Smarter-Faster-Better - Part 1 of 2...

Stick to your goals and become a more productive person. 

We all know people who stick to a schedule, no matter what. Despite illness or injury, they make sure to meet their goals or deadlines.

Sure, most of us aren’t like this. We may have wonderful ideas but never find the time to realize them. Or if we do pursue a particular goal, we easily get sidetracked, time and again.

The good news is that you can learn how to stick with a plan, even if the world keeps throwing distractions your way. These article will give you helpful and easy methods to stay on track and realize your most lofty goals – smarter, faster and better.

In these article, you’ll find out

? how to become a marathon runner even if you’ve never run a mile;

? why two researchers read 17.9 million papers in a quest to understand creativity; and

? why storytelling can help you reach your goals.

Stay motivated by letting yourself make choices and reminding yourself of long-term goals.

Have you ever been excited to start a new project, only to have that excitement fade over time? This is a common problem. Let’s look at some tips for keeping your spirits high as you stay on track.

You can maintain motivation by making choices to benefit yourself, your team or your project. Researchers at Columbia University found that people feel more motivated when they have greater control over a situation. Basically, people get excited when they get to make choices! A sense of control and responsibility can also help you recover from any setbacks during the process.

In fact, neuro-psychologist Mauricio Delgado at Columbia found that one of the brain’s “motivation centers” lights up whenever a person has an opportunity to make a choice – even something as simple as selecting a colored key in a video game.

So make this phenomenon work for you! If you’re stuck with a task, let yourself make a decision. Even mundane choices can help to pick you back up. If you have 40 emails to read, for instance, just pick four and look at the rest later.

Making choices isn’t always enough to give you a boost, however. You also need to remind yourself how your choices contribute to the project and your overarching goals.

Remembering the big picture is another important element in staying motivated. Even if a task doesn’t feel rewarding on its own, you’ll feel good when you know it plays a part in something more important.

Let’s say you want to develop a drone. You start reading an essay about drone building, but it’s terribly dry, and your attention starts to wane. You’d rather stop and do anything else to keep from falling asleep!

What do you do in this situation? How do you get yourself back on track to focus on your goal?

Consider this simple trick. At the top of the essay, write in bold letters: ”Reading this will help me make the drone.” In short, remind yourself of what you want. When you do this, the essay that will bring you one step closer to your goal won’t seem so boring anymore.

Set an ambitious goal then break it down into smaller, easily achievable parts.

Now that we’ve reviewed the power of choice, let’s go over some tips for bringing your ideas to life.

Start with stretch goals, or your biggest ambitions. Don’t be afraid to dream! Studies have shown that people are more creative when they reach for higher, bigger goals.

A 1997 study revealed that after Motorola had incorporated stretch goals into its management training, engineers were able to develop new products in a tenth of the time it took previously.

This same philosophy can be applied to personal goals, such as an obese person wanting to lose a lot of weight. Even if the ultimate goal of shedding 100 pounds isn’t realized, aiming high can push a person to still achieve impressive results.

Stretch goals by definition are goals that are out of reach, so sometimes they can feel overwhelming. If your goal seems too much, that’s where a SMART goal can come in handy.

SMART goals break up your stretch goal into more manageable parts. They are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound.

Let’s say your stretch goal is to run a marathon. First, you’ll want to break this goal into smaller, more specific steps, such as “be able run six miles without stopping.”

Then figure out how to measure yourself: “I’ll run six laps on my local track.”

Next, ask yourself if your goal is achievable. If you combine running with biweekly visits to the gym, it just might be. Remember to be realistic, too. You might tell yourself, “This will be tough and take time, but I can do it!”

Finally, figure out the most effective way to schedule how long you’ll need to reach your goal. Maybe you’ll start running two miles the first week and aim to add a mile each week after that.

Another good thing about SMART goals is you get an extra motivation boost each time you complete a stage. The more progress you make, the more excited you’ll be to keep going!

Stay focused on your goals by anticipating any potential distractions.

Life is unpredictable. Even if you outline your stretch and SMART goals, unexpected events always pop up and draw your attention away.

So how do you stay focused? One good way is to create mental models: positive stories that prevent distraction and keep you excited about the future.

Mental models prepare you for upcoming projects or conversations. Let’s say you have a stressful week ahead. Get yourself through it by imagining how you’ll conquer, step by step, each challenge.

Imagine you’re a journalist and have to write an article for a travel magazine on three top SLR cameras. First off, you might make a list of ten cameras, to later narrow down.

Be sure to consider potential distractions, like a full email inbox. Perhaps you’ll turn on your email blocking software before lunch, to give yourself some uninterrupted thinking time.

Once you’ve picked your top five cameras from your list, imagine yourself experimenting with them. Then imagine yourself choosing the best three, and writing out the results of your survey.

Now you’ve envisioned the whole article, from start to finish, so you can write it in a snap. In sum, once you figure out how you want your week to go, you start working toward it!

Granted, even the best plans can be interrupted, so consider how you’ll handle these ahead of time. Think about possible distractions and how likely each is during a work day.

Maybe your partner will invite you out to lunch, for example. How could you spend that time in a way that doesn’t disrupt your entire day? You might want to go to a self-service restaurant near work, or pack a lunch together in advance. This way your meal will take 45 minutes instead of two hours.

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