Ep. 64 - 5 Tips To Help You Set Personal and Smart Goals

 Get your free guide to the time management tips that helped me set my goals and double my productivity. So what are you waiting for? Click here to get started!
Feeling overwhelmed and don’t know where to start? Looking to manage your time more efficiently?
Then this episode of Thyme 4 Tea with Mikita is definitely for you! Discover how to create a productive space, set goals and expectations, and tackle tasks in batches.

Imagine how good it will feel to cross everything off your to-do list. And then picture yourself finally enjoying some family time or start-up that hobby you’ve always wanted to try. It’s all possible when you follow our simple tips and tricks.

Show Notes:
00:01:01 Maximize time and energy.
00:09:36 Set personal boundaries.
00:21:56 Reward yourself for success.
00:22:38 Honor your time today.
Get more hot tea and insight by clicking here


Key points
 @ 00:04:27 Creating an effective workspace is key to being productive and maximizing focus. Creating a unique space can help reduce distractions and better accomplish tasks.

 @ 00:16:01 Time management is the key to success in any area of life. Whether you're trying to improve your productivity at work or achieve better grades in school, setting and achieving goals is essential.

 @ 00:16:01 Setting personal boundaries is important for time management and productivity. Having a space that is uniquely yours can help with creativity. Focusing on one task at a time and setting goals can also help with time management.

Transcript

Mikita S.   00:00:00  Welcome back. It is time for tea, and I'm, um, your host, Mikita. Thank you so much for just sharing your time, your space, and your amazing energy with me today. Now more than ever, we all need to get organized and find ways to maximize our precious time and our energy in order to get things done. That is why today I'm spilling some hot, delicious tea on how each of us can better manage our time and our energy. You will discover how your unique work style fits into the picture. You'll also learn about setting up an effective workspace and how you can gain a deeper understanding of strategies like setting personal goals, establishing smart goals, and tackling projects one bite-size piece at a time. Don't forget to download your free guide to time management in the show notes. So grab yourself a cup of tea and let's dive in. Now I get it. As a girl, mom, wife, nurse, and podcaster just like you, I wear a lot of hats. So whether you're an entrepreneur, nine to Fiverr, or a mix of all of that and so much more, you know that your time and your energy are so precious. They are the most precious commodity that you have, and you can't afford to waste them either. Yet it is so easy to do. We do it all the time, me included. So if you've ever felt like your focus slips all too easy, preventing you from meeting deadlines and crushing your ambitious goals, you are not alone. Trust me. But the good news is that when you understand your unique work style, it can help you to maximize focus and stay motivated. When I started understanding my unique work style, it helped me to gain a lot of clarity and manage my time so much more effectively. And it also helped me to prioritize my task. So what exactly am I talking about when I say your unique work style? Well, your work style is how you think, how you process information. So the first one is logical. Now, these individuals, they have a work style, and they're known as Doers drivers because they can analyze a problem and tackle it head-on. This type of work style is usually data-oriented, and they love a good challenge. And then there's detail-oriented, sometimes referred as learners and guardians. And people with this type of work style are usually sequential but very strategic and organized and extremely detail oriented. And then they're supportive. Some people have more emotionally oriented work style that is deeply expressive and so supportive. These individuals typically help build relationships and bring the teams

Mikita S.   00:03:04   together to work in harmony. So they're like the glue that just holds everything together. And then there's ideal oriented work style. And these are often thought as pioneers, leaders, or big-picture thinkers. These individuals have a working style that they're able to create these amazing big visions while inspiring others to believe in the vision that they create, and they are this incredible source of energy. So which one of these do you think sound more like you? Do you feel you're more logical and love solving problems? Or maybe you're more detail oriented and you love the strategic and organized? Or maybe you're supportive and you love building those relationships and teams? Or are you that big-picture person that can create those amazing visions and then inspire others to start believing in it? I truly think that we're all a bit of all four. I think we all have a little bit of all of them in us. But I want you to think about which one of these do you feel is your superpower. If I had to choose one, I would say support. I love nurturing and bringing the best out in others, and I'm also a big idea person. But if I had to choose one and say which one is my superpower, it would definitely be support. Now let's dive in and start talking about creating a space. So, creating a space that helps you to be productive is key to getting more done and freeing up valuable time that would otherwise be wasted. So finding an area, whether you work from home, which this would be more beneficial if you work from home, you can find an area that can help you reduce the number of distractions around you so that you can focus on accomplishing tasks so you can start getting the most out of creating this, uh, space. I want you to start thinking about the layout and the design. I will tell you, when I, um, first started my podcast, I didn't have a space. I was just sort of in a corner wherever I could, and I would just be recording. So nothing never felt like my own. And I was like, Hold on, time out. Uh, I need a space. I need something that I can make into my own personal oasis. And when I'm in this space, I know it's time to work. But I also can feel relaxed, and I can really gear my senses into what's happening around me by creating this space. So I think it's so important that you create in a work environment that says a little bit about who you are and that motivates you to get going. Now, if you're at work, you can do small, simple things. You can, uh, bring in pops

Mikita S.   00:06:18   of color. At work, I have a flower, and it's just beautiful. It's not a real flower, but it's beautiful. And it's in this face and it sits there and it's so green. And each and every time that I walk to my work area, that's the first thing I see. It's this beautiful green. And it's just like and I also have a quote, and I have this quote in every workspace that I'm in. I don't care where I'm at. This quote comes with me everywhere. And you've probably heard me say it before, but it's a quote by Maya Angelou, and it says, my mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. And that's what motivates me. Every time I look at that and I read that, it reminds me of my purpose. It reminds me of why I do what I do. So when you start making and creating a space that is for you, it doesn't have to be this big, grand thing. It could be simple, small. It could be as simple as bringing some aromatherapy oil and using it. You don't necessarily have to have a diffuser. I have this flower diffuser where I can drop the diffuser, um, onto the flower, and it just automatically, like I don't know how, but it spreads the joy of the fragrance around the room, and that helps me to relax as well. Also, little things like, um, I have tea, so I keep tea. And these are personal things within my space that are unique to who I am and that I know if I need a moment of calm or a quick break. These are things in my space that I know I can gravitate to that will automatically relax me. So I want you to think about how you can take your space and make it your own, even if it's just doing something small and simple. I want you to create this place so that it can help you to start letting your creativity flow. Create a space that makes you feel good. All right, now let's talk about personal boundaries. So there is a lot of talk about setting boundaries in other areas of your life, but if you're tired of feeling distracted and frustrated and unproductive, it might be time to start looking at some boundaries to set on yourself, because sometimes, as we know, we can be our own worst enemies. I know it's terrible. So one of the things that you can start doing to help minimize some of these distractions and start setting some personal boundaries for yourself is taking your phone, turning off your notifications, um, or just putting it out of eyesight. Literally, I cannot look at the phone because, truthfully, if

Mikita S.   00:09:41   I'm sitting there and I'm looking at my phone, before you know it, I'm picking it up, and I'm not even thinking. It's just like, subconsciously, I'm picking up the phone, I'm scrolling. I don't even know what I'm looking for, but I'm on the phone, and it's so easy to get distracted and caught up. Matter of fact, not too long ago, I grabbed my phone, and I, um, hit on TikTok. And you all already know what happens when you get on TikTok. You lose all sense of time. You go down the TikTok rabbit hole and let me tell you, it was, like, 2 hours later. Literally, 2 hours of my time gone. Given away because that's what happens when we get distracted. We give our time away. We give our energy away to something else. And then at the end of all of this, I'm sitting there and I can't believe it. Sure, I got some laughs, but I didn't reach my goal. I was so unproductive, I got nothing done. And then I started feeling like you have this sense of, you realize I can't get it back, the time is gone. I just wasted so much time and energy on something that does not hold as much of an, uh, important value as it would have felt for me to actually be more productive, actually reach the goals that I had set for myself. Instead, I just started beating myself up like, oh my gosh, I can't believe we did this. But to be honest, it's too late by then. So it's better to start setting the personal goals and setting the personal boundaries around yourself first. And then as you go on, you may need to start setting some boundaries against other people because we know that boundaries act as a shield to help us to stay focused on what's important. But it also saves us time and ultimately helps us get things done. So be mindful of spending time on social media or getting sucked into conversations with colleagues. I know they used to talk about conversations around the water pitcher, but you don't necessarily have to be around the water pitcher now to get sucked into conversations with your work buddies. And before you know what you're sidetracked and you haven't gotten anything done that you need it to. Now, one thing that I love to do is to set daily goals. Now, setting a goal for the day or the week is an important part of managing your time efficiently. It can help you to stay focused and organized and prioritize important tasks. Knowing exactly what goal you want to achieve makes it so much easier so you can start breaking it down allocating tasks into achievable chunks. And this will

Mikita S.   00:12:46   save you time and stress and so much energy in the long run. Additionally, when you reach your goal, you'll receive a great sense of satisfaction that will give you the energy that you need to feel even more productive. So be sure to jot down a goal, whether it's big or small. And you can do this each day or each week. Now, I like to take my weekly goals and break them down to daily goals because it's easier for me to not feel so overwhelmed when I start to think about everything I need to do in a week. And like I said in the beginning, we wear so many different hats. We're just not either working on a side hustle and you're also going to your main job. You have the job of mom, you have the job of spouse. You have so many hats that you're already wearing that when you think about everything that you have to do, everything that you set these goals that you have. You're like, okay, so now I need to do this, this, this, this. And when we prioritize these things and break them down into small chunks, we don't feel so overwhelmed by them. So I like to think about what am I going to do this week. And then I'm like, okay, well I can do this Monday, I can work on this Tuesday. M. And then literally I have one day of the week. Well, when I get home I do absolutely nothing. Nothing work related anyway. Um, that's family time. Yeah, that's family time right there. So I want you to think about how you would like to organize your day and how you would like to organize your week. And that is uh, also when you're thinking about your unique work style and how you like to work, you can incorporate that into setting those goals for your day or for your week, whichever one makes more sense to you. Now I'm going to also tell you tackling things in batches is also a great way to help you to stay organized as well. By grouping a similar task together, you can save time by focusing on one area and not having to switch your mental gears for different topics. Now, this also allows you to view projects, holistically and also evaluate the progress of related tasks simultaneously which helps manage more time more efficiently. And it's also easy to break down the large goals into actionable steps that will help you manage your schedule and ensure you stay on track. Now I do this in my podcast by batch recording in one day and then having a separate day to batch content ideas so that I can stay focused on one specific task before I have to switch gears into another task. 


Mikita S.   00:15:55   You know what Imean? Uh, just so you can stay focused and stay in the zone of your creativity I think. Try that and see how you feel about it. You will definitely feel like you're more on track. And then when you're in that specific creative zone, you can stay in that zone and continue to create versus trying to do 1000 things at once and constantly trying to switch and then feeling like you don't have any more ideas because you're mentally switching so much that you don't have time for your brain to catch up with all the change. So try the batching and see how it works for you. Now time management isn't always about scheduling time for every specific task. It can also be about setting and achieving measurable goals. Knowing the goals you want to achieve can help you allocate time more efficiently and get closer to those objectives faster. To manage time better, it helps to set expectations of your own performance. So breaking down larger tasks into achievable chunks and use realistic time frames when assigning them the way you can measure your progress against yourself is to hold yourself accountable for meeting those goals. You don't want to set goals and say that you're going to do six months' worth for work in two weeks or lose £60 in three months. So I want you to start thinking smart goals when you're thinking about setting measurable goals for yourself. Now, smart goals, we've heard these before, I know you have. And maybe you've even applied them or maybe you feel like, uh, I don't know, this seems too much. Trust me, it's not too much. We do it all the time, we just don't think about the process of it all the time. So smart goals means specific, being very specific on what goal that you're setting for yourself, and then measurable being able to measure the goal. If you're trying to get, um, 1000 downloads for your podcast, hey, and how would you measure or you're trying to reach different listeners or whatever it is, you get the meaning, but making sure that you can measure your success, how will you know you've reached your goal? And achievable can you achieve this goal? You know what I mean? Is this something you can truly do? M I can't say I'm going to be able to do 50 burpees, you know what I mean? Uh, first of all, I'm not conditioned to do 50 burpees. So setting that goal will be unachievable, uh, and is not realistic. And if I set a time frame around it and say timely, and I say, oh, I'm going to be able to do these in a week, it's going to take longer for

Mikita S.   00:19:01   my body to get acclimated to doing 50 burpees and say I wanted to do it in 1 minute, like unrealistic. And I wouldn't be able to reach that goal. And sometimes when we set these unrealistic goals and expectations that are unachievable, we start to doubt our own purpose and our own value. So I don't want you to get to the point where you're doubting yourself and what you can do, because you can do amazing things. But make sure when you're setting your goals that you use their smart goals, that you set specific measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely goals and m, then hold yourself accountable. Now, trust me, I know that finding easy ways to manage your time can seem overwhelming. And when you feel overwhelmed, it's easy to be more distracted. So remember to take breaks, go for a walk, do some stretches. Stretching is a great way to just decompress and hit reset and listen to some relaxing music or relaxing sounds. That is also a great way to hit that reset and that reset button so you can start feeling more refreshed, more like yourself. Working straight through constantly all the time is only going to make you feel burnt out and you don't want to get to the point of burnout. That's why time management is so effective because when we are going nonstop, we get so stressed. And sometimes we don't even recognize or see the stress. It shows up in different ways. It shows up as us being tired all the time, overeating, you know, small little things add up until finally, we're like, I'm burnt out. I'm done. I can't do this anymore. I don't want to see you there. I don't want you to even get there. Okay? So let's start implementing some of these things now so that you don't get the burnout, so you don't get the overwhelm, you don't get the stress. Now, rewarding yourself once you reach your goal is incredible. So reaching a goal is an amazing accomplishment. And you should reward yourself for all your hard work. You can make it happen with these easy tips to manage your time. Taking the initiative to get organized is already an awesome reward in itself. Still, sometimes a reward like a piece of chocolate cake and afternoon off from chores or fun outing with some friends can help keep you motivated and give you something to look forward to. So celebrate your success in whatever way that brings you joy. Now, remember time management. Remember, time management skills are essential because you know how valuable your time is and you don't want to waste it. So I want

Mikita S.   00:22:15   you to choose one goal you will set for yourself to start honoring your time today. And please keep me posted on how well it goes, okay? Now, if you need more tips on managing your time and you want to know about some systems that will help keep you organized, click on the link in the show notes for your free guide. With this guide and a little practice, you will be an expert at time management in no time. All right, you guys, that is all the tea that I have to spill today. But don't forget to download your free guide and also go to Instagram. Follow me. I cannot wait to connect and hear your success stories. Don't forget to join me each and every Tuesday. Until next time. Namaste.