If you’ve been struggling to organize your life and find yourself often procrastinating on working toward your goals, consider getting a planner. You are more likely to accomplish your goals when you physically write them down. The act of handwriting your to-do list produces a clear and driven focus every single day. When you write a daily task down, you commit to achieving it. Avoid any more distractions and feelings of failure and instead use the new year to make tangible progress and achieve success. The best way to do that is to grab yourself a 2021 goal planner and write everything down.
Here are the top 5 reasons why you should always write down your aspirations and ambitions into a goal planner:
1. Imagine your ideal life
In order to write something down you need to clearly envision what it is that you are trying to say. Goal setting is the first thing you should do when trying to plan your life. You might think in vague concepts and feelings, but in order to put it down in words you need to have a concrete idea. This is imperative for you to realize what your goals actually are and what were just passing thoughts. Use this time to imagine what you want your ideal life to look like and what specific goals will get you there. According to Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at the Dominican University in California, recently studied the art and science of goal setting. She found that you become 42% more likely to achieve your goals and dreams, simply by writing them down on a regular basis. It gives you intentions and purpose. There are no more ambiguities or uncertainties—only tangible and firm ideas. You’ll become more aware of what needs to be done and recognize when an opportunity might arise to assist you.
2. Commit it to memory
Neuroscience also explains why physically writing something down is more beneficial to memorization than any other method. Although the world is moving forward technologically, using just a pen and paper can drastically improve your ability to remember certain things. Researchers use college students attending university lectures as examples to explain that when handwriting something, you have to coordinate your verbal and fine movement systems to come up with your own summary of what you hear. You’re unable to write down every word you hear, so you pick key concepts to take notes of which causes you to participate with the material and actively learn. Typing, on the other hand, is only linear thinking. It only requires you to passively listen, so you usually just type exactly what you hear and fail to interact with and remember the information.
3. Create milestones
Now that you have imagined your dream life and created a list of goals you need to accomplish, writing it down can allow you to break it apart into smaller and more realistic goals. If your goal is to work out everyday and lose 20 pounds, that’s requires a long process that certainly won’t occur overnight. So, create milestones that set up some attainable steps for you to take to set yourself on the path to success. Perhaps your first milestone is working out twice a week. Then the next is three days, and so on. If you have a visual reminder set in your planner of a weekly target, it will encourage you to maintain momentum and continue working towards your main goal. Smaller goals are easier to attain, and therefore you have more reasons to celebrate.
4. Cross them off your list
Writing down your goals in a planner and promptly accomplishing them allows you to celebrate your progress by reviewing how far you’ve come. There is nothing more satisfying than getting to check an item off of your to-do list. Tapping a symbol on your phone isn’t quite the same as striking a dark line through it or drawing a big checkmark in the box. Taking time to celebrate the small victories will ensure that you have the energy to persevere. Your mood is one of the most important factors to consider—if you don’t find joy in the things that you do, then you won’t want to continue doing them for much longer. The feelings of accomplishment and pride that you have when you reach a milestone and get to cross it off your list is imperative to your journey. It is essential that you are able to tangibly measure your progress.
5. A roadmap to productivity
When you have a clear line of focus towards your goals, you are more readily able to maintain your productivity. Writing in a goal planner allows you to schedule out blocks of your day for specific tasks, helping you increase your efficiency. Setting a plan before you begin provides you with a guide to follow and makes the goals easier to analyze. Writing down the smaller tasks will encourage you to gain proper time management skills because you’ll know exactly what you need to do and when to do it. Whenever you are overwhelmed and don’t know what to begin with, you are more likely to procrastinate because you are trying to avoid that stress. Designing a roadmap of your goals takes away that pressure and increases your productivity levels.
Handwriting a goal motivates you to continue working hard and make it possible. Stop struggling with your goals and get yourself a fantastic 2021 goal planner! Take charge of your life and finally launch yourself towards accomplishing those tasks and begin thriving. Imagine the life that you want to live, create the necessary milestones to achieve them, write them all out in your planner and use that as visual inspiration to be productive and work towards becoming the best version of yourself that you can be.
