can outweigh the positive feelings from gaining something. For example, a person may prefer to take a gamble rather than accept a smaller but certain loss.
When motivation fades, a reminder of what you stand to lose by not following through can help you get moving. Use positive feedback and an awareness of consequences together when building a habit.
4. Improve efficiency by reviewing your progress
To make progress, start by understanding your own work patterns.
Useful feedback means knowing your study habits and productivity. Tracking what you do helps you see where to make improvements.
Without tracking, you may not realize that your focus has changed, even if you still spend the same number of hours studying as before.
It can be hard to remember the details of a day or judge how productive you were. Regular reviews help.
Repetition can strengthen memory, but only when your attention is on the material. You may have experienced reading aloud while your thoughts wander elsewhere, then discovering two hours later that you have not retained the chapter. Repeating without attention does not move knowledge into long-term memory.
Review your day with a consistent process:
- Check today's progress.
- Review what you learned.
- Identify what worked and what did not.
- Summarize what you learned and decide what to adjust.
Use Notes or a journal to record your progress and reflect each day.