Count it in days
Counting time in days instead of months or years can make a goal feel closer and push you to start sooner. In a 2015 study, Neil Lewis and Daphna Oyserman found that when people thought about retirement in days, like 10,950 days instead of 30 years, it felt closer, and they planned to start saving about four times sooner. How you measure the time between now and your goal changes when you take action.
"I want to have this figured out by next year." But next year sounds like forever. So nothing happens this week. Or next week. Or the week after that.
Then it's November, and "next year" is about seven weeks away.
What the research found
In 2015, Neil Lewis and Daphna Oyserman ran a set of studies on how people think about time.
In one, they asked people when they'd start saving for retirement or for a child's college. Some people thought about it in years. Others thought about the same amount of time in days.
When the time was in days, the goal felt closer. And people said they'd start saving about four times sooner.
Why it works
When something feels far away, your brain files it under "future me's problem." It doesn't feel connected to anything you need to do today.
When something feels close, it moves into "present me's problem." Now it competes for your attention this week.
Days feel close. Years feel abstract. Your brain treats them differently even when they add up to the same amount of time.
How to use it
Count the days to your big goal. Not "by the end of the year." "Ninety-three days from today." Write it at the top of your planner.
Break the year into 90-day chunks. A quarter is close enough to feel real, and long enough to get something meaningful done. That's why I love quarterly planning.
Count the working days, too. If you only work weekdays, 93 days is about 66 workdays. That number gets real fast.
Do the math on what it takes. If you want 20 new clients in 90 days, that's about one every four and a half days. What has to happen today to stay on pace?
Update the count every week. Watching it go down keeps the goal close.
What it looks like
One of my clients wanted to launch a podcast "sometime this year." It was March. It hadn't moved since January.
I asked her to count the days to December 31. Two hundred eighty-something. She went quiet for a second before she said, "Okay, if I want a few episodes banked before launch, I need to record the first one in the next 30 days."
She recorded it in three weeks. The goal hadn't changed, it just finally felt close enough that starting seemed more urgent.
The real reason this matters
The days are going to pass either way. You don't get to save them up for later. Counting them is just a way of noticing that.
And if you've been putting something off for a long time, that noticing matters. The things we never start tend to become the things we regret most, which I wrote about in You'll regret what you didn't do.
So how many days until your big goal? Count them. Then decide what today's piece is.
If you want someone helping you make every one of those days count, that's what I do.
Frequently asked questions
Does thinking in days instead of years change behavior?
In Lewis and Oyserman's 2015 studies, people who thought about future goals in days felt the goals were closer and planned to start saving about four times sooner than those who thought in years.
How do I make long-term goals feel more urgent?
Count the number of days until your deadline, break the year into 90-day chunks, figure out the daily or weekly pace you need, and update the count each week.
Why do I keep putting off big goals?
When a goal feels far away, it doesn't feel connected to what you need to do today. Making the timeline feel closer helps you start.
Sources: Lewis, N. A., Jr., & Oyserman, D. (2015). When does the future begin? Time metrics matter, connecting present and future selves. Psychological Science, 26(6), 816–825.
