Episode #072 Setting SMART Goals and Maintaining Your Focus With Maia Coghlan and Amy Hooke

How to achieve Bookkeeper performance goals

This week we are officially introducing you to Maia, Amy's Wing-Woman. Find out how she got this title, and then pick up some great productivity tips as Maia talks about her superpower: planning and organising.

In this episode you'll learn how to set SMART goals that are realistic and achievable, how to narrow down your goals so you won't burn out trying to do too many things, and how to mentally set aside all that extra stuff that is getting in your way.

Then you will achieve all your bookkeeper performance goals and your bookkeeping business will flourish as a result.

Key takeaway: “Make SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. And don't forget your Schedule!”

Podcast Info

Episode: #072

Series: General

Host: Amy Hooke

Guest speaker: Maia Coghlan

Topic: SMART bookkeeper performance goals to get your bookkeeping business into success!

Useful links

Blog Post from January about setting goals not resolutions
https://thesavvybookkeeper.com.au/setting-goals-in-2020/
Blog post partner to this podcast Set the 5 SMART Goals for Bookkeepers
Book your Free Initial Consult with Maia https://thesavvybookkeeper.com.au/freeconsult
If you're interested in mentoring with Maia to help with your goals or mapping out your processes contact
If you want to join us on FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/thesavvybookkeeper/

Read transcript

Bookkeeper Performance Goals for success!

Table of Contents

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

goal, run, achieve, thought, savvy, Maia, read, due date, bit, people, web developer, achievable, smart goals, set, bookkeeper, exercise, website, week, list, books

Amy Hooke 00:01

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining me today. I'm here with Maia. And again, I should say it's Amy, because I have not been here for every episode. So it is Amy Hooke here. And I still do podcasts. And today I'm here with Maia, who you all probably know by now, because Maia has been doing some of the podcasts on the days that I'm not podcasting. And she's been doing a couple of episodes. She did one with William. She's done with Angie, or maybe a couple with Angie. So yeah, so today, I'm going to be interviewing Maia. So thanks for joining me, Maia.

Maia Coghlan 00:37

Yeah. Good to be here again.

Maia Coghlan 00:41

So I'm only being introduced after. That's right.

Amy Hooke 00:46

Yeah, yeah, exactly. That that was sort of the plan just so you guys can have like a formal introduction to Maia. Rather than, you know, these random people showing up and going “surprise, it's not Amy, today.” It's somebody else. So so some of you will already know Maia, and for those of you who don't, so Maia, yeah, you joined us in. Gosh, when was it early? Two

Maia Coghlan 01:09

very last year? Yeah. It's

Maia Coghlan 01:11

um, yeah, it's been a busy year

Maia Coghlan 01:15

or two is a year and a half for me. Yeah,

Amy Hooke 01:17

yep. Exactly. And so my you originally hired to be a web developer, because we obviously design websites for bookkeepers. So we said, we need a web developer and you came and joined the team. And before that, I'd been doing the Web Designs myself. And we tried here and there to have someone come in and assist some copywriters and some web developers, but it kind of hadn't worked out. And so that was really good. So you joined the team and you kind of jumped in and freed up a lot of my time with that. And then we discovered a little bit down the track that I think, I guess I think you'd been with us for about five months when I

Maia Coghlan 01:56

yeah, it was about this time last year. I think and you had, like, more work to do in other areas that that you couldn't work when getting done on time. I was getting and we had a lull in the websites. So you will like “Could you maybe do you think you might be able to do this other thing,” which was actually setting up PandaDocs? That's right. Now, I do that all the time.

Amy Hooke 02:21

It was the STP project. It was when we launched the STP project. We had all these people purchased the packages, and I was doing so many different tasks in the business that I was like, I need to actually deliver all of these packages to people. And it was actually I think, I didn't even ask you initially, you actually said to me, you said something to me, which was like, I think you just said to me, like, I can help if there's anything you need help with, like you were always very proactive in helping me.

Maia Coghlan 02:54

You need me to do anything else that's not website related.

Amy Hooke 02:57

Yeah, that's right. So you sort of didn't wait for me to go “ahh, could you help me with this?” You put your hand up, you said all like, “Do you need any help with anything?”

Maia Coghlan 03:05

You're like, “yes, please” and dump loads of work on you.

Amy Hooke 03:10

I was like, do you know how to PandaDoc?

Amy Hooke 03:13

all of a sudden this was in the whole world of Maia opened up, which was basically just like, it was sort of along the lines of, because obviously, we just, you know, I thought you were, you know, a web developer. And I didn't know I had a bit of a background in like writing, like, but more on the technical side of Yes. Like, not necessarily like creative writing, but more sort of the type of writing that you need in order to be able to make good templates for bookkeepers.

03:48

Technical and editing technical. Yeah.

Amy Hooke 03:50

Yeah, exactly. Um, yeah. So that's what I mean, that was really good timing. And, you know, the fact that you put your hand up and I was like, Oh, yeah, like it didn't occur to me, but then I sort of realized that you're because you're quite a productive person. And you're very good at learning new things and picking things up. I sort of can just give you things without even having to explain it. Like, you've got to explain it. You're like, you don't need to explain this to me.

Maia Coghlan 04:16

It's easy to just figure it out myself. Like when when you were like, Okay, I need all these PandaDoc templates set up. I'd never even heard of PandaDoc, I logged in, and I just, yeah, it took me quite a while to do the first couple of ones, but then I just picked it up pretty quick. And I was like, Okay, I can do this now.

Amy Hooke 04:32

That's right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so obviously, yeah. So then, yep. So you joined the team, and you started doing the PandaDocs. And yeah, like so basically, you've got a lot of technical knowledge, and you're very inquisitive, and you like to be able to get in there and sort of learn new things. And so

Maia Coghlan 04:53

I like details and I like structuring these Hey,

Maia Coghlan 04:56

Yes, that's true. But and so you've got to Make a great workforce that

Maia Coghlan 05:02

you are making great.

Amy Hooke 05:06

Yeah, I reckon you will I just start like I'm waiting into you've got some capacity and then we can train you in some bookkeeping skills. But you already do a little bit of our bookkeeping. So but yeah, it's sort of like, Yeah, you've kind of got that, that that brain for that technical detailed stuff. So which is really good. So obviously, yeah, I guess for our listeners, like Maia's working for Savvy and Off The Hook. And so we went through a little bit of a journey in terms of like figuring out your job title because once you started doing the PandaDoc's were like, “well, you're not a web developer anymore. So what do we call you? Like we didn't know what is this role?” Like it's

Maia Coghlan 05:45

So like, people ask me what what do you do and I'm like, you want me to list all the things? I've had three different job titles now at Savvy and they've none of them really encompass everything that covers everything.

Maia Coghlan 05:59

ended up automating them. That's right. One of the other things as well,

Amy Hooke 05:59

That's right. Right, that's right. Yeah. So we went with Project Coordinator because you weren't a manager as such. So we were like, okay, you're like coordinating all the client projects to make sure they get done. But you weren't just coordinating them. You were actually doing the work as well. Yeah. But we caught a thought, Okay. Client Project Coordinator makes it a bit broader sort of explains, in a nutshell, what you do. And then from there, it kind of I guess, as the more that you started doing work Off The Hook, then it kind of just made sense that your job title is practice manager, which is, which is your current title. However, you still do websites. I still do websites and PandaDocs

Maia Coghlan 06:43

that's right, but you really manage the whole like IT slash admin side of the business and the delivery of the client work. That's not bookkeeping or stuff that I literally have to do myself.

Maia Coghlan 06:57

Yeah, that's pretty much stuff. I do a lot things.

Amy Hooke 07:00

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I kind of made sense practice manager. It's like, well, if you work for a bookkeeping business and you were doing what you were doing, that's that that would make sense as a job title so much. So, everybody please meet Maia. She is now our practice manager and doing a fantastic job. So today, we obviously I'm interviewing her and so we're going to be talking a little bit about Maia's superpower, which is planning and organizing. I I remember, there was a day where I said like, you should, like organize stuff professionally because you are the most organized person I've ever met!

Maia Coghlan 07:38

Yeah, my brain just just thinks really systematically about things. So like, I don't have a particularly creative brain. I can't like think of a concept in like from nothing like, like some people are like, Oh, I'd like to do this or I think this would be a cool project. Do I kind of like, yeah, that's me.

Amy Hooke 08:02

That's why I needed you. That's why you're my wingwoman.

Maia Coghlan 08:05

Exactly. We're working well together, because you have these big ideas. And you're like, I want to do this thing. And I don't I need someone to come up with those ideas for me. Because I, my brain doesn't work that way. What my brain does is takes the idea that you have and goes, Okay, so to get there, we need to do this, and then this, and then this. And this might be a challenge. And this could be a problem. And we'll have to work around this thing. And then we do this and this and this. And this. Yeah. To get to the end goal. So I set up the steps.

Maia Coghlan 08:37

Yeah! And that, yeah, that's why it worked out so well. Because, yeah, obviously, I'm like, I see the end picture of what I think this thing should look like. So I'm like, Hey, what do you reckon about this? And then you're like, leave it with me.

Amy Hooke 08:51

Sometimes, like a week or two later, you'll come back and you've done this whole thing. And I'm like, Whoa, that's like, that's what I envisioned!!

Amy Hooke 08:58

So that's, that's the That worked really well. It's been amazing having you on the team. So, so now you'll understand why I refer to Maia as my wing woman because yeah, she's a half of my brain that I was missing. So that's really good. Yeah. Okay, cool. So obviously I asked you, how are you so organized? And then I had this like, wild idea that I would get you to help me to become more organized. And then we realized, like, the stuff that you said, you knew, like you just knew how to do things naturally. But you didn't know that you'd never thought about how to explain it to someone or show to someone else how to do it. You're like, I just do it. And I'm like, Well, what do you do? And we talked about lists. And then I'm like, how do you remember what you put the list and you're like, Oh, my gosh, like we're starting right at the beginning.

Maia Coghlan 09:50

Grade One?

Maia Coghlan 09:51

Grade One list writing.

Amy Hooke 09:55

Yeah, that's right. So cool. So obviously, you like figuring out steps and approaches making them work better. So today, I guess I'll hand over to you. And yeah, start to take those processes.

Maia Coghlan 10:10

Yeah. So I guess today what, what I was thinking would be the most useful thing for people to get out of it. I mean everyone, you should write lists. And when you write lists, you should look at them later. That's just I don't need to say that. You just should do that. I'm not looking at anybody.

How Goal Setting helps get results

Maia Coghlan 10:37

Yeah. Um, but so I thought that what might be a little bit more useful to talk about is goal setting, or prioritizing goals and making them actually achievable instead of right, because every one everyone has been like, I want to do this. And then No, it doesn't happen and then you're disappointed that you didn't get the thing that you wanted.

Amy Hooke 11:06

I know I'm meant to be interviewing you but I sort of feel like this is gonna be like it's gonna be like a counseling session for me I'm gonna sit here and absorb all of this wisdom!

Maia Coghlan 11:16

but I actually thought like that that would be a really good way to do this. Because I think you can be like my test dummy. Yeah.

Amy Hooke 11:26

Yeah, cool.

Maia Coghlan 11:28

So the main so the first thing is setting

Maia Coghlan 11:34

So the main so the first thing is setting… setting goals and SMART goals not just you know, vague goals but SMART goals and I'll explain what that is in just a second. I'm sorry if you can hear a dog barking.

Amy Hooke 11:50

We had a guy cut trimming the hedge across the road when we started this morning feels like oh no, all good

Maia Coghlan 11:57

So at the start of the year. This year (2020) I wrote a blog post for Savvy. But you can see on our website, I don't remember what it was called. But it was something about writing goals, not resolutions for starting the New Year. So resolution is like “I will exercise.” How, how do you know when you've achieved that? When… it's so vague, setting goals and setting SMART goals are what is going to help you actually achieve the things that you set out to do. So, SMART goal is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, relevant, and time bound. Yes. So then I will write this down for you in a blog post so you can read it. So basically, this specific, so there are clear and they have an end point inside so it's not exercise. It's I'm going, I want to learn to run five kilometers, I want to be able to run five kilometres, which is a good example for me because you're doing that, so yes, specific, not vague, they're measurable. So you need to be able to track your progress accurately. Again, you run five kilometers, you can see if your goal is to run five kilometers, you can say, Okay, today I can, I can run two kilometers, I need to get to five kilometers. So you can track your progress. It's Measurable, Attainable, it has to be within reach. You don't want to say by the end of the month, I want to be able to run a marathon. When the moment you struggle, like running 100 meters, that's not attainable. You need to start with something that's actually attainable. Reach that and then you can set a bigger goal like a next step goal. If you're, you can have a big picture goal.

Amy Hooke 13:56

Yeah, you could maybe you shouldn't mind like maybe One day I'd like to run a marathon but let's set the goal is something small.

Goal Setting needs to be practical and measurable

Maia Coghlan 14:04

Yeah, cuz you know what you might start running and decide that you don't like it or you might hurt your knee and then then you can't run a marathon and you're never gonna get to that point. You might not even want to actually start running and decide that you hate it. So, so you need; It's alright to have big picture goals in your mind. But don't start from zero and be looking at 1000. Stop, go for 50 first make it achievable. attainable.

Amy Hooke 14:35

That's right. Yeah. That's really good. Because I think like in the past, I probably would have gone like my goal is to start running or get fit, or

Maia Coghlan 14:46

Yes, get fit is so vague.

Amy Hooke 14:49

Yeah, that's right. It's like

Maia Coghlan 14:50

how do you know when you've achieved it? That's a really big thing. Like, you need to know. You need to be able to say I have achieved this goal. Because otherwise, it's just this ongoing thing and struggle. And you can lose motivation because you can't achieve that!

Amy Hooke 15:05

I've got a really good example. So I had this moment where I found myself like I would talk to William about setting up the business. So I'd talk about how I'm setting up the business. And I actually had this moment where I'm like, well, I've been saying this for years that I'm setting up the business, what does the business look like when it's set up? And then actually going and like making I did it like a massive brainstorm on my iPad, like, well, when it's what does it look like when it's done? And then from there kind of going, Okay, well, this is what I think it's going to look like when it's done, alright well which bits do I need to kind of focus on finishing? Yes, yeah.

Performance goals for setting up a business

Maia Coghlan 15:46

Yeah. So that's a really great example of setting up a business is a big picture goal. And it can be broken into many many many small SMART goals. … … Each small SMART goal will help you achieve the big picture goal. But the big picture goal is to be to be like your main focus because there's so many different things you can work. Yes, yeah. So we got Specific, Measurable attainable has to be relevant. So either something that benefits you directly benefits your work directly, or that's part of a bigger picture goal.

Amy Hooke 16:30

Yes, so. Like, okay, I know this, this might not be it, but you can correct me because obviously you know more about this stuff. But what about like, for example, I like reading books, and I will buy and download a lot of audiobooks or Kindle books. I just really like books. But I started to realize that some of the books I read, not the all books have to be relevant, but a lot of the books I was reading and not relevant to any of my goals and because I read non nonfiction books, so obviously, but fiction doesn't matter – it's entertainment

Maia Coghlan 17:01

I only read fiction books most of the time, and none of them are relevant to my goal. Well, that's right. Whereas our belief, I'm reading all these things to learn new things, but some of them weren't. I'm learning new things that not really, like I realized, like, okay, out of all of these, what if I pick one? You know, I can still listen to the other ones. But I've picked this one book. So obviously, one of my vague big goals was to, like, lose some weight and just get a bit more healthy. And that was my like, vague thing, which ended up turning into learning to run five K's which I've now achieved and now I'm aiming to run five K's like, I think 10% faster. Yeah. So that's my next goal. But so part of that I realized, okay, what if I read what if I start reading things that are relevant to that goal, instead of just always like reading lots of different random things and you know, like, 20 different books on the go, one So I was like, Okay, I'm gonna read this book that I want to read for ages about sleep. Because part of the goal of becoming fitter or healthier means I need to be sleeping properly. So now what I do is in whenever I'm like normally just entertaining myself by switching between all these different books, sometimes more than one in one night, I'm just like, this is the book I'm reading at the moment. I'm finishing this, I'm going to learn how to actually get some proper restful sleep and actually move myself a step towards the goal.

Maia Coghlan 18:32

Yeah. And that, like, that's relevant to your life, even if it isn't part of one of your goals. Um, I find so like, Yeah, I love reading as well. I'm a huge reader, mostly fiction, um, but I do sometimes read nonfiction books, or I'll just have one that I'm sort of reading occasionally. And if I have a nonfiction book, it's usually to do with something that I'm trying to learn. But then the fiction books I have all the stuff that's not relevant. I, like that's still good because you need to switch off. Okay, that's how I switch off.

19:18

That's the purpose, but it's not. Yeah, that's right. It's not necessarily connected to a purpose.

Maia Coghlan 19:23

The line comes in sometimes if, like, I sit down to read, and I'm like, I'm just gonna read a couple of pages and two hours later, I'm still there with my face in my book. That's me. That's too much reading. I think I should have spent that time doing something a bit more productive. Oh my god, I'm sorry. I just can't pull myself away. Yeah. But if you have a little bit more self strength, then what I do sometimes and most of the time it's okay, then, then it's important to have you switch off time. Some people Watch cat videos on YouTube. I'm not really into that. I like to read. That's how I switch. I don't watch much TV. Yeah, I read, that's my switch off. And it's still still good, even though it's not every part of your day has to be achieving your goals – you need your relaxed time.

Amy Hooke 19:26

Yeah, I like it. I like it that's really good.

Performance Goals help to stay motivated and focused

Maia Coghlan 20:25

So relevant to your goals needs to be relevant to something and because that will help you stay motivated and focused, if you know that if I achieve this, and it's going to help me achieve this. Yes. And then the last one is time bound, which again, helps you to like, quantify it and track it. Which means you set; either it might be something that has a due date already, or you set a due date for it. So I want to be able to do this by this time. Yeah. Um, and that yeah, that will again help you to stay focused and keep you on track.

Amy Hooke 21:11

And then I know this is gonna sound like such a dumb question, but how do you unless there's like an external thing making a due date happened? How do you decide on a due date?

How to decide on a Due Date

Maia Coghlan 21:22

I'm so glad you asked that question. Because that was Yeah, so I did write down some notes before and that was one of the things I talk about this, um, you need a schedule. So that's so those four things. Those five things if you look up SMART goals, that's what it will tell you but I think it also needs a sixth thing, which is a schedule to help you. So we call it like SMARTS because you know, if you Say, I'm sorry, what am I saying? You distracted me! Yeah,

Maia Coghlan 22:13

we're going back to the running because it that's just I mean, I would be better to have a business goal. But this is a really easy one to talk about. Um, so your goal is you want to run five kilometers in less than 45 minutes. And so, you know, and you want to achieve it by a certain time you need to put an end date on it, at the moment. So your first step would be how long or how far? What can you run now is your starting point. How do you figure out how to reach that goal?

22:50

right what's your

22:50

what do I get?

22:52

I can do it in 37 minutes. 35 K's in 37 minutes. Okay,

22:57

so let's go

Performance Goals need to be realistic

Maia Coghlan 22:59

2820 minutes It's okay, five K's and turn it into a call, and you need to put a timer on it. So, um, you've already been working towards. So there's different ways you can do it. You've already been working towards this goal. So you kind of can see the sort of progress that you've had already. So that might help you estimate. Yeah. Yeah. So you're you're already doing it. So then you can probably estimate how long it will take you based on the last 10, 10 minutes that you've shaved off your time, you might be able to judge how long it take you. So then if you can, Guess how long it should take you, you also need to think about what you need, how much time you actually need to put towards it, to be able to get there by that time. So if you're starting from scratch and you've never run before, don't say “I'm going to Run every single day. So that I can run a marathon by the end of the month.” That's it's not going to happen. I'm sorry. It's not realistic. So what you should do is start with a, like a micro goal or like a mini goal. You got it. You start by running once a week. Yeah. If you can run once a week, for a whole month, you've achieved a goal. Yeah, I like it. And if you can do that, you can increase or you might get to week two and think I want to run a second time this week. Excellent. Great points. You get points for that.

Gold points, I don't know what they go towards, but you get points. Um, yeah, so you need it something's. So there's a schedule and there's a due date. Sometimes there'll be the due date already. And so you need to work out the schedule. You need to think about what needs to be done to get it finished, and then work out how much time you need to allocate each week, each day, depending on what it is to be able to achieve the goal by the due date. You might not get it by the due date, you might get it earlier than the due date, but you need to have some kind of plan. The other way to do it, if you don't have a set due date already, somebody else, something else saying you need to do it by this time is to work out your schedule that you want, and then set the due date according to that. Yeah, so this, sometimes one comes first. Sometimes the other comes first. But you can't achieve it unless you know how much time you need to allocate to it.

Amy Hooke 25:47

Yeah, that's right. And with certain things you're just not going to know. So you might need to ask someone else who's already done it or Google and try and find some information about what's realistic or is there an app for it?

Maia Coghlan 26:01

And also like having said all of this,

Maia Coghlan 26:03

it's not set in stone. Not like you write down this goal, you're going to achieve it by this date. And if you don't, you're a failure like, no. If you start and you realize that your estimate of when you were going to achieve it was wrong: Just change the due date. Yeah.

Amy Hooke 26:26

But then if you change the due date a lot of times,

Maia Coghlan 26:29

yes, but don't do that. Don't do that. You need to try something else. Yeah, if Yeah, that's a good point. If you

Maia Coghlan 26:39

maybe it's not realistic enough, or, yeah, maybe you need to maybe it's not the due date that needs to be changed. Maybe it's the end point of the goal itself, like maybe five k's is just not realistic. Yeah. So you need to make it four or 3 or something. So you need to scale back a bit.

Amy Hooke 27:02

That's good. Well, I like I mean, I did the Coach to five K app. Yeah. And I was like, okay, they give you a schedule, they give you an eight week schedule. But I decided I'm going to try and do it in the eight weeks, which means running three times a week, but I'm not gonna beat myself up if I can't. But then I know, I know that it's kind of well known program. So that makes me think well, if it's if, if that's a well known program, and it's called Coach to five K, so obviously, it means couch potato, to being able to run five K's. So I know technically what it is, is like someone who's completely lazy and not running, becoming a runner. So I know they got they're probably going off, like maybe a worst case scenario as well. So I'm like, Okay, I think Yeah, for me, that's achievable. But obviously that was given to me, like quite prescriptive, whereas other things, you're gonna have to figure it. Oh, yeah.

Maia Coghlan 27:52

Yeah, you can be flexible. Yep. as well. But yeah, if you find yourself changing your goal a lot or changing the due date or not not achieving it by the time that you wanted you need to look at at the goal itself as a whole and think about maybe scaling it back a bit making it a bit smaller a bit more attainable go back to those 5 points.

Maia Coghlan 28:18

Maybe getting in the way Like for example, you know, let's say the plan was run three days a week and then like all of a sudden three days a week I really need to watch like all these videos on YouTube for a couple of hours. Like there's things that you can do that are kind of like anti the goal like they actually not only not doing it, but kind of working against it.

Maia Coghlan 28:43

Yeah, yeah, so there's that, maybe you spending too much time on your phone or watching cat videos. Ah, but there's also another possibility if you find you're not

Maia Coghlan 28:55

getting the things done that you said you wanted to do it might be because you don't actually really want to do it that much, and might not actually be that important to you.

Finding what motivates you to get you active

Amy Hooke 29:07

So, yeah, that's so true. And you know what? Yeah, this is a really good example as well, because my goal was to lose weight. Like, I want to get back to my pre baby weight. So I can have another baby, without getting too overweight by the end of it. So that that was my goal. And then I realized, like, that's not, that wasn't the right goal. And I started to actually realize that the right goal for me is to reduce my stress levels so that I can be more like this is not a specific goal, but I needed my stress levels down so I can be more focused and also so I can be like less grumpy with my kids and stuff like that. So it sort of started with I was like, Well, obviously I don't care that much about losing weight because you know, I'm not it's not it's never motivated me. So then I'm like, yeah, stress relief, I started to realize stress relief is Like, that's what I really need. And then when I realized that I'm like, Oh, I love going running, because I'm relieving stress as opposed to I'm going running, I'm burning calories. So it was like changing the maybe changing the purpose of the goal as opposed to the actual goal itself. And then the goal that I originally said, I wanted this happening anyway.

Maia Coghlan 30:22

Exactly, yeah, sometimes you just put it in a different wrapper, and it'll, it'll make it more attractive to you. But yeah, if you find that you say you want to run three times a week, and you don't running three times a week again and again and again. It could be because then maybe that's just not as important as you thought it was. Or sometimes we think about what we think we should be doing, rather than what we actually want to,

Maia Coghlan 30:53

we want to be doing.

Maia Coghlan 30:54

Yeah, and if you're basing your goals on what you think you should be doing Doing instead of what not want to be doing, you're not gonna have

Amy Hooke 31:04

like, I should be a Size 10 after having two children and being nearly 40 maybe not realistic. Yeah, that's right.

Maia Coghlan 31:15

Yeah. So that's something to really think about. And I found a really cool, I thought it was really cool. Exercise recently not physical exercise. So, planning exercise to help you figure out what are the most important things to focus on right now, so….

Amy Hooke 31:38

Oh, you dude, I was gonna say what if you've got too many? Because I guess my problem I just sit way too many goals.

31:44

I'm just

31:46

not I set so many goals that yes,

Only 5 Bookkeeper Performance Goals at a time

Maia Coghlan 31:49

you shouldn't have more than five at a time.

Amy Hooke 31:56

I did say that you wrote that on the list of the topic outline and also Like, oh my gosh, I can't we were like,

Amy Hooke 32:02

I want 300 goals to

Amy Hooke 32:05

25 What about 25? of like, 155?

Maia Coghlan 32:11

So what you do? Yeah, five of 25 that's this exercise. Um, so what you do is you write down 25 things you need to write again, obviously, you can't just think about it because you need to number them, or count them, um, 5, 25 things that you want to achieve over the next five years, one year,

Maia Coghlan 32:35

whatever time frame you're looking at five weeks, if yet five weeks, I mean, if it's five weeks, then you just need to make sure that they're smaller, that they're actually achieved. Yes, that's in that time period. But, um, so 25 things that you want to achieve over the next X amount of time and then pick The top five go through think about each one. And think about which ones have the five most important things on this list. Some of them will probably be accompaniments ones to other ones. So certain ones will need to happen first before you can do other ones. Or, you know, if you do one first, then I might make another one easier. Or they might be like, if you want to learn to run and you also want to build up fitness to learn to do a handstand. And you just do one at a time, because otherwise it's too much exercise. So yeah, think about, think about all the different things, how they all work together and pick your top five to work on. So once you've done like your top five most important, those are the ones you're going to focus on for now.

Maia Coghlan 33:58

The other 20 You might think so the other 20 I'll just think about sometimes, but no, don't think about the other 20 at all, ever!!! Don't think about them until you've finished at least one of those five, delete it, delete it, delete it from your it's on your list. This is a list that you're going to look at again.

The Master List

Amy Hooke 34:21

Okay? This is the Master List that you were talking about.

34:25

It'll list

34:26

to me once

Maia Coghlan 34:28

it um, it wasn't I hadn't I didn't know about this exercise then. But it is pretty much what I kind of had in mind.

Maia Coghlan 34:34

They got a list that you put out of the way that you know, you're not focusing on that now. This Yes, this

Maia Coghlan 34:39

is the it's the Master List. So you've got your 25 things or you know, whatever, put 50 put 100 right, all the things and only pick five and now, maybe you can have seven but just five. Um, and then finally, focus on those five, make them achievable. Like, you can set mini goals to achieve them. Or maybe you just want to get to halfway through like to a certain point with one of them before you can focus on something else. But finally, focus on your top five, don't think about the other things. Don't think about them. Don't do them until you can remove one from your top five and then replace it with a different one. This way, you will not be overwhelmed. And you'll be more likely to achieve those five things instead of just like dabbling 50 things. Because if you spread yourself too thin, you're never going to achieve anything.

Maia Coghlan 34:41

So to achieve something you need to give all your focus and