A few weeks ago I gave you the ten steps that you needed to follow in order to get your WIPs under control.  One of those steps was to set yourself some mini goals to get them done.

I was looking at my own WIPs on the weekend and there was one sitting there that I want to finish, but I have no reason to finish it.  This spurred me into thinking that I needed to set myself a goal to get it completed or else I know it is just going to sit there bugging me because it isn’t being touched!

I thought that I would use this example to help you to set yourself some mini-goals for your projects too.  The project I’m talking about is my latest Forever Eileen blanket.  This one is being made for me, mostly because I didn’t keep the original and I wanted a version for me to keep.  I have no deadline for completing it, I just want to do it, so it keeps getting put onto the back burner of active projects.  You too might have a project like this – one that you kept in your active list but have no real reason to finish it.

When setting yourself mini-goals, the very first thing you need to do is set yourself a main goal.  For my project, as it might be for most of your projects, the main goal is completing it, and ideally completing it sometime soon!  You might already have a date to complete it by – if it’s a gift or a customer order, then the date is pretty much set in stone.  For my project I have no date, so I am going to set my own date so that I have an end point to work towards and this is my main goal.  So what date am I picking?  I’d like to say the end of September, but realistically, I suspect that the end of December is more achievable.  I’m going to aim for the end of September though, as I know that I can readjust my goal if I need to.  Grannie passed in September, so it has more meaning to me complete this blanket in September as I know I will be thinking of her more than usual.

Once your main goal is set, you then need to break the goal into some mini-goals, or milestones that you want to achieve along the way.  This will end up being different for each project, but all can be set using the same method and by setting them it makes the main goal become more achievable.  To set your mini-goals you need to consider the project and what needs to be done to get it completed.  You most likely have a certain number of squares, rounds or rows to complete and these are easy to set your mini-goals against.  Once they’re done you might then have joining and/or a border to do, and they can also be used to create mini-goals.

So for my Forever Eileen project, I have a large number of rows to do and then a border.  I’m currently on row 59 of 198 rows!  This gives me a base line to work with.  In order to get the blanket finished by the end of September I need to work towards the middle of the month to getting the rows completed.  So I have 140 rows to do to finish the body of this blanket and there is roughly 5 weeks until the middle of September.  Doing the maths (140 divided by 5), it means that I have 28 rows to complete each week.  To make it more manageable, I need to make it even simpler and break that down into the number of rows per day, which is going to be 4 rows a day.

Now 4 rows a day is a lot more manageable, and it gives me something to work towards more often.  But I also know that if I miss a row or two each day, that I can still aim to make sure that I finish the 28 rows needed at the end of the week.  That also then leaves me with 2 weeks to get the border finished in and I can then set mini-goals to getting that done too.

Before I commit to the main goal though, I need to consider if this is realistic and achievable.  If it was my only project, then this really is realistic and achievable for me.  It’s not my only project though, so I have some doubt as to being able to get it done.  Time is the biggest factor for me to consider.  I am going to need to look at roughly an hour a day to getting the 4 rows done.  I crochet for longer than that most days, but I spend that time on projects that I have a more pressing need to complete.  I’m going to commit to it though as I know I waste more time than I need to with distractions in the evening.

There are a couple more things that you need to do to ensure that you reach the goals that you set.

The first – make yourself accountable!  I’ve done that with this project by putting my intentions here on this post.  I will also commit to posting my progress to my facebook and instagram stories each time I complete my rows for the day (just like I’ve been doing with my daily squares).  You will need to find a way to make yourself accountable too.  The first step is to tell someone!

The last step – is to plan a way to reward yourself!  You will get a “feel good feeling” each time you complete a mini-goal and that might be enough for you, as I know it is for me, but it helps if you have a bigger reward to think about.  Once I finish this project, I am going to reward myself with starting a new project!  I’ve been holding off on some because I know that I have this one on my active list.  I purchased some yarn ages ago to make a throw for our bed, so I would like to start that one when this one get’s finished.

So what project do you have that you need to set yourself a goal for?  If you need someone to keep you accountable, consider me!  If you need help breaking it down into smaller goals, I’m happy to help with that too

If my project really does end up being too hard to complete by the end of September, then I will adjust my daily and weekly goals to make sure it happens by the end of the year.  There is no point making it hard for myself for no real reason! I’ll keep you posted though…

Seona xx