Whether you’re trying to save money by sticking to a more strict budget or shed some weight by committing to a workout and healthy eating routine, using a goal-setting worksheet to keep you pushing onward—and to hold you accountable for your progress (or lack thereof)—can make goal-setting feel less daunting and instead feel more doable. These 10 free printable goal-setting worksheets and guides, plus tips, will give you that extra dose of accountability you’ve been needing in order to outline clear goals and actually achieve them.
10 Free Printable Goal-Setting Worksheets and Guides for 2023
1. Identify your main priorities.
Before you focus on goal-setting, it helps to pull back and focus on your overarching life priorities first. This ensures that the goals you’re setting are in line with both your long-term vision and core values, rather than being short-sighted or an inefficient use of your time and energy. This free printable goal-setting worksheet from Just a Girl and Her Blog will help you do just that.
2. Tackle multiple goals simultaneously.
Most of us have a number of goals we’re working toward simultaneously—like eating healthier, exercising more regularly and paying off that credit card debt, just to name a few, and that’s where this free goal-setting worksheet and printable planner from Passion for Savings comes in. With multiple pages worth of goal-setting (and goal-tracking!) included, this all-in-one goal-setting worksheet—that addresses topics from general schedule planning to health tracking to finances—is a “must download” in our book.
3. Know your motivation for sticking with it.
This goal-setting worksheet has it all! From a section where you can identify which key category of life your goal is focusing on to assessing your goal’s SMART-ness (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely), this goal-setting worksheet from Wise Goals has it all! But the best part, by far, is that this goal-setting exercise asks the most important question all: why? Answering the “why” for each goal helps you stay motivated and encourages you to keep at it—even when the going gets tough.
4. Think short-term to make goal-setting more manageable.
This goal-setting worksheet from The Project Girl uses the reward system to keep you motivated and making progress. Beyond having you clearly outline your main goals and write out your strategy for achieving them, this free printable goal-setting worksheet lets you set target dates for each step’s completion and has you identify a small “reward” for each phase of your goal-setting that you achieve.
5. Break down long-term goals into smaller, more actionable steps.
It’s easy for goal-setting to become an overwhelming process. Some goals, especially the big ones, can feel especially daunting or impossible to begin. But the truth is you can reach any goal you set—no matter how big or long-term it is—as long as you break it down into small enough steps. With the help of this long-term goal-setting worksheet from The Project Girl, you can it won’t feel quite as overwhelming to strategize, plan and execute them in 2023.
6. Revamp your daily habits to make goal-setting more doable.
When it comes to goal-setting, doing a little work each day—rather than going all in over a short period of time—goes a very long way toward helping you achieve your goals. In weight loss terms, think of it as the equivalent of choosing to eat more whole foods and cut out junk food over the next few months as a way to shed pounds vs. going on an intense crash diet for two weeks. In the end, recreating your daily habit is a more successful goal-setting method, which is why this free printable daily habit tracker worksheet from Daisy Cottage Designs is a great tool to have.
7. Think categorically about goal-setting.
This free printable goal-setting worksheet from Day Designer divides your life goals into five key categories—self-care, relationships, personal development, resources and vocation—so you can work on multiple self-actualization goals (one from each key category) simultaneously. Plus, since this goal-setting worksheet is broken down into quarterly sections, you can set mini milestones for yourself to achieve as you go, making it easier and more palatable to focus on all five areas at once without getting overwhelmed.
8. Prioritize your top three goals daily.
Experts recommend knowing what your top three must-do’s are and, in addition to clearly listing them out, tackling them first—before you do anything else for the day—since new to-do’s or unexpected “fires” can pop up at any time. This pretty printable goal-setting worksheet from Elle Olive Co. will help you do just that, in addition to keeping tabs on other goal-oriented areas of your life too.
9. Think SMART-ly when goal-setting.
For the best chance of success, do all of your goal-setting and planning with the acronym SMART in mind, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. Not only does this free printable goal-setting worksheet from Organized 31 include tips for setting SMART goals, it’ll help you keep up with them on a week-by-week basis so they stay front-of-mind until they’ve been completed.
10. Review your progress regularly.
Even the best goal-setting plans can go awry if you aren’t regularly checking in with yourself about your progress, which is why we love this goal-setting worksheet in particular. It has a “week in review” section at the end that allows you to see what worked (and what didn’t!) so you can keep moving forward. For more, see the Ultimate Life Binder, Minimalist Edition, from SecretOwlSociety on Etsy. Now that you’re in a goal-setting mindset, let’s keep the line of thinking going with how to set and achieve personal goals!
