7 Daily Goal Examples to Create Your Best Life

If any type of goal-setting can change your life, it’s daily goals.

You see, it’s never the massive goals that drive continuous action and success. 

Sure – setting big goals is inspiring, and I highly encourage you to do so. But it’s the tiny actions you take every day that adds up to achieving those big goals.

So how do you set daily goals that inspire consistent action?

That’s what you will learn in this article. And I will also show you some concrete daily goal examples to inspire you to set your own. 

So let’s dive in! 

Why set daily goals?

Isn’t it enough to set a weekly goal and pursue it every day?

In a perfect world, yes.

The truth is that it sounds easier than it is. More often than not, the busyness of life catches up. And before you know it, you’re busy with “other priorities”. 

Here’s why daily goal-setting is important:

• Generate clarity on what is most important to you every day;
• Which helps you to stay on track;
• Smaller goals also reduce anxiety;
• Which in turn reduces procrastination;
• And increases productivity.

Not only does daily goal setting help you to get into peak performance, but it can also improve your happiness.

How?

Well, most people wait to feel good until they have achieved something significant. Yet, what would happen if you start celebrating the small, everyday victories?

Wouldn’t that encourage you to set new goals and take consistent action?

Ultimately, it’s those small steps you take every day that leads to the successes you desire. And celebrating your small wins encourages you to do just that.

How to set daily goals

It’s best to always follow the principles of goal-setting.

However, some elements are much more vital when it comes to daily goals in comparison to other types of goals. 

These are elements you should pay extra attention to:

• Action-oriented
• SMART
• Relevancy
• Prioritization
• Written goals

Element 1: Action-oriented

The shorter the duration of the goal, the more action-oriented it should be.

Why?

Because in the short-term you only control the actions you take – not the outcomes you get as a result of your actions.

For example, you can focus on writing a blog post for 3 hours today. Though you may not always be able to guarantee that you will also finish the article in these hours.

Still, prefer to focus on results?

Then don’t be surprised when you find yourself struggling with goal anxiety and procrastination. And truth is that there’s just a much better approach to daily goal-setting.

Meet process goals.

These goals focus on action, not results. Instead of saying: I want X sales, say: I will approach at least X people today.

That’s 100% in your control.

This also makes these very realistic goals, which is essential in the short term to stay motivated.

Now the point is not to get rid of outcome goals altogether. After all, your dreams and desires are the most inspiring goals you have – and almost always outcome-related.

But in the short term, especially for daily goals, make sure that your main focus lies on your process-oriented goals.

Element 2: SMART Goals

SMART is a helpful acronym for setting powerful goals, especially daily ones. 

Here is what it stands for and why it is useful:

• Specific: the more specific your goal is, the more it clarifies what you need to do to achieve it, which drives action.
• Measurable: being able to measure progress helps you to stay motivated and also makes a goal more specific. For example, I will write today is a poor goal compared to I will write 500 words today.
• Achievable: if a daily goal doesn’t feel achievable, it raises anxiety and can lead to procrastination.
• Relevant: daily goals should add up to a bigger vision. 
• Timely: daily goals are timely by default.

If you follow this simple framework, you will set better goals for the day. In addition, it will reduce anxiety, increase the chance of you taking action, and thus, lead to more success.

Element 3: Relevancy

The SMART acronym already touched on the idea that your goals should be relevant. 

Why?

Well, take a look at these daily goal ideas:

• The daily goal of working out 30 minutes often isn’t because people want to. It’s because they want to become healthier, fitter, and stronger in the long run.
• Why would you set a goal to write 500 words? Probably not just for fun, but rather because you want to write a book, achieve blogging success, or become a better writer in general.
• The goal of finishing one Spanish lesson isn’t to just finish the lesson. In the bigger picture, it’s so that you can understand and speak Spanish.

Sounds pretty straightforward, right?

Start with your big inspirational goals first. What do you desire? Then, break these massive goals into smaller, more actionable daily goals.

That’s how you get the most out of goal-setting.

Element 4: Prioritizing

Can we agree that though we have more tools to be productive than ever before, it has become much harder not to get distracted?

It’s easy to fall off track.

Daily goal setting helps you avoid that by clarifying the most important task for the day. 

It sets your intention.

And though this may sound obvious, how often do we end up being busy – rather than productive? Almost all the time if you don’t clarify your priorities…

So ask yourself: what is the most important task you need to take action on today to get you closer to achieving your goals?

Element 5: Written goals

Something magical happens when we write stuff down.

Since I started setting daily goals, I’ve noticed a significant uplift in my productivity. Whether it’s a conscious or subconscious thing, writing clarifies stuff, which helps you to set better goals.

How to do it?

Here’s a simple version anyone can do: 

Every morning, write down your most important task for the day.

That’s it.

You can use a simple sheet of paper to do this.

But if you want to take daily planning to a higher level and enjoy more of the benefits, I recommend you check out the best goal planners. In addition, check out my review of Goals on Track, a digital goal-setting and task-management system.

Either way, writing down your daily goals is a powerful habit to develop.

Daily goal examples

Your everyday goals should relate to your bigger aspirations and inspire you to take action. 

Let’s look at some daily goal examples to understand this concept.

Example 1: Learning a new skill

Say you want to make a career switch into coding, but you’ve never done such a thing before. 

Where do you start?

One place to start could be to learn about your options.

• Today, I will learn everything about coding career options.

Pretty simple, right? But it feels very achievable and will inspire you to take action today. 

Say you learn about the options, and good beginner languages are JavaScript or Python. However, you want to design websites and identify that JavaScript seems your best option. 

What could be a good daily goal to set next?

• Today, I will find the best beginners program to learn JavaScript.

Once again, a specific and simple daily goal. Within a couple of days, you went from not knowing anything about coding to buying your first course.

What’s next?

• I will finish lesson X of module number X today.

You can keep setting such goals until you finish the course. Then, you can set goals to start a project or maybe even look for a job already. 

Example 2: Starting a side-hustle

What if you want to start a side-hustle but have no idea what to do? Say you’re into fitness, but there are just so many opportunities there.

• Create a list of 5 fitness side-hustle opportunities.

Just taking time to explore your options and discover what’s out there is often an excellent start to simply get yourself to take action.

Then, perhaps you want to pick one and validate if it’s a viable option for you.

• Today, I will validate the idea to start an Instagram page and explore all the monetization possibilities.

Do you see how you don’t immediately have to go wild? Instead, simply identify the smallest possible step you can take. Doing so leads to action – which is the most vital part.

Let’s check out another side-hustle idea.

Example 3: Starting a fitness blog

Let’s say you’re a writer by heart and love fitness too. Perhaps you have already seen some monetization possibilities with a fitness blog.

How do you start?

• Today, I will buy a domain name.

Good first step!

What’s next?

• I will buy hosting and will get a simple website template in WordPress

Awesome! 

Say you’re a couple of days in, and you’ve got your website. You’ve researched some topics, and you are ready to start writing.

• I will write 500 words today.

You could turn the goal of writing X amount of words into a daily habit too. Either way, it’s a good idea to set your intention every day through the power of daily goal-setting.

Example 4: Become comfortable on stage

Maybe you want to become a public speaker. Or perhaps you just want to get rid of your public speaking anxiety.

What’s a good first step?

• Today I will record myself giving a 5-minute presentation to the camera.

Once you get more comfortable, you can progress:

• I will give a presentation to 1 person about X topic today.

As you build up your confidence, you can slowly increase the challenge. 

After all, developing confidence and skills is like building muscles in the gym. First, you start from zero to then increase the intensity over time.

Example 5: Losing weight

A goal that many people share is losing weight. 

But guess what? 

Most people only set outcome goals. Something like I will lose X pounds this week. And whenever they get on the scale and don’t see the numbers they expect, disappointment kicks in.

We have already discussed why this happens.

Instead of focusing on the scale, focus on the actions you can take.

• I will walk 5 miles today.

Or another example:

• I will go to the gym for 45 minutes today and train my chest and triceps.

Not only are these goals in your control, but the scale also becomes less demotivating than it is for most people. It will help you stay motivated, and in the long run, the scale will show you the desired results.

Example 6: Learning a new language

Learning a new language is a massive challenge for most people.

At least, if I say so myself. Though I studied Spanish for a year, I couldn’t hold a conversation with natives while travelling through Colombia.

I’m not going to lie – it did discourage me from practicing when I came back.

Yet, I was able to pick it up again. And though I’m 2 years into the process of learning, I’m still not able to hold a proper conversation. 

So what keeps me motivated?

Focusing on daily progress.

• I will study Spanish for 15 minutes today.
• I will finish one lesson and one exercise.

I turned the goal into a daily habit that is short and simple to achieve. But I know that if I can stick to this progress, I will eventually master Spanish.

The takeaway for learning difficult things is to focus on process and progress, not just results.

Rocket Languages offers some pretty great courses to help you learn 14 different languages. And you can try these languages for free.

Example 7: Saving X amount of dollars

Let’s say you want to save up a minimum of 180 dollars each month. How can you break this up into a daily goal?

• I will put 6 dollars in my piggy bank today.

Storing 6 dollars each day feels much more achievable than 180 dollars per month. Yet, it’s the same amount at the end of the day.

By now, I hope you get the point of breaking up your bigger goals into smaller ones.

Closing thoughts

Just to recap why you should set daily goals:

• Goals become achievable, which reduces anxiety and procrastination;
• It sets your intention, which drives action and productivity;
• And it increases clarity, which helps you to stay on track.

If your daily goals don’t inspire action, try to understand why. Then, go back to the steps in this article, which empower you to set daily goals that motivate you into action.

That’s all you need to know about daily goal-setting.

Do you want to dive deeper into the latest goal-setting strategies that challenge the status quo? Here are the best goal-setting books to learn more.

Do you want some help to stay motivated to achieve your goals? Then sign up to the mails below to get my best stuff straight into your inbox!

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