Designing Your Work Life: How to Thrive and Change and Find Happiness at Work

by Bill Burnett

Try Stuff MICRO-GOAL EXERCISE 1. Pick a bad habit you’d like to change, or a new habit or behavior you’d like to make part of your daily routine (exercise more, start a mindfulness practice, have a kitchen that is always clean, etc.). 2. Set some big goals. Write down a clear and measurable description of your eventual goals. (For example: I regularly get three hours of aerobic exercise a week; I meditate thirty minutes every other day, regularly; there are never dishes in the sink and the kitchen is always clean and ready to go for the morning, before I go to bed.) 3. Make the big goals part of your “story.” Write a couple of sentences about what you’d get, what the emotional benefit to you would be, if you were to make this new behavior part of your regular routine. (For example: I’d get better health and sleep and feel good about how I look; I’d get a calm and centered approach to life and manage my anger better; I’d get an inviting place to cook and make nutritious meals for my family every day.) 4. Sneak up on the change you want to make with “micro-goals.” Plan the first eight weeks (it takes about eight weeks to establish a new normal) of micro-goals, designed to get you partway (maybe 20 percent?) toward your big goal. Make the micro-goals each week easy, something you think you’re sure you can do. And make sure that whatever goals you set, you can measure the results. 5. Make sure you reward yourself, at regular intervals, for accomplishing your micro-goals. 6. Do...