Life in Simple: Setting Goals & Finishing Tasks

Starting a project is easy, but finishing tasks you started isn’t always so simple. Setting goals, starting projects and finishing tasks is this weeks topic.

So you have a project in mind you want to start, build a planter, paint a room or sew a curtain. You must first have the intention before setting goals. How do you begin and how do you get from point A to point B? How do you get to finishing tasks?

Goal Setting

Much of my goal setting starts with brainstorming or dreaming. Back in the day that might be from watching my weekly program of Lynette Jennings or Christopher Lowell. Life before HGTV and Pinterest, inspiration was limited. Maybe I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

For the modern world, there is an abundance of resources available at your fingertips. Google, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and many more. You may even find it’s a tad overwhelming with so many great ideas, how do you settle on just one?

In the days before the internet, you’d cut up old magazines and make a dream board. Now all you do is start a board on Pinterest or picture file on your computer and save your ideas there. But with so many choices you can get a bit sidetracked.

What I suggest doing is if you don’t already have a Pinterest account is to start one and learn what you like. Rather than grouping everything into one general board. Let’s say Bathrooms, try breaking it down by style. Modern, Contemporary, Mid-Century, Minimalism, Rustic, Bohemian, French Country, etc. Learn the styles and what elements you like best.

Look Who’s Styling Now

What’s your style? Mine has evolved over the years and it’s pretty much come down to can I afford it? And does it look nice? I like simple Victorian elegance with a touch of modern, bohemian and farmhouse. I love the idea of authentic permanent Victorian elements, such as woodwork, glass, fixtures, tile, and lighting. When it comes to design I definitely lean more towards modern & bohemian. But I want to keep that down to earth farmhouse vibe going.

It’s a balancing act. I want Victorian but I also don’t want to overdo it. Our home was definitely a working farmhouse and though it says built in 1900. I suspect it’s more likely from 1870 if not earlier. I will have to do another post once I have more information on that theory.

For my “Dream Boards,” I break things down by room, style, and elements. For example, if I was doing a board for my master bathroom I would have only things that fit the style and elements of the room. Whereas a guest bathroom, powder room or children’s bath would be completely separate.

Dedication is the Bridge between Goals and Success!

Once you have an idea of your style now you have to decide what your goals are going to be. Finish a home restoration, plant a garden, learn to sew, cook or can, cut down on waste in your home, or maybe lose weight, start a family or rescue some animals. Whatever your goal is you need to write it down. This is the end picture you have in mind, the finish line GOAL!

Now that you’ve decided on the goal you must set a timeline in which you wish to complete this. I find breaking it down by task is helpful. Small tasks are easier to tackle than trying to do the whole thing all at once. Take painting a room, I made the mistake of setting my goal to paint all the interior walls of the house. Rather than breaking it down to smaller manageable tasks I tackled the entire house rather than doing it room by room.

Always Be Prepared

Same goes for say weight loss. You have to learn what you like and don’t like. You might find dieting is easier than exercise or vice versa. I will do another post on this in the future as well, as I am more in talking about home tasks in this post. But starting is one step, but before you start it’s best to have a game plan.

We will continue to use the analogy of bathrooms in this post. So you have your inspiration, the bathroom, and now you have a goal, paint the bathroom. So what is your timeline? You figure you can have that done as a weekend project. So we’ll say two to three days. Now you will need to make a list of all the supplies you will need to complete this project. Budget is an entirely different topic but make sure you have the funds to cover the cost of supplies.

Nothing will derail you faster or discourage you more completely than if you don’t have all the tools you need to finish your task. Say you’re sweeping your floors only to discover you don’t have a dustpan? How frustrating would that be? Now imagine you get the room set up for painting, paint, paint rollers, tape, drop cloth only to discover you forgot to get a pan for your paint and paint rollers. Frustrating right?

Stick It Out

It can get discouraging when snags happen. You run out of a product. You don’t have the right tool. Now you have to research another step or go to the hardware store one more time. I get it, I’ve been there, despite all the planning, researching, prepping and making sure you have everything covered. Something can and will go wrong.

The true test is sticking it out. You’ve committed to this project and you have to see it through. You can’t live without electric, heating or running water. No matter how frustrated you are you have to finish the task. And once you do you will feel such a degree of satisfaction and pride you’ll be excited to tackle the next item on your ever-growing list.

Sometimes the tasks won’t be pretty. You might have to install a dishwasher, a microwave will need replacing the refrigerator goes out. Your furnace might decide to just die two months after you buy your dream home right before winter kicks in. Yes, this happened to us.

Follow Through To The End

I never realized how many tasks we’ve done and finished until I look back at my pictures. So a side note is to take pictures, before, during and after. These will be the driving force and motivation you will need to help you get through your futures tasks.

When our furnace went out only two months into our new home ownership bliss. We’d luckily prepared for this in advance. We just didn’t think we’d need it so soon. We also had a really hard time getting contractors to come out and give us bids on work.

We went through and looked at every task we needed doing and wrote a list of things we knew we could not do and what we could do. Furnace, Basement Supports, Insulation, and Electrical wiring were not on our list of skill sets. Mind you we don’t have much of any construction or home maintenance skills.

Finishing Tasks

Much of what we decided to do was heavily and overly research as we’ve both never done anything like this. Years of renting had made it hard for us to drill holes in walls, paint any color other than white and any kind of home maintenance was just a call away to the landlord.

But now we were the landlords and we quickly realized we had no one to call and had to do something on our own. So our first home project was installing a dishwasher. Then we put up our “temporary” backsplash. Installed an over the range microwave/vent hood. And a pretty clever spice rack using two picture frame ledges.

After feeling quite spry and proud of our work we endeavored to take on more and bigger projects. I stripped paint off of stairs, sanded, repainted and then installed a runner. We painted nearly every wall in the house. Hung curtain rods for the first time. And soon we will be doing one of our first renovation projects. Here’s a hint.

No Rest For The Wicked

Seem like even when you finish one task another one takes its place. This is a good place to end. As now that I finish this task of writing this article I am now finishing the task of putting in a small veggie garden. Which I have talked about in a previous post here.

In my gardening article, the garden I plan is my long term garden, my end GOAL. As I stated before having a game plan and writing down your GOALS are key. You have to accept you can’t have all the things all at once. Patience and perseverance are learned behaviors. Once you master them you will be less likely to get discouraged or give up when tasks become hard.

I hope this article has been helpful and motivating for you and you will feel encouraged to start dreaming, setting goals, starting projects and finishing tasks. I promise you it’s worth it and that you can do it.