If you are like many entrepreneurs, this time of year you will have created goals to help lead you through the next 6 to 12 months. If you find that you often do not meet your goals it may be that you have not set your intentions with time. Here are 3 tips to help you meet your goals using time.

Define the timeline

When will the goal be accomplished? Like all goals, your intentions need to be time-bound. Make sure you have defined an exact date your goal will be complete and the details of that goal. To be sure you have these specifics down try this:

• Tell a friend or colleague you have a goal.
• Tell them when the goal will be complete.
• Describe to them the details of that completed goal so they have a mental image of what to expect.

For example –  maybe you want to create a new product that you can sell online or in your store. Tell them what the product looks like, how much you expect to sell it for, who will want to purchase it, etc.

When you do this your friend should be able to come back to you on the date of your deadline and ask you, “I would love to see your new product.” Making the object of your goal real enough for someone else to envision it will help solidify its outcome in your mind.

Define the steps

You will most likely have several things that must be accomplished to meet your primary goal. These steps may be secondary goals and like the primary goal you need to define what they are and their deadlines. For large secondary goals you may need to create tertiary goals. Do not go beyond the third level of goals or else you will be spending too much time on the details and not enough on the action.

You can break down goals into their steps as you are taking action on them. Go back to the section above (Define the timeline) to create achievable deadlines and actions for each secondary and tertiary goal.

Create the space

You need to book the time to do the work. If you have a ‘to-do’ list you may put priorities on the items, but this is not enough. You may go through a day and say, “I should have worked on that item today, why did I not have time?” If you had set out 45 minutes to work exclusively on that task and put a reminder in your agenda, then when that time comes you will have given yourself permission to block out everything else to concentrate on what you have to get done.

Don’t make the time too long, no more than 90 minutes. You want a singularly focused time with a start and an end. If you know it will take longer than 90 minutes then book more than one 90 minute time-block over the day or several days. Just remember to take a break or shift your focus onto another task in-between.

Bonus – Evaluate

Don’t forget to continually evaluate what you are doing and why you are doing it. It may be that you need to adjust your timeline to allow another primary goal to take precedence. Don’t lock your action into a non-flexible timeline. Life happens and you must be able and willing to make changes when they need to be changed, otherwise you will fail again and defeat your self-confidence to create your future.