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Hi tenderhearts.

This blog post was motivated by a friend who reached out to tell me that she was feeling overwhelmed with goal setting right now (“now” meaning working from home due to Covid-19). I thought it might be helpful if I compiled a list of tools that are primed to help us set actionable and achievable goals, to focus, to track our progress, and to take intentional breaks.

I’ll highlight a few of my very faves at the top and then link to a bunch of blog posts that will teach you how to set goals, manage your tech use use, and remain congnizant of workaholic tendencies. Each blog title is hyperlinked to open the blog post in a new window. You can also access posts by theme on my website at the top of this page, or you can see all posts listed by title and date on this page.

My fave three tools for goal setting when you find yourself at home with lots of time and seemingly endless tasks to accomplish:

• The Goldilocks Approach to Productivity: The goal here is to predetermine a to-do task and to identify what would be a realistic result of your labor in that work session.
• Monotasking vs. Task Switching: Multitasking is not the way to go right now, as you’ve probably noticed. When you monotask, you choose a particular task and focus your attention on only that task. See my post below on Batchotasking for an upgraded version of this.
• Mindful Production: To produce mindfully, you should schedule particular tasks for times of the day or week, and you should schedule in set time limits for focused work sessions (i.e., 25 minutes or 90 minutes).

Blog posts with more practical tools for goal setting:

• Priority Setting
• One-inch Picture Frame
• How to Use Lists to Tackle a Big Project
• Batchotasking
• Three Mindful Productivity How-Tos
• Must-do Method
• Achieve Your Dreams Brick By Brick
• Battle Work Doldrums with Pomodoro
• Flow State: When Work is a Joy
• Why You Should Shift from To-do to Ta-da

If you’re struggling to focus because of the allures of tech, check out these posts:

• Social Media with Intention and Awareness
• How to Use the Pomodoro Method to Set Boundaries Around your Tech Use
• Mindful Consumption
• Intentional Tech Use

Just because you potentially have more time available to work (no commuting, for example) doesn’t mean you should work ALL the time. Here are some blog posts about workaholism, invisible labor, and taking breaks:

• Workaholic Tendencies
• The Recovering Workaholic’s Guide to Taking Breaks
• What is Work and Why it Matters
• Please Start Valuing Your Behind the Scenes Labor
• The Magic of Routine, Rhythm, & Ritual
• Make a Rest and Recharge Toolkit
• Give Yourself Permission to Rest
• In Praise of Blank Space
• Work is Work Even If You Love It

 This blog is not affiliated with, associated with, or endorsed by the Pomodoro Technique® or Francesco Cirillo.

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