We all juggle more than one goal—advancing our careers, staying healthy, maintaining relationships, and pursuing hobbies. The challenge is figuring out how to make progress on everything that matters without spreading ourselves too thin.
Should you tackle one goal at a time or pursue multiple ones simultaneously? Keep reading to discover what psychologist Ayelet Fishbach has to say about the most effective approach to achieving your ambitions in her book Get It Done—and to learn what some other experts advise.
Pursuing Multiple Goals
Fishbach challenges the idea that people should focus on just one goal at a time. She says that trying to complete goals one at a time isn’t practical because most of us don’t have enough time to accomplish everything we want to do. For instance, you can’t realistically wait to finish your education before starting to date or put off exercise until after establishing your career—many important life goals need to happen in parallel.
To pursue more than one goal, understand how your goals affect each other. Some goals naturally work together, such as eating healthy and training for a sports competition. However, other goals can work against each other, such as wanting to spend more time with family but also wanting to work extra hours for a promotion.
Fishbach suggests you look for opportunities where you can work toward multiple goals at once. For example, when you join a tree-planting volunteer group, you get to exercise, meet new friends, and have fun all at once.
| Pursuing One Goal at a Time Versus Multiple Goals at Once Experts disagree over whether you should tackle more than one goal simultaneously or focus on one at a time. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, argues that you should concentrate on one goal at a time because of how we form habits. Studies show you’re two to three times more likely to stick with a habit when you make a specific plan for when, where, and how you’ll do it—but only if you focus on one goal at a time. This is because new habits require a lot of conscious effort at first and only become automatic and require less mental energy after about 66 days of repetition. When you try to build multiple habits simultaneously, you spread your mental resources too thin and none of them stick. Others, however, echo Fishbach’s belief that you should pursue multiple goals at once. In Someday Is Today, Matthew Dicks says that focusing on just one goal limits your full potential. He argues that pursuing more than one goal has two main benefits: First, it allows you to stay productive because when you get stuck on certain projects, you can work on others. Second, it makes you more creative because you can mix and match your knowledge and experience from different fields to uncover unique ideas. |
Manage Conflicting Goals
When your goals conflict with one another, Fishbach explains that you can either compromise or prioritize one goal over the others.
1. Compromise: Find a middle ground where you partially satisfy more than one goal at once. For example, if you want to be a novelist, you might choose a part-time job to make some income while still allowing time to write, giving some time to each goal rather than fully committing to one. This approach works well with goals with diminishing returns (where additional effort produces less benefit). For example, after studying for several hours, the value of each additional hour decreases, making it sensible to switch to another activity such as exercise.
(Shortform note: When compromising on multiple goals, it can help to define levels of success for those goals. In Start Finishing, Charlie Gilkey explains that you can’t give 100% to multiple projects simultaneously. Instead, he suggests you categorize your success targets into three levels: small successes that are just “good enough,” medium successes that make you proud, and great successes where you’ve given your all and achieved something remarkable. Recognize that not everything needs to be a great success—you can save your best work for the projects that truly matter to you while accepting “good enough” results for less meaningful goals.)
2. Prioritize: Choose one goal over others, at least temporarily. If a goal connects strongly to your identity or ethics, prioritization often makes sense, such as prioritizing creative work over financial stability. Prioritization is also helpful for goals that require completion to be useful. For example, when pursuing a medical degree, you can’t become half a doctor—the program requires your full commitment to complete it.
(Shortform note: In The One Thing, Gary Keller suggests you first find your life purpose. Then, decide what goals to prioritize by asking yourself a series of questions that work backward from your ultimate purpose: What’s the one thing I can do in five years, this year, this month, this week, today, and right now to reach that bigger purpose? This creates a domino effect, where each small priority builds toward your larger goal. Then, once you identify your priority, you must protect it fiercely by blocking off at least four hours daily for focused work and treating that time as sacred.)
Learn More About Pursuing Goals
To understand managing many goals in the broader context of productivity and motivation, check out our guide to Ayelet Fishbach’s Get It Done.
