I received a tremendous response from my monthly goal setting article (read it here), so I’m going to spend the next few days discussing goal setting and the power of self motivation. Every self-help and motivational book ever made gets into the power of focus and goal setting, and so the topic seems a little played out. Even so, it would be a massive mistake on your part to dispute the significance of goal setting.

The points made in this article can apply to anything, be it professional or personal, and not necessarily just affiliate marketing. Try to find ways that you can make your daily life goal-oriented.

Let’s pretend that you and a friend each start your own businesses. Your friend focuses on goals, deadlines, and increasing his performance; you focus on your day to day tasks, and hoping that you’ll make it work one day. Who do you think will still be in business in a year?

Goal setting, be it daily, weekly, or monthly, is the backbone behind your business. Regardless of the product that your selling or promoting, having some kind of goal that you’re trying to achieve is the difference between giving that extra 10% and taking an easy way out.

Setting Daily Goals

This article is going to focus on daily goals specifically. Your daily goals should be smaller, less complex tasks when compared to your monthly goals. If your monthly goal is to generate $31,000 in profit, for example, your daily goals should be related to making that happen, be it setting up new websites or finding ways to increase your current marketing efficiency.

If I don’t have my daily goals set up days in advance (which I usually do), they are the first thing that I do when I wake up every day. I format my daily goals in a similar way as I do my monthly ones:

Date:

Today’s Objective:

Goal 1:
Time allotment for this goal:
Goal 2:
Time allotment for this goal:
Goal 3:
Time allotment for this goal:
Goal 4:
Time allotment for this goal:
Goal 5:
Time allotment for this goal:

This way I know exactly what I want to accomplish during the day, the amount of time that I want to accomplish it in, and my overall daily objective. Assuming that I’ve kept everything realistic, and that no outside circumstances interrupt my work, completing these goals becomes quite easy. Once you get used to the routine, it actually falls into place effortlessly. Your daily goals soon become just another part of your routine, carrying as much weight and importance as breakfast, showering, or going to work.

Realistic Daily Goals

I touched a little bit on what your daily goals should be, and now I’m really going to get into them.

Your daily goals, regardless of what niche, business, or personal/professional reasoning they’re oriented for, should add up to become a larger goal, such as a weekly, monthly, or yearly goal. The sum of the parts add up to the larger machine- think of your daily goals as the parts, and your larger, more ambitious goals as the machine.

For example, my goal in July was to generate $6,000 in profit from one of my businesses using entirely free marketing methods and word of mouth referrals. Each day I focused on networking with new contacts, keeping in touch with my current clients, and sending follow up e-mails/letters to previous ones. The goal, which was to continue to network, only took three hours a day, leaving me plenty of time to focus on my other endeavors. The results, though just short of my $6,000 goal, were still a full 65% larger than June’s profit.

My daily goal sheet looked like this:

Date: July 17, 2007

Today’s Objective: Further solidify my search engine rankings for two websites, SITENAME and SITENAME, and remain in contact with my outstanding clients.

Goal 1: Update AffiliateWeb.org
Time allotment for this goal: 30 minutes – 9:00 – 9:30.

Goal 2: Network with potential clients.
Time allotment for this goal: 90 minutes – 9:45 - 11:15

Goal 3: Generate $200 in new business.
Time allotment for this goal: 60 minutes – 11:45 - 12:45

Goal 4: Finish client orders.
Time allotment for this goal: 180 minutes - 12:45 - 3:45

Goal 5: Send follow up e-mails.
Time allotment for this goal: 45 minutes – 3:45 - 4:30

As I completed my goals I simply crossed them off of my list, and when I came across a goal that I was unable to complete I made a note to finish it first thing the next morning.

Results From Daily Goal Setting

My efficiency has increased tenfold since I decided to start establishing daily goals. As I said earlier, once you get the hang of it the challenge actually becomes finding goals that are simple enough to be accomplished in a day.

Feel free to post your comments and let me know how your goal setting is working for you.