This week we’re chatting with Keira Wallis, head of clinical operations at Healix and an expert in workplace mental health and wellbeing. 

Hi Keira! If you could recommend one good thing everyone can do to improve their mental health, what would it be?

It would be to ensure you are setting small, achievable goals to keep you focused and better manage your time to achieve a healthy balance between work and personal time.

Why is this your One Good Thing?

It’s a great, easy way of creating a sense of accomplishment. We put so much pressure on ourselves to achieve, and this is a simple way of safeguarding our mental health against these pressures, which can often make us feel like we are not good enough.

Completing a small task, like writing one paragraph of a report, gives you something concrete to point to as a success, challenging the negative self-talk that says you can’t get things done.

It also helps you to maintain focus. In life, people often have so many competing priorities and tasks to achieve that they can seem insurmountable. At first it takes a little discipline, but taking the time to decide which small goals you want to achieve can help to cut through the noise and overwhelm and give you clarity about what’s important.

Burnout is becoming increasingly prevalent, and one of the main reasons for this is feeling you are not being adequately rewarded. This isn’t always just in a professional sense; it could also come from a sense of dissatisfaction in your personal life. By setting your own goals, this can create a sense of personal reward, encouraging inner growth and resilience.

It can also quieten your inner critic as small goals lead to frequent, tangible successes that provide evidence of your own capabilities.

By setting and achieving small goals, you build resilience against setbacks. When you’re used to making progress through small steps, a single failure or obstacle becomes less significant, giving your inner critic less fuel.

Sounds great. How do we use small goals to better our mental health?

By setting small, achievable goals, you can effectively engineer scenarios that will lead to a healthy way of releasing dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with feelings of reward and motivation. This positive reinforcement encourages you to continue setting and achieving goals, leading to sustained progress and growth. This, in turn, breeds confidence.

From a professional perspective, setting small goals throughout your working day can help reduce overwhelm. Often, large projects or more complex tasks can feel daunting and lead to procrastination. Breaking these down into smaller, manageable goals can help your to-do list feel more manageable and less intimidating. For example, instead of aiming to complete an entire project by the end of the day, a realistic goal could be to finish the plan today and start research tomorrow.

And if we do all this, what benefits could we see?

Confidence, motivation, a sense of achievement and increased focus and resilience. If you are consistently achieving these goals, you are more likely to handle perceived failures in a more constructive manner.

It can also encourage learning and personal growth. Setting small goals can help you to avoid giving up on new hobbies or projects at work as it gives you time to reflect on your achievements and allows you to gradually build up your skills.

It can also improve your relationships. For example, you might set yourself a goal to pay your partner or colleague a compliment if you notice they’re feeling low. This can lead to better understanding and, ultimately, a more fulfilling connection. 

What are some common pitfalls of your One Good Thing? How can we avoid them?

Avoid setting overly ambitious goals, especially when you first start out. Goals should always be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound), and make sure you celebrate your wins.

Another pitfall is that you might become overly fixated on small goals, which can lead you to lose sight of the bigger picture. You might achieve lots of small tasks but, in doing so, fail to make meaningful progress towards larger goals or struggle to understand how they’re contributing towards it. To avoid this, you should regularly review your small goals in the context of larger ones. In a professional setting, this can mean taking the time to check in with your manager to see if your small goals mean you’re on track.

You should also avoid setting too many small goals as this can lead to overwhelm, when the opposite is the intention. It’s important to be selective about what’s important to you, rather than putting pressure on yourself to achieve multiple things. Journaling can help with this as it can provide a reflective space to order your thoughts and writing things down can help you prioritise. 

How do you personally do your One Good Thing?

I apply the principle of setting small, manageable goals by breaking down larger tasks into more achievable steps. For instance, when working on a long-term project, I set daily or weekly targets, such as completing a specific section or researching a particular topic. This helps me stay focused and provides a sense of accomplishment as I progress.

I also use a daily to-do list with three to five specific tasks, like ‘write 500 words’ or ‘respond to three key emails’. This keeps my workload manageable and ensures I complete tasks by the end of the day.

In my personal life, I use this approach to maintain a healthy work-life balance. For example, I set goals like ‘spend 30 minutes unwinding each evening’ or ‘dedicate Saturday mornings to a hobby’. This ensures I take time for myself, improving my overall wellbeing.

To balance work and family time, I set small goals like ‘have dinner together as a family every evening’ and ‘plan one family activity on weekends’. This helps me consistently prioritise family time, strengthening our relationships.

As a working mum to a toddler, I can sometimes get overwhelmed by housework. I overcome this by breaking tasks into manageable goals spread throughout the week, like ‘vacuum on Tuesday’ or ‘do laundry on Thursday’. Tackling chores this way keeps my home organised without feeling overwhelmed, leaving more time for relaxation and family.

By breaking down tasks into smaller steps, I manage my time better, avoid burnout and maintain a healthy balance between work, personal life and family.

And how has doing this changed your life?

It has helped my productivity. I used to feel overwhelmed by the perceived enormity of a task. Now, I subconsciously break everything down and it feels so much more achievable. With practice, this has become second nature.

It’s also boosted my confidence. At the end of every day I come away with a sense of accomplishment, which has been hugely motivating.

It’s also been the foundation for building positive habits. Setting goals for myself, such as meditating for 10 minutes a day or listening to a 30-minute podcast, has led to these activities becoming daily habits that it’s been easy to fit within my working day and personal life. 

Frame Of Mind is Stylist’s home for all things mental health and the mind. From expert advice on the small changes you can make to improve your wellbeing to first-person essays and features on topics ranging from autism to antidepressants, we’ll be exploring mental health in all its forms. You can check out the series home page to get started.

Images: Adobe; Getty