{"id":27707,"date":"2020-01-09T09:03:28","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T14:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smps.org\/?p=27707"},"modified":"2023-06-20T18:53:13","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T18:53:13","slug":"the-future-looks-bright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smps.org\/2020\/01\/09\/the-future-looks-bright\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future Looks Bright"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to get the sunglasses out because the future looks bright and life is about to go full speed. Or, has it already? If you\u2019re like me, this year has kicked off with a bang and my schedule is as busy as ever. However, my schedule can easily get out of control and, ultimately, so does my never-ending to-do list.<\/p>\n

When this happens, it\u2019s more important than ever to focus. Focus on what\u2019s important in your life, personally and professionally. And one way to do this is to set goals\u2014both short and long term.<\/p>\n

Short-term goals are probably the easiest. They\u2019re usually items already on your to-do list. Perhaps it\u2019s to go to the grocery store, buy a gift for a loved one, or perhaps it\u2019s to register for your SMPS chapter\u2019s next program. Whatever it is, my approach includes getting out my calendar and breaking the steps to achieve these goals into very small details. Then I set realistic milestone dates for these details and write these on my calendar as an all-day appointment.<\/p>\n

The key is to be realistic about the dates to accomplish these smaller tasks. If you have a couple other meetings that day, don\u2019t load up your list with too many items or items you know will take a long time to accomplish. As I move through my calendar, I can move items I didn\u2019t get done onto the next day and so on. I typically prioritize my day based on what items have a deadline. The items with an earlier deadline get done first. And here\u2019s a tip: If you have others working with you to achieve your goals, perhaps on a team, this same technique can work as you send calendar invites for the milestone details. These dates will then go into everyone\u2019s calendar on the team to remind them of the task.<\/p>\n

Now for long-term goals, this one usually takes more thought. Maybe you\u2019re wanting to work toward a promotion in your firm, take on a volunteer role, or study for the CPSM exam. Break these long-term goals down into smaller milestones and then plug those milestones in your calendar. For instance, to study for the CPSM exam it\u2019s easy to break the studying into the six different domains and set a timeline for each. Take time to think about what\u2019s reasonable to accomplish these milestones and make steps to get the goals accomplished. Perhaps it\u2019s something that takes a year or maybe two years. But the key is that you take baby steps to reach the outcome.<\/p>\n

Now, if you\u2019re like me, you\u2019ll also need to add to your calendar a shopping reminder to buy a new pair of shades\u2014not only to stay fashionable in 2020 but to shield our eyes from the Texas sun this August at Build Business<\/a> in Austin. I hope to see you there and hear all about the goals you\u2019ve accomplished by then!<\/p>\n

Article written by Catherine McCullough, CPSM, who\u2019s president\/CEO\/CMO of McCullough Landscape Architecture. Catherine sits on the Society\u2019s board as at-large director and can be reached at Catherine@mlasd.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s time to get the sunglasses out because the future looks bright and life is about to go full speed. Or, has it already? If you\u2019re like me, this year has kicked off with a bang and my schedule is as busy as ever. However, my schedule can easily get out of control and, ultimately, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[237,238,239,240,241,242],"class_list":["post-27707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-board","tag-focus","tag-goal-setting","tag-long-term-goals","tag-milestones","tag-scheduling","tag-short-term-goals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27707"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43320,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27707\/revisions\/43320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}