Sharing weekly goals on social media: A small experiment

For the past few months, I’ve shared my weekly goals in my Instagram stories. I planned to use these weekly stories to ease into using social media purposefully for my coaching. By sharing, I hope to inspire and encourage others while they learn about me and what I do.

I admit that I was tempted to use the lists to create a more ideal reflection of my goals. But how authentic would that be? In reality, some weeks, one of my major goals is to clean the mirrors. And even though I’d like to have new goals every week to show that I’ve accomplished what I set out to do each week, the reality is that things take the time that they need. Building a business and other projects takes many, many weeks. 

Separate ideas from tasks

I immediately realized that I had to edit what I had on my to-do list and curate a list of four or five goals to share publicly. As a creative person, I add ideas (not tasks) to my to-do list, which quickly becomes overwhelming. It's like everything is a task that needs to be done! I've changed the app I use; it allows me to plan projects and ideas and assign tasks to myself only when necessary. 

Include reminders

The process of editing the list that I share gives me time to reflect on what I want to focus on, and slowly, I've added reminders like "Keep showing up," "Reach out," or "Enjoy being wherever I am." Goals for the week don't have to be outcomes; they can be mindsets. 

Use verbs to focus on specific actions

Another change I’ve made is to purposefully ‘chunk down’ projects into manageable smaller tasks. I’ve discovered that one way to do this is to add verbs to the items on my list, not just use nouns. So rather than “website words,” I might try to focus on “create an outline for website words.” By using verbs, I can focus on taking specific action rather than being overwhelmed by a reminder of the whole project. 

After many, many weeks, I've been able to cross off most of my "website words" tasks and will be spending more energy on social media and blog posts on my website. Follow me on Instagram to keep up with what I'm doing and working toward. It's always great to receive acknowledgment and have people cheering me on! I hope to support you, as well!