Setting resolutions or goals for the New Year always sounds so airy-fairy. I mean, chances of you actually achieving these lofty goals you set are slim to none.
In fact, Strava – the famous fitness tracker app – has coined the term “Quitter’s Day” … the day when you’ll most likely quit pursuing your New Year’s resolutions.
It’s the second Friday in January, so that’s January 13, 2023.
The problem is that you set grandiose New Year’s resolutions. Creating weekly goals that are actionable, motivational, assessable or measurable, relevant, time-bound, and specific ensures you can be successful.
So, if you are ready to start 2023 off on the right foot, then creating short-term goals is your best bet. To help put you on track for success, we’ve put together a complete guide to 2023 weekly goals and how to set them… so you don’t become a Quitter’s Day statistic.
Why Set Weekly Goals for 2024?
It’s all good and well to set longer-term goals, like monthly or annual goals, for the new year… but creating goals that are too big feels overwhelming. And when you can’t achieve your objectives, you feel gutted and like a total failure.
Creating goals you can achieve in a week, or a shorter time frame is better for ensuring success, especially when you are new to making New Year resolutions or if you really want to make a go of it this time. A week is both long and short enough that you won’t feel overwhelmed, and you can carry out various tasks and make enough progress to achieve the goal.
A weekly objective can be a short-term goal all on its own, or it can be part of a larger, longer-term goal. If it’s the latter, it’s a milestone you reach before moving onto the next milestone until you achieve the bigger task.
These goals are flexible so you can make adjustments if you are working toward a bigger goal. And when you achieve each smaller goal, you’ll be motivated and have enough momentum to keep going.
You can set weekly goals that are once offs, meaning you create the goal, work hard to achieve it, and then it’s done and dusted. An example of this once-off short-term goal could be to practice random acts of kindness. You could perhaps like being kind so much that you just implement more kindness activities in your daily life and make this goal into a habit.
Or the weekly goal could be on repeat. For example, you may need to set a budget for every week of every month so you can stay on top of your finances.
Thus, creating a weekly goal for various New Year resolutions or bigger objectives is ideal.
How to Set Weekly Goals
You can create a weekly goal pretty much the same way as you’d set other smaller or bigger goals. I recommend following these tips for the best results for how to create short-term goals:
Set Goals in These 7 Areas of Your Life
It’s great to set goals you want to achieve willy-nilly or at random, but having a plan and focusing on specific areas of your life that you want to improve will increase your success ten-fold.
Here are 7 areas of your life where you can focus on setting weekly goals and the benefits you stand to gain:
1. Career
If you are part of the labor force, you’ll know that you spend a lot of time working. In fact, in their lifetime, the average person spends 90,000 hours (or more) at work. That’s pretty much a third of your life.
As such, having career goals are par for the course. You may hate your job and have a goal to find a new job. Or you may be gunning for that promotion, or you may want to start your own company.
Whatever your career goals, make them count so you can flourish, have a job you love, and spread your wings.
2. Finance
We may not all be millionaires, but with some careful goal setting, you can achieve your financial goals, whether they are to go on holiday, buy a house, invest, or further your education.
When you start creating your weekly financial goals, start small. The first step is a budget, followed by having saving goals, and then careful planning with how you spend. If you want to invest, do your research and run if something sounds too good to be true.
3. Health
Realistic goal setting starts with creating a healthy you. You need to be physically and mentally healthy to be the best you, and without health, you can’t pursue any of your other goals.
Make time for healthy eating goals, positive physical exercise, breathing, and mental workouts like reading, puzzles, and journaling.
4. Leisure
People usually focus their goal setting on achievements, forgetting that leisure time is just as important for a well-rounded and healthy life. Try having goals that satisfy your need for relaxation, fun, and entertainment to balance your hectic work life.
5. Personal
Creating goals that meet your needs for personal development and growth is important to lead a life of value. Consider what matters to you, whether it’s reading 10,000 books, working on healing, or finding the authentic you.
You are the person you will know the longest in your life; make sure you love yourself.
6. Relationships
Society emphasizes social relationships with our families, friends, and colleagues, and so we often forget about the relationship we should have with ourselves.
When you set your weekly relationship goals, focus on your circle and include yourself.
7. Spirituality
The final aspect of your life is your spiritual connection to the eternal (or the universe or a higher power). Choose spiritual goals that connect, empower, and free you.
With the right spirituality goals, you will manage life’s challenges with grace and patience, while continuing to strive toward your higher purpose.
35 Examples of Weekly Goals to Set in 2023 to Improve Your Life
Start 2023 with excellence and focus with these 35 weekly goals.
Career Goals
1. Declutter Your Inbox
Is your work inbox overflowing with emails that you haven’t read or responded to? Or do you also have a lot of spam emails you haven’t yet deleted?
It’s time to get organized and make this the week that you’ll get to that aspiring goal of inbox zero. It’s when you have folders for important emails you need to keep while your inbox is empty, ensuring you are actually more productive. Also, unsubscribe from every influencer and company that sends you spam.
2. Learn a Time Management Technique to Increase Productivity
Do you feel like you aren’t getting done as much as you want or should? It’s time to focus on being productive this week and learn one time management skills such as the pomodoro technique, the time blocking method, pickle jar theory, the getting things done method, and eat that frog strategy.
3. Upskill by Joining a Training Course
Learn new skills to develop your knowledge base through an online course such as those found on Coursera, Udemy, or Skillshare. You may not be able to complete a whole course in a week, but set aside time to finish a module or two.
4. Network and Increase Your Professional Connections
Make it your goal to learn from colleagues and superiors and establish professional connections that can help you rise to the top of your game. Reach out to fellow employees, connect with clients, or network on professional social platforms like LinkedIn.
Join groups, clubs, and societies where influencers gather, and network.
5. Explore a Passive Income Solution
If you want to be financially independent, you need to work smarter and not harder. So, this week, explore passive income opportunities and make it your goal to learn more about passive income streams that might apply to you.
Remember, initial hard work to make the passive income stream a success is a must. You may even find that you want to only pursue your passion project and become a solo or entrepreneur.
Finance Goals
6. Set up an Emergency Fund
In today’s world where anything is possible, having an emergency fund brings you peace of mind. You need to know how much you can save and contribute to the emergency fund, and that starts with a budget.
Open a savings account where you can only use the money saved for emergencies. You need to be diligent to not think you have extra cash for willy-nilliness, so make a list of what constitutes an emergency.
7. Avoid Online Shopping for a Week
Do you feel like you are addicted to online shopping? Is it search, add to cart, and click buy all the way?
A good way to save some money and become aware of how much you are spending is to stop. Make it your goal to avoid online shopping for a week. Block eCommerce sites like Amazon and Etsy on your computer and phone and ask yourself if you really need what you buy online.
8. Open an Investment Account
Opening an investment account is a good way to increase your earnings when you retire or if you want access to extra money at some point in the future. You can invest in annuities, stocks, futures, cryptocurrency, and more.
The first step is doing some research to find the best investment option for you. Do you like to play it safe, or do you like some risk? From there, you can find a broker or open the investment account by yourself.
9. Create a Weekly Spending and Savings Budget
Do not spend according to what you earn. Start by evaluating your minimum requirements like utilities, food, rent or mortgage, and transport expenditures. Then plan what you can save per week, and finally, calculate a weekly budget with expenses, savings, and miscellaneous expenses.
10. Learn about Financial Savviness
Discover your relationship with money and learn about the implications of that relationship on your spending and saving habits. Check out these resources to help you on your quest for financial savviness:
Health Goals
11. Work on Your Sleep Hygiene
Start with making sleep a priority in your daily routine. Create a good sleep hygiene habit that includes going to bed at the same time every night, no blue light an hour before bed (so bye-bye phone) and making your bedroom a sanctuary.
12. Move for 30 Minutes a Day for a Week
Exercise is essential to being healthy, but we don’t always have the time for a complete workout or the finances for a gym membership.
So set your goal this week to just move around for 30 minutes each day. Walk around your neighborhood, dance while making food, or have coffee with your bestie while exploring town.
13. Cook Healthy Meals at Home
Start a food diary to keep track of what you eat and ensure you start the week right by cooking healthy and nutritionally dense meals at home so you can feed your mind and body.
Check out online recipes from health-conscious chefs and avoid crash diets, binging, and other unhealthy eating habits.
14. Take the Stairs Instead of the Elevator
One way you can get a cardio workout each day is by taking the stairs instead of the elevator. If you are very unfit, make it your goal to climb at least one flight of stairs a day and you’ll be proud of yourself when you can climb two flights of stairs at the end of the week.
15. Drink More Water
Make hydration a goal and boost your health by drinking more water. Ideally, you should drink at least 64 ounces of water a day, but you need to find how much water is best for you.
If you don’t like the taste of water, you can add strawberries, cucumber, or lemon slices to a bottle of water. It’ll improve the taste, ensuring you stay hydrated.
Leisure Goals
16. Create a New Playlist for Your Exercise Routine
Create your own playlist on Spotify or Apple Music with all your favorite songs to energize you while you get your sweat on. Great music will inspire you to exercise regularly.
17. Attend a Fun, New Class
Stepping out of your comfort zone and trying something new will put the sparkle back in your life. You can attend a group or one-on-one class, or you can find something online that you are interested in.
Consider candle making, learning how to do diamond painting, or trying wall Pilates.
18. Plan a Movie or Series Binge Night
Make it your goal to completely chill out with a movie night or series binge. Forget the day’s troubles, buy some popcorn and pizza, and immerse yourself in the world of Witcher, Bridgerton, or whatever strikes your fancy.
19. Make Time for Your Hobby
All too often, we get so caught in our daily lives with family, work, and other dramas that we put our own interests on the back burner. Make time to pursue your hobbies and passions this week and rediscover your creativity.
20. Play Some Board Games with a Loved One
Foster connection with your loved one(s) with an evening of board game fun. A little healthy (and friendly) competition will do you some good.
Personal Goals
21. Journal for Personal Development
Work on all aspects of yourself by keeping a journal where you can reflect, record, and plan. Find a journal that works for you from the many kinds available. And remember, you don’t have to be a writer to journal – make use of journal prompts to help you get started.
22. Detox from Social Media
Remove the negativity and competitiveness of social media from your life and focus inward on your own development instead. Sign out of Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest, and move the apps to where they are out of sight and out of mind, so you aren’t tempted. And don’t forget to turn off notifications too.
23. Practice Gratitude Every Day
Make it a ritual every morning to reflect on three things you are grateful for. Revisit those three things in more detail that evening as you practice gratitude. You also use your journal for more in-depth reflection.
24. Set Personal Boundaries
Become more assertive by identifying areas in your life that are off limits to others and set boundaries to defend what is personal and sacred to you.
25. Declutter a Room in Your Home
Set aside one day a week to clear out work areas and tidy up your home. When everything is in its place and you’ve gotten rid of whatever doesn’t bring you joy, your mind will be more at peace, and you will enjoy greater clarity.
Relationship Goals
26. Share a Meal with Your Parents
Make Sunday afternoon meals a thing again. Revive this tradition as you use Sunday meals to connect with your folks and foster family ties.
27. Catch up with Your Bestie
Set a goal this week to make time for your best friend or circle of close friends. If your bestie lives far away, schedule a phone call, FaceTime, or Zoom video call with them.
And if they live in the same city, go for lunch, a girls’ or boys’ night out and paint the town red, or even have a spa day and relax while you catch up.
28. Create “We Time” with Your Partner (or Yourself)
Spending quality “we time” with your partner helps strengthen your relationship. Make sure you mute all distractions so you can just focus on your partner and them on you.
Soul gaze, take turns massaging each other, or cook together.
If you are self-partnered, simply make this goal me time and love yourself.
29. Plan a Date Night
Planning a date night with your partner, bestie, or yourself is a great way to meet your weekly relationship goal. You can be adventurous or relax while you have fun with your person.
Go for a hike, attend a yoga class together, or enact your favorite date.
30. Practice Self-Care Every Day for 7 Days
Self-care is essential and you probably do too little of it. So, for the next seven days, choose seven activities where you focus on you and learn to love yourself. Self-care activities include:
Spirituality Goals
31. Meditate for 20 Minutes a Day
Many spiritual practices include meditation, and if your faith doesn’t already, you can make a daily meditation goal for a week. Meditating helps create inner harmony, calm, and peace as you connect with a higher power, your maker, or the universe.
You can meditate by yourself or follow a guided spiritual meditation script.
32. Read Scripture or Something Inspirational
Reading scripture or other works that inspire, motivate, and produce feel-good feelings is another way to enhance the spiritual aspects of your life.
Choose a book or two and read a section or chapter every day for a week to nourish your soul, encourage you, and connect you to something greater than yourself.
33. Spread Love and Kindness
Many faiths and religions promote loving oneself and one’s fellow man as a key aspect of being a “good human.” Find one random act of kindness every day to make life better for someone else, and don’t forget to do something loving for yourself too.
34. Practice Mindfulness
Set aside some time every day for seven days to reflect on your day. Find the good in each day, focus and let go of the challenges, and cultivate inner peace. Make it your purpose not to rerun negative conversations and events in your mind.
Practice mindful breathing, listen to mindful scripts, and connect your mind with your body through physical mindfulness activities such as yoga.
35. Take a Leap of Faith
Reflect on your life over the last few months and identify moments or events where a higher hand assisted you in some miraculous way. Now consider the challenges ahead of you and use a positive affirmation to reinforce the belief that you are held by a higher power.
Final Thoughts on 2023 Weekly Goals
When we achieve the goals we set, it boosts our confidence and has a positive effect on how we think. Overall, you just feel good and wonderful!
But how you set goals, and what those goals are, determines whether or not you are successful. Your greatest chance at success is to start small and slow with weekly goals.
And if you are looking for more short-term goal ideas for the new year, check out our article on 57 short-term goal examples to help you succeed today.
Finally, if you want to take your goal-setting efforts to the next level, check out this FREE printable worksheet and a step-by-step process that will help you set effective SMART goals.
Nicole Krause has been writing both personally and professionally for over 20 years. She holds a dual B.A. in English and Film Studies. Her work has appeared in some of the country’s top publications, major news outlets, online publications, and blogs. As a happily married (and extremely busy) mother of four… her articles primarily focus on parenting, marriage, family, finance, organization, and product reviews.
