How Your Values Can Make You More Productive

As someone who is crazy about all things productivity, I often wonder what separates the people who complete their goals from those who don’t. Or why we complete certain goals but procrastinate endlessly on others.

Motivation is something we typically have to create rather than intrinsically feel. But there are some goals that we just feel called to accomplish and that come naturally to us. That’s because these goals are directly tied to a value we hold in high regard.

The key to setting goals that you will actually accomplish is identifying your values, and only setting goals that stem from them. Here’s how you can do this:

Determining Your Value-Based Goals:

1. Make a list of values that you consider to be the most important to you.

2. Make a list of what big picture goals came to mind based on these values. If your values were connection, community, love, etc. you may have goals around building new relationships. If your goals were things like security, stability, flexibility, etc. your big picture goal might be financial independence.

3. Break your big picture goals into annual, quarterly, monthly, and/or weekly goals. For example, if your big picture goal was to build new relationships, you could have an annual goal of gaining 12 new close friends. By the end of each quarter you would need to have made 3 new friends. You could make it a monthly goal to do happy hour with coworkers or a weekly goal to go to the same coffee shop every Saturday morning. If your big picture goal is financial independence, maybe your goal for the year is to start a business. You would then determine how far along in the process you would need to be at each quarter of the year. From there you could create more of a weekly or monthly task list that would keep you on target to reach those quarterly goals on time.

If you are working towards a goal but can’t articulate why you want to accomplish it, then you will never follow through. When your goals stem from a value that deeply motivates you at your core, you will be reminded each day, week, or month of what you are working towards and why you’re doing it.

✪ My action item for you this week is to determine which values are a driving force in your life. Take a look at your current goals and ask yourself whether they align with those values. If they do, make sure you’re staying on track by listing out your annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly goals. And if they don’t, start thinking about what is really important to you and what changes you can make to start living according to those values.