This Productivity Strategy will Help You Achieve Your 2025 Goals

6 min readJan 17, 2025

I have had my fair share of setting goals and failing to achieve them.

Last December, I asked my sister if she had set her goals for 2025. Her response? “I don’t have any goals. Goal setting is for corporate professionals.”

But this is not true, and thanks to her, you get to read this article.

I went ahead to lecture her on how her goals as a professional makeup artist could include gaining 20 new clients, having 5 international clients, attending a master class by BMPro, or saving 70 percent of her income.

Your goals are things you want to achieve, which may be long term or short term.

Let’s say I want to relocate by January 2026, I need to set the goal at least by January 2025. I also need to break it down into steps to assist me in tracking. It is human psychology that bulky stuff makes you procrastinate and lose interest, so breaking it down will make it feel achievable.

Around September last year, I set a goal to upskill as a cloud engineer in four months. I started with a routine to stay consistent, but lost focus after a month. This was because I developed an interest in technical writing, but did not update my learning plan. I reverted my attention to one, without even an accountability system. That seeming-failure made me seek out productivity tips and how to better utilize my time and goals.

Here are 7 great tips on improving your productivity.

1. Visualize Your Goals

Don’t overwhelm yourself with New Year resolutions. Instead, create a vision board. A vision board is a visual representation of your future self. For example:

Want to relocate to the UK? Add a picture of someone in the UK.
Dream of starting a family? Add a family photo.
Want to own a car? Add an image of that car.

This is how it works. Visualize your future self and revisit this board daily or weekly for motivation. It really helps in motivating you to take action.

2. Set Achievable and Realistic Goals

When setting goals, you need to ensure it aligns with your personality, your capacity and timeline. Be honest with yourself about what is realistic.

Imagine being a slow learner, or someone who can only dedicate 30 minutes daily to learn a programming skill, don’t expect to master it in three months.

You may divide your life into different segments to know what type of goal you need to set. For instance;

Finances: You want to save and invest 20% of your 2025 income.
Career: Upskill and land a cloud engineer role.
Health: Drink 3 liters of water daily and exercise regularly.
Relationships: Improve communication and spend more quality time with loved ones.

3. Break Goals Into Quarterly Milestones

I learnt the word quarterly quest from Ali Abdaal, a Youtuber specialized on speaking about productivity.

Having goals is fantastic, but you could break it down even better, in terms of quarterly milestones.

For example, if your goal is to relocate by December 2025, you could structure it this way:

Q1: Research country of interest and relocation routes (e.g., work, study, marriage, or talent).
Q2: Connect with people who have successfully relocated, make your enquiry, and start your application process. (Either applying to schools or applying for jobs like your life depends on it. Do it well and strategically).
Q3: Get your finances ready.
Q4: Finalize preparations and move.

This is it. also remember that some goals may take longer than a year, so be realistic in planning them.

4. Discipline and Consistency over Overmotivation

I understand that you have a personal life, work life, you are enrolled in a school, etc. Motivation is fleeting, but discipline sustains progress.

For example, if you spend two hours daily on social media, repurpose 30 minutes for learning, exercise or skill development. This is why small consistent actions compound to building a productive system.

5. Build Accountability Systems

Ultimately, alot of people complain that they may have time but they do not have the interest to be in that ‘zone’. It is not easy to stay motivated, unless you have sometime that triggers you to act on your goals daily.

I read somewhere that when the fishermen cannot go to sea, they repair nets. When the sea is too rough to sail, the smart ones sharpen their tools and prepare for the storm to break. This implies that even in moments of stillness, there is progress in not staying idle.

Accountability keeps you committed, and creating a system could be in any form.

You want to reduce weight? Hire a personal trainer or join a fitness group. This would motivate you to show up.
You want to wake up for Tahajjud, set multiple alarms or ask someone to call you. At the end of the week, you count how many times you have prayed tahajjud.
If you want to learn something new in 2 weeks, you write down a list of topics you need to cover daily for those 2 weeks to ensure you stay consistent. It really is up to you.

6. Use the WOOP Strategy

We have been talking about goals all these while but what if I have a reader who does not know how to set a goal? I could tell you how I set mine!

I use the WOOP Strategy by Dr. Oettingen.

The Acronym WOOP represents

W — Wish

O — Outcome

O — Obstacle

P — Plan

This strategy gives you a clear direction to set personal, educational, and professional goals based on how you translate it.

You get to clearly set your Meaningful, Achievable and Realistic Goal. Every goal has an expected outcome which is the entire purpose of it anyway. However, it is evident that there would be obstacles along the way which could be as little as lack of discipline. Identifying the possible obstacles beforehand will help you Create a plan to overcome them as they come or even before they do.

There are no manuals to productivity as people really differ. This is just a guide and I hope you tweak it to fit into your personality, commitments and all other aspects of your life.

For example, if you want to save 30% of your income, your obstacle might be impulse buying. Your plan could be automating savings into piggyvest or similar apps.

7. Review and Adjust Regularly

Your goals might evolve, and that’s okay. Revisit your vision board or goal list daily, weekly, or monthly to assess progress or adjust your plans.

Final Thoughts

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to productivity. The strategies above are just a guide. Tailor them to your personality, lifestyle, and commitments. Progress is about consistency, not perfection.