Like Sam, I also have serious procrastination, and I don't remember what times I have been not achieved my goals.

I'm here to learn how others handle this situation, and I have already learned a lot from Sam.

Talking about the specific goal this year, or next year, I'd like to make a goal about IELTS, I want to get four 6 in the IELTS exam(Of course 7 is better!).

To achieve this object, I made an actionable plan, including:

1. Participate in English training club, and continually practice;
2. Using the Duolingo app to study sentences;
3. Try to speak to others in English, and think in English every day.

I wish my goal could come true in 6 months to 1 year.

Yes, I always set goals in the past years, long-term or short-term, like most people. But I merely achieved them. After reading the SMART goal setting, I think I should apply it to my next goal to learn it.

First of all, one of my goals this year is to learn English.

So, based on the first character in the SMART goal, Specific, I think I should change the goal to "I am going to be an English Speaker that could talk to other people fluently in English at the end of next year, by learning English".

Second, through the character 'Measurable' and 'Achievable', I would break down the goal into smaller goals, split into some phases like the following:

1. Can listening to simple sentences clearly
2. Can listening English clearly at a slowly speaking rate
3. Being able to say some simple sentences according to my thoughts
4. Can listening English clearly at a normal speaking rate
5. Can speak directly in English that what I want

Relevant? I think it's 'Yes', after all, I make this goal on purpose to find a good job which is in an English environment.

Eventually, Time-bound, I think one and half a year to reach this goal is suitable, and make my goal achievable, maybe I can reach the third term at the end of this year, hopefully.

Every year I set some personal goals, but most of them are not achieved as expected. still, I have learned something about how to make some progress by being self-driven.

I found most of the time, the main reason I failed to complete the goals is procrastination, especially for things with farther deadlines, more difficult things, and higher workload demands.

I tried some methods to beat procrastination. Once I plan to read a medium difficulty and a little thick professional book. It is difficult for me to stick to. Then I split the whole task into smaller ones, and when I complete a small task I reward myself, and for a staged task I give a bigger reward. The result is much better than the original state.

The second way is to develop a work rhythm that suits me, and don't overthink. Like doing certain things at certain times. Stick to a fixed learning rhythm until it becomes a routine habit. For me, this way is beneficial to overcome procrastination and resolve the anxiety of not rushing and expiring at the beginning of completing the goal into a series of fixed processes. It no longer needs to spend the mental energy to start and overcome.

The third way to overcome procrastination tactic is to use social pressure appropriately to force me to do things in time. Sometimes I find a friend who is also studying and gives me the pressure to urge me to do tasks. Sometimes we make a little bet, etc.

These 3 measures help me a lot to complete my goals from time to time.

I haven't set any specific goals for myself in recent years because COVID-19 makes me feel like life is unpredictable and can't be controlled in many aspects. I think it's better to focus on what I'm doing and value what I own now.

However, since you asked me this question, I have a strong motivation to get into the habit of exercising this year.

Last year, I felt severe pain in my waist. I was worried about a lumbar disc herniation. Luckily, the doctor said that I just had inflammation in my waist. This thing makes me realize that health is the most important. I have spent too much time on mostly boring and meaningless work. I have to get over the problem of working too long to make time for exercise every day.

Specifically, I want to exercise at least four times every week. Each time lasts at least twenty minutes. I want to get into a habit of sports, which leads to a healthy lifestyle, instead of losing weight.

I joined a sports check-in group whose rules effectively promote people's efforts to achieve goals. It requires members to check in every time they finish exercising. At the end of a week, those members who don't achieve the goal of four times exercising and at least twenty minutes every time must delivery a red envelope in the wechat group. It's not much money but I'm stingy! It turns out to be very effective.

As for the problem of working too long time every day, I have found some ways to solve it. When I'm not so busy on weekdays, I'd like to take twenty minutes to climb the stairs in the office building. Stairs climbing is a convenient sport for office workers and helps strengthen my leg and hip muscles to relieve the pain in the waist. Sometimes I'm busy in the daytime, I may force myself to do yoga or aerobics for a little while after I get home. However, I go straight to bed most of the time. On weekends, I usually go to the gym, sometimes play badminton, sometimes ride a bike, and even sometimes climb a mountain.

I have exercised regularly for about one month. I feel more energetic than before and the waist pain disappeared. I wish I can keep it up.

After reading the article about SMART goals, I learned some useful ways to enhance my to-do list this year.

I want to be a full-stack developer although I am a back-end one. I am quite familiar with server-end techs like Java and Linux. I am not good at JavaScript or React.js, but I am going to write a website for my project using React. That is a real challenge for me.

With SMART 5 characters, I do have a specific goal which is also an achievable and relevant one. So the only thing left is the measurable or time-bound, below is my to-do list:

1. read some tutorials about front-end techs (ES5 & ES6) written by ruanyifeng in a month by October.
2. finish <You don't know JS> book series in a month by November.
3. do some exercises while I read these books and download demos from Github.
4. begin to study React & Redux, that is read tutorials from ruanyifeng too.

Although I need to pass the Senior System Architect exam of ruankao in November, I need to arrange my time in a proper way. Procrastination is the big problem that stops me from progressing. Thanks for sam's resolution, it really help me a lot.

My English is bad,but want to try to write for English section.
I set a aim that achieve it every day: translate a short essay and can read aloud it.
I hope I can read most technical documents of programme without translator that after a year.

A job, and a life.