The 5-4-3-2-1 Goal-Setting Method To Get Your Life Back On Track (Example Included) (2024)

The 5-4-3-2-1 goal-setting method changed my life and stopped me from feeling stuck when working towards my big goals.

As a recovering perfectionist, it’s so easy to get caught up in overthinking every single step and activity in the process of setting goals which is why I found this method created by Ryder Carol (founder of the Bullet Journal) very helpful!

It’s something that I encourage my clients to do when they feel stuck because it forces them to take immediate intentional action instead of procrastinating.

Table of Contents

What is the 5-4-3-2-1 goal-setting method?

The 54321 method is a simple structured goal-setting framework designed to help you break down your goals into manageable digestible chunks of time. It involves setting goals across various timeframes: 5 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days and 1 hour.

It’s a great way to balance your long-term vision with the actual day-to-day steps to help you achieve that vision in the future.

The 5-year goal represents your long-term life aspirations and goals, 4-month milestones act as checkpoints, 3-week actions are specific tasks that move you one step closer towards your checkpoint, 2-day tasks give you immediate time pressure and focus, and 1-hour sprints are designed to help you keep on track daily.

It’s quite a comprehensive approach that allows you to think ahead while also maintaining a realistic mindset towards achieving your goals.

That’s why I encourage my clients to use this technique to help them remain grounded while setting goals.

Why is it helpful for perfectionists?

The method is extremely helpful for perfectionists because it provides a really clear and structured roadmap for achieving your goals.

If you don’t know this already, perfectionists are people who often struggle with:

• Overthinking
• Anxiety
• Procrastination
• Fear of failure
• Cycles of go-go-go and burnout
• Unrealistic expectations of themselves and others
• People-pleasing
• Tying their self-worth to their career and achievements

So this framework can help reduce the amount of anxiety and overwhelm that perfectionists often feel when goal-setting. For example, many of my clients have amazing ambitious goals but they feel paralysed by the fear of not meeting their own high standards. It often results in them going through cycles of pushing themselves to the brink of burnout and then shamefully procrastinating.

This method helps you to break down your goals into manageable steps and focus on achievable actions and regular progress reviews that give you a sense of control and accomplishment.

How to decide what goals to set

When it comes to setting goals I recommend that you take a holistic approach that includes all 8 areas of your life.

• Personal and spiritual growth
• Health and fitness
• Friends and family
• Romantic relationships
• Career and business
• Financial health
• Fun and Recreation
• Physical environment

For each area try to identify your long-term aspirations and break them down into your short-term goals using the 54321 method.

For example,

• A health and fitness aspiration might be to achieve a certain level of fitness such as running a full marathon.
• The 4-month milestone might be completing Couch to 5k
• The 3-week action could be Running three times a week in the local park on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays
• The 2-day task could be researching and buying running attire
• Finally, the 1-hour sprint could be downloading the Couch to 5K app, Strava and plotting your running routes.

I recommend you have a goal for each of the 8 areas of your life but choose 2 to 3 to focus on every 4 months, always making sure to check in with your values and regularly reflect.

5 years goals

As I previously mentioned your 5-year goals represent your long-term aspirations and ultimate life vision / ideal future self. These goals are designed to give you an overall direction and provide you with a clear picture of where you want to be in the future.

It’s really helpful for perfectionists to think about their 5-year goals because we tend to overestimate what we can achieve in one year but underestimate what can be done in 5 years.

Having this clear vision helps to reduce the anxiety of daily tasks and reminds you that every step is important in your journey even (and ESPECIALLY) the ones you start now.

I recommend you take some time to ground yourself and visualise your ideal life thinking about the most self-actualized version of you who has the things that you want.

This might feel weird to do at first but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you do the following ideal day activity

• Try to imagine a day in a life of this ideal version of yourself in five years, go through the day imagining all of your five senses (sight, touch, smell, taste and sound)
• Tap into your future self’s feelings, thoughts and ideas
• Go into as much detail as possible because it helps you to create an emotional connection with your ideal self
• How do they show up in the world?
• What do they say?
• Who is around them?
• How did they occupy their time?

Once you’ve done that I recommend you set SMARTERgoals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound, Empowering and Reflective). Write down your goals and schedule time to regularly with you and update them.

4-month milestones

Your 4-month milestones are medium-term checkpoints that help you bridge the gap between your daily actions and your long-term goals. They are still Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound, Empowering and Reflective but on a much smaller scale.

These milestones are very important because they help you maintain momentum and stay on track with your long-term vision without it feeling overwhelming.

Because let’s be real, as nice as it is to have five-year goals it does feel a bit scary thinking about a future that could be completely different from the reality that you’re living now. You don’t even need to think too much about the steps afterwards.

Just focus on the next four months.

Take your time to break down your five-year goes into smaller more manageable chunks while trying to think about what significant progress looks like in 4 months.

3-week actions

3-week actions are short-term tasks that directly contribute to achieving your 4-month milestones however they are even more specific and can be planned and executed within a few weeks.

They’re great if you’re someone who likes to work in shorter productivity sprints i.e. hyperfocusing on one small project at a time.

However, it doesn’t have to be an intense sprint it can just be a simple three-week plan that gets you from point A to B.

• Look at your 4-month milestones and identify the key tasks that need to be completed in the next three weeks to move you closer to achieving your goal
• Take your time to prioritise these tasks based on their importance and urgency using the Eisenhower Matrix.
• Still, remember to make sure these tasks are specific and actionable within the allocated time frame

2 day tasks

2-day tasks are designed to help you build momentum and keep you focused on your 3-week actions.

It’s great for perfectionists because it reduces your tendency to overthink and procrastinate while increasing your confidence and ability to work consistently.

I call that a win!

At the start of each week, review your 3-week action plan and identify specific tasks that need to be completed in the next two days. You can either break down your week into two-day increments or do this activity every two days as a way to keep you on track.

For example, I like to do a high-level weekly plan on Mondays but I also do a very short daily review to check in on myself and also identify any tasks that need to be completed in the next couple of days.

1-hour sprint

A 1-hour sprint or time block involves focusing solely on a single task for one hour without any distractions. I love this technique because it forces you to get started on working towards your goals.

I’m always surprised at how much progress I can make in such a short time especially when I just focus on one thing.

It’s great because after completing a goal-setting planning session it’s so easy to feel overwhelmed and start overthinking your goals e.g. having doubts on whether your goals are actually achievable or not feeling good enough/worthy to have big goals.

Implementing your action plan immediately after creating it helps you overcome your overthinking paralysis and get the ball rolling.

• I recommend you pick a specific task that can be fully completed within an hour.
• Try to eliminate all your distractions (e.g. turning off your phone)
• Set a timer and work only on that task until the timer goes off.
• If you struggle with working consistently for one hour then I recommend you use the Pomodoro technique and divide the hour into 20 to 25-minute chunks we have a five-minute break in between.

A real-life example – My blogging goals

I started The Valued Life because it was part of my long-term goal of becoming a self-employed blogger, life coach and psychotherapist. For the purposes of this exercise, I am going to only focus on the blogging aspect of my goal

5-year goal

• Establish a blog with 100,000 monthly sessions
• Create a steady income of at least £5k a month via ads, affiliate marketing and sponsored posts
• Have over 350 blog posts on my website

4-month milestones

• Write an additional 50 blog posts
• Create 2 free digital products for my audience
• Guest post on 2 reputable blogs in my niche
• Grow my email list to 500

3-week actions

• Write and publish 9 high-quality blog posts with at least 2 in each topic cluster
• Pitch guest post ideas to 10 high-authority blogs
• Design 1 free printable
• Update newsletter sign-up landing page

2-day tasks

• Outline and draft 2 blog posts
• Research and compile a list of high-authority blogs in my niche
• Brainstorm ideas for a free printable
• Plan out newsletter content for the week

1-hour sprint

• Research relevant keywords for my future blog posts
• Write the first section of a new already keyword-researched blog post
• Review my existing free printables and identify gaps in my current offering

What goals are you setting?

I hope you found this breakdown of the 54321 method helpful! As soon as I found out about this method, I adopted it into my mindful productivity system right away because I knew it would help me overcome my tendency to overthink.

And it did!

That’s why I wanted to share this technique with my clients and readers who struggle with goal setting.

Related Posts:

• 5 Steps To Setting Values-Driven Goals (+Free Workbook)
• 7 Ways To Develop A Values-Driven Mindset (+ 10 Characteristics)
• What Is The Difference Between Values And Goals – 7 Key Differences
• Why Perfectionists NEED To Live A Values-Based Life If They Want To Be Happy
• 5 Simple Ways To Develop An Effective Productivity Sprint (Examples Included)
• 5 EASY Steps To Create A Personal Productivity Backlog
• 5 Steps For Creating A Mindful Action Plan For Your Goals
• 8 Areas In Life To Set Goals With 100 Examples (FREE Workbook)
• 8 Simple Steps To Be Anti-Hustle Culture And Productive
• The Truth About Recovery From Severe Burnout