Are you struggling to remain committed to your goals? I’ve designed this daily goals worksheet to help you stay focused on your goals, while also creating a sense of balance in your daily life.
When we’re juggling family and career, while taking care of ourselves and others, it can be a challenge to take action on our bigger life goals. Even if we manage our time in a way that allows us to pursue our most important goals, life isn’t intended to be one long to-do list with an endless focus on productivity. We need to leave time for white space so we can relax, breathe, and think clearly. We also want to design our lives to have time for fun, leisure and pure enjoyment.
This daily goals worksheet holds space for mundane but necessary daily tasks. It also emphasizes self-care and our most important life goals. It’s specifically designed for busy, ambitious working moms who care deeply about their families, are trying to make time for self-care, while also pursuing their passions, dreams, and goals.
If you are trying to to live a fulfilled and balanced life, this daily goals worksheet is for you.
Download the Daily Goals Worksheet
This worksheet is intended to serve as a guide as we plan our days. With effective planning and intentionality, we can (and must) make time for ourselves and our dreams while caring for everyone around us.
This daily goal-setting template is both printable and fillable online.
If we can both accomplish something AND enjoy something each day, it can help us to feel both productive and fulfilled. Too much emphasis on either side of that equation and we can feel unbalanced. Download the Daily Goals Worksheet now.
A Framework for Thinking about our Daily Goals
If we don’t have daily goals, it’s a natural tendency to get caught up in only the tasks that “feel” urgent. They may or may not be all that important, but these tasks carry a sense of urgency that can make us feel like we need to spend most of our time managing them.
Have you ever heard of the Eisenhower Matrix for time management? It looks like this:
There are 4 quadrants to this matrix. They are:
Urgent AND Important – DO THESE THINGS.
These tasks are time sensitive and important. They are work and family tasks to address today.
Since we MUST DO these things, these tasks can go in the Top 3 section, the General To Do List (Errands) section, or the For My Family section of your Daily Goals Worksheet, depending on the type of task it is. These tasks are your priorities for the day.
However, they may not have any long-term significance and they may not take you closer to any of your important life goals. They are just time sensitive and require immediate action. These are things like returning the high priority phone call, calling the doctor to make the appointment when you or a family member is sick, or finishing a report with a deadline.
Although we must do these things today, if we aren’t careful, this will be the only quadrant we function within in our daily lives. It will feel like we are firefighting our way through each day.
Not Urgent BUT Important – SCHEDULE THESE THINGS.
These things deserve a place on our calendar. They are important tasks, but they are not urgent or time sensitive. Schedule and plan these tasks in your calendar. They might go on a future Daily Goals Worksheet, but it’s not necessary to drop everything and do them today.
These are things like – work on the important report due next week, analyze the data for next week’s meeting, prepare the slidedeck for next month’s presentation, or schedule your kids’ physicals and dentist appointments.
However, this category is also for your important life goals. These are the smaller action steps necessary to reach your ultimate goal. If you don’t do these tasks, you’re not likely to reach your bigger goals in the long run. Think of life goals such as earning an advanced degree, changing careers, or writing a book. There is no absolute deadline here, but these goals are important to you.
If we don’t make time for these important (but not urgent) goals, our lives will pass by and these meaningful dreams and goals will be pushed from year to year. Instead, break your really big goal into smaller goals and schedule them into your daily life.
The section at the bottom of the Daily Goals Worksheet called, “Today’s Action Toward My Goals – One Step Forward Toward a Long-Term Goal” is one of the most important sections on the worksheet. This is where you plan time each day to work toward your bigger life goals.
Urgent BUT Not Important – DELEGATE THESE THINGS.
These tasks carry a sense of urgency, so we feel we must do them, but they are not important enough for you to do them all yourself. These tasks can be delegated to others – perhaps an administrative assistant or a work colleague. If it’s a home task, perhaps your child can do these tasks as chores. Enlist the help of others to get these tasks done.
These tasks are things like taking out the garbage, following up with the contractor, loading and unloading the dishwasher, cleaning up after dinner, mowing the lawn, or watering our plants. There are also plenty of tasks at work that we can delegate or share amongst colleagues. We should identify someone who can do these things instead of us taking them on as our responsibility.
Not Urgent AND Not Important – SIMPLY DON’T DO THESE THINGS.
These tasks are neither urgent, nor important. If we ignore these tasks, there will be little to no consequence. These are things like scrolling social media and commenting on other’s posts or responding to every single text and e-mail.
Simply stop doing these things and see how much time you get back in your day.
Why is it Important to Have Daily Goals?
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
Annie Dillard
As busy working women with multiple roles and responsibilities, we can often get caught in an endless cycle of managing only mundane but necessary tasks that keep the world turning for everyone around us. These are daily tasks like laundry, groceries, meal preparation, dishes, housework, paperwork, family finances, driving kids to their activities, planning the week ahead, etc. These types of tasks can be enough to fill at least 2 full-time jobs.
We also have the more meaningful parenting responsibilties like connecting with our children, talking to them, spending time with them on activities they enjoy, scheduling family activities and outings, planning vacations, listening to their stories and their thoughts, working through challenges they have, helping them learn important life lessons, and tucking them in bed at night.
Now if we factor in our careers, our responsibilities outside the home, along with the daily commute, it’s no wonder working moms struggle to find time to pursue their deepest passions, dreams, and goals.
The only way to make progress on our most important life goals is to break them down into manageable, daily actions. If we set goals each day and have an action plan, we can actively pursue our goals and dreams, a little at a time each day.
Every great thing was built over time. Amazing things don’t just happen overnight. It takes consistent daily commitment and effort to work toward a big life goal. By being intentional about what your goals are, and scheduling time each day to work toward them, you can make your dreams a reality.
How to Set Daily Goals Using This Worksheet
I designed this daily goal setting worksheet to help manage the many different areas of life, while intentionally factoring in time each day to work toward our bigger life goals and dreams. All too often we place our most important life goals on the back burner as we prioritize taking care of everyone else in our lives. It truly is possible to make progress on our own personal goals with effective goal planning and intentionality in how we spend our time each day.
There are 8 sections to this worksheet. I personally leave it open on my laptop and fill it out each evening for the next day. Since it’s a fillable worksheet and to conserve printing paper each day, you can simply delete the previous day and type in the next day’s goals, leaving it up on your computer to see throughout the day.
If you prefer a printed copy to sit on your desk, you can simply print out several copies.
Now let’s get to it.
Here’s how to use this worksheet:
- Inspiring Mantra – This can be a quote you love or your own inspiration. Choose a mantra to keep you motivated all week as you set your daily goals.
- Daily Top 3 – Write down your daily top 3. These tasks are in the Urgent and Important quadrant – they must get done today.
- Fun & Enjoyment – Make time in your day for fun. Remember – we are trying to Live Each Day, not just be a productivity machine. If we both accommplish something and enjoy something, then we will live a more fulfilling life.
- Dinner Plan – Next up – What’s for Dinner? It’s one of those daily tasks that requires planning in order to eat healthy meals each day.
- Today’s Self Care – Make time to care for yourself. Schedule it and make time for it each and every day. If we don’t intentionally plan for self-care, we will go through each day caring for everyone around us, but not ourselves. It can be just 15 minutes of walking, reading, yoga, or painting. It can be whatever makes you feel calm and at peace.
- General To-Do List (Errands) – This one is self explanatory. These may or may not be part of your daily top 3. These could be things that are important but not urgent and are scheduled into your day from a prior planning session.
- To Do for My Family – I see you dedicated mama. You are spending a whole lot of your time in this category of activities. That’s what we do as intentional, loving mothers, but my friend – we also need balance. This section is for family-related tasks.
- Today’s Action Toward My Goals – One Step Forward Toward a Long-Term Goal – This is your main goal that you are working toward right now. It’s the big life goal that you are breaking into short-term goals.
This daily goals sheet is a useful tool to set your top priorities for the day and begin to build new habits over time.
After intentionally thinking through the goals for your day, then place the activities directly in your calendar. Take the task from your daily goals worksheet and place it into a specific time slot.
Breaking big life goals into small daily actions is the most effective way to accomplish them. It also helps you to estimate the amount of time it will take to reach your goals.
Use this free printable goal worksheet to set your daily goals and build habits into your life that will lead to the achievement of your long term goals. It will help you get off the treadmill of focusing only on those mundane daily tasks that, while necessary, are not the key ingredients to a fulfilling, purposeful life.
General Goal Setting Process & Tips
My biggest goal setting mantra is – “small steps each day”. It is quite literally the only way to take a big, bold life goal or even a dream for your life and make it a reality.
Time management in this process is important. However, it begins with being intentional about our life and our life goals, followed by being intentional about our days.
This Daily Goals Worksheet pairs nicely with this Setting Life Goals Worksheet.
Begin by setting a life goal in one of these 8 key areas of life.
- Family & Friends
- Money & Finances
- Health
- Career or Business
- Personal Growth
- Fun & Leisure
- Love/Romantic Relationship
- Physical Environment
In each of the 8 key area of life, there are many different types of goals. Examples of life goals include:
- Invest enough money to live comfortably in retirement (Money & Finances area of life)
- Write and publish a book (Career or Business area of life)
- Maintain an organized and orderly home (Physical environment area of life)
- Actively manage my mental well-being (Health area of life)
- Allocate enough resources to be able to travel to 1-2 new locations each year (Money/Finances and Fun/Leisure areas of life)
- Be a well-rounded person, focused on personal development and continually learning new things (Personal growth area of life)
- Maintain a close relationship with my immediate family members (Family & Friends area of life)
SMART Goals – Get Specific, Measurable, and Establish a Timeline
Once you set an important life goal, you can then use the SMART goals framework to take a long-term goal and make it a highly specific goal.
An example of a SMART goal from the list above is:
“Write and publish my first 300-page book this year by writing 2 pages of the book each day for the next 150 days, and then spend the following 2 months editing and refining the first draft.”
This SMART goal takes the lofty, big life-goal of “Write and publish a book”, and makes it highly specific and very achievable by breaking it down into a measurable goal with actionable steps. This goal is specific (S), measurable (M), achievable (A), relevant to your life goals (R) and timebound (T).
With daily intentional actions, you can accomplish that big life goal of writing a book within 7 months (5 months of writing two pages per day plus 2 months of editing and refinement), leaving the remainder of the year to take the steps necessary to get it published.
After breaking your life goal down into a SMART goal, you then set daily goals and allocate time each day to take the specific actions necessary to achieve it.
By writing each day, you build habits into your day, making it a natural part of your daily life. As your new healthy habits become part of your life on a daily basis, you begin to hardwire the habits so they become lifestyle changes. This allows you to achieve your bigger goals and your long-term goals.
Make Your Dreams a Reality
This is why daily goal setting is so important. You can take a big, bold, lofty life goal that appears seemingly out of reach and make it 100% achievable. This is the way to make your dreams and goals a reality.
Daydreams do not need to remain daydreams. They can become highly achievable goals. Take those dreams and big visions for your life and get highly specific. Break down the big goal into achievable daily action steps. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish when you have clear goals each day.
For more information on setting life goals, including free printable worksheets, you can read this article on setting life goals.
Download the Daily Goals Worksheet and start setting goals that will improve the quality of your life and lead to more purpose, joy, and fulfillment. Start making your goals and dreams a reality.
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