How to Break Down a Goal Into Actionable Steps
One of the things I love about having both the Jewish new year and the secular new year is that they give me two natural times every year to pause and think about where I am, where I’m going, and where I want to grow.
Obviously, I can do that at any point during the year. I don’t need Rosh Hashanah or January 1 to make a goal or decide I want to change something. But I like having these artificial reset points in the year to remind me to stop and reassess.
This year, one of the things I decided I wanted to work on was putting myself out there more and finding another way to share my thoughts with people.
So I started Confessions of a Personal Organizer on Substack and gave myself a very specific goal: publish something once a week for a year.
Setting the goal was the easy part.
Publishing 52 times requires actually figuring out how I’m going to do it.
How do you turn a goal into actionable steps?
Start with a brain dump of everything you think needs to happen to reach the goal.
You may not know every step yet, and that’s fine. The point is to get what you already know out of your head so you can start seeing the process.
For my Substack, I worked with ChatGPT to brainstorm what I thought needed to happen from the beginning. I knew I needed ideas, time to write, copy to review, images, alt text, links, and all the other little details that have to happen before I can actually hit publish.
I also needed somewhere to keep all of that information.
So I use Airtable as my source of truth.
My potential topics live there, along with where each post is in the process. When I think of something I want to write about, I can ask ChatGPT to add it to Airtable instead of assuming I’ll remember it later.
Once the idea is recorded, I know where to find it again, and as I work through the process, I can add steps I didn’t think of at the beginning.
What does the workflow actually look like?
I scheduled a regular time on my calendar to work on the Substack every week.
Of course, putting something on my calendar doesn’t prevent me from ignoring my calendar.
So ChatGPT bugs me too.
At the appointed time, I get reminded to work on it. Then I can go to Airtable, look through the ideas I’ve already collected, and decide what I’m working on that week.
Sometimes I already have the topic waiting for me. Sometimes I have a new idea, and we work through that instead.
From there, I work through the rest of the process: writing, editing, image creation, alt text, links, publishing details, and whatever else needs to happen before the post is ready to go.
Breaking the goal down this way gives me an understanding of exactly what I need to do. I’m not relying on having an idea, remembering to write it, finding time to work on it, figuring out an image, and eventually getting around to publishing it.
I have a process I can follow.
A workflow doesn’t have to be perfect before you use it
I’m only a couple of posts into this particular workflow, so there will probably be some changes, because who ever gets it right on the first try?
Overall, I’m finding that the brain dump and working through the process before I started was worth the time investment.
That gives me something concrete to use, and when I find something that needs to change, I can adjust the process instead of figuring everything out from scratch again.
I do this with organizing systems too. A system has to work when you actually use it, not only when you set it up.
Where do reminders and accountability fit?
A workflow tells you what needs to happen, but that doesn’t mean you’re automatically going to do it.
I know I need writing time on my calendar, so I put it there. I also know I’m perfectly capable of looking at my calendar and deciding I’ll do something later, so I have ChatGPT nudge me by sending me reminders too.
The same idea can apply to almost any goal. You may need something on your calendar, a reminder, another person expecting you to show up, body doubling, or some other form of accountability. If body doubling would help, you can try a Tidy Together session for $1. I can help with that.
Each workflow should be tailored to you. You know where the friction is, what you tend to skip, and what usually gets in the way, so those are the places where it makes sense to build in extra support.
Can ChatGPT or Claude help you build and follow a workflow?
Yes. I brainstormed this workflow with ChatGPT before I started using it.
I explained what I wanted to accomplish, dumped out what I thought needed to happen, and worked through the steps until I had something that made sense. Now that I’m actually using the workflow, I can keep refining it when I notice something is missing, unnecessarily complicated, or simply not working the way I expected.
You can do the same thing with ChatGPT, Claude, or whichever LLM you prefer. Give it the goal, explain what you already know needs to happen, and ask it to help you work through the process.
Both ChatGPT and Claude also have Skills, which let you save reusable instructions for work you do repeatedly. I use Skills so I don’t have to re-explain writing rules, workflow decisions, and other things we’ve already figured out every time I sit down to work.
[Learn about Skills in ChatGPT]
The useful part isn’t creating a workflow and admiring it. You actually have to work within it.
For me, that means ideas go into Airtable, writing time goes on my calendar, ChatGPT reminds me when it’s time to work, and I follow the publishing process we’ve already worked out. When something doesn’t work, I adjust the workflow instead of abandoning it and starting from scratch.
How is this organization?
This is the core of organization: figuring out how to accomplish something you want to achieve and setting up a structure to make it happen.
You know where the information lives. You know what the next steps are. You’ve decided when you’re going to work on them, and you’ve built in reminders or accountability where you know you’re likely to get stuck.
The workflow doesn’t accomplish the goal for you. You still have to do the work. But you’re not spending your time repeatedly figuring out what to do, trying to remember where you put something, or hoping you’ll remember to come back to it.
That’s what a good organizing system should do. It should make it easier for you to find what you need, know what comes next, and keep moving toward the thing you’re trying to accomplish.
So what’s your goal, and how are you going to get there?
What is the goal you want to work on?
Maybe you have a few. Work through them one at a time and do a brain dump of what you think needs to happen.
As you do that, you may realize you want to amend the goal. You may even decide you don’t want to pursue it anymore. That’s okay.
The important thing is that when you do want to accomplish something, you create a way to get it done.
Figure out what needs to happen, decide where you’re going to keep the information, put time on your calendar to do the work, and build in the reminders, accountability, or other support you know you’ll need.
Then start using the workflow and adjust it as you go.
You don’t need to get every step right before you begin. You need enough of a process to help you move toward the goal.
If you need some guidance, structure, or accountability along the way, Tidy Together is here for you.
Try a Tidy Together session for $1
Disclosure: The Airtable link in this post is a referral link. I may receive a small referral credit if you sign up through it, at no additional cost to you.
