Have a massive, daring goal in mind? Breaking it into smaller steps can help you achieve your dreams.

心里有一个宏大而大胆的目标？把它分成更小的步骤，可以帮助你实现梦想。

A research paper led by Wharton PhD alumni Aneesh Rai and Edward Chang and co-authored by Wharton professors Marissa Sharif, Katy Milkman, and Angela Duckworth found that breaking down a commitment to volunteer 200 hours per year for a nonprofit into smaller subgoals (volunteering 4 hours weekly or 8 hours biweekly) increased the amount of time volunteers spent helping by 7-8% over several months.

由沃顿商学院博士校友 Aneesh Rai 和 Edward Chang 领导，沃顿商学院教授 Marissa Sharif、Katy Milkman 和 Angela Duckworth 共同撰写的一篇研究论文发现，将每年为非营利组织提供 200 小时志愿服务的承诺分解成更小的子目标（每周志愿服务 4 小时或每两周志愿服务 8 小时），可以在几个月内将志愿者用于提供帮助的时间增加 7-8%。

When applied across a large organization like Crisis Text Line (CTL), which partnered with Wharton faculty and doctoral program alumni on the study, the 8% increase in volunteering becomes quite meaningful.

危机短信热线（CTL）与沃顿商学院的教师和博士生项目校友合作开展了这项研究，如果将这项研究应用于危机短信热线（CTL）这样的大型组织，那么志愿服务增加 8% 就变得非常有意义了。

If CTL implemented the researchers’ most effective approach across all volunteers for a year, it could result in an estimated 19,900 additional hours of volunteering — at virtually no extra cost, the paper reports.

论文报告说，如果 CTL 在所有志愿者中实施研究人员提出的最有效方法一年，估计可增加 19,900 小时的志愿服务时间，而且几乎不增加任何成本。
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These findings suggest that subgoal framing can be a cost-effective and potent strategy for individuals, managers, and organizations hoping to make long-term progress on their goals.

这些研究结果表明，对于希望在实现目标方面取得长期进展的个人、管理者和组织而言，子目标框架可以是一种具有成本效益的有效策略。

To produce these results, the researchers communicated with more than 9,000 participants who had signed up to volunteer on the CTL crisis counseling platform and had committed to spending 200 hours per year as counselors. Some people were encouraged to aim for “some hours every week” to hit their 200-hour yearly goal and others were encouraged to volunteer “8 hours every 2 weeks” or “4 hours every week” to hit their 200-hour yearly goal — messages that broke that larger goal down into more bite-sized, short-term targets.

为了得出这些结果，研究人员与 9000 多名参与者进行了沟通，他们在 CTL 危机咨询平台上注册成为志愿者，并承诺每年花费 200 小时担任咨询师。研究人员鼓励一些人以 "每周若干小时 "为目标来实现他们每年200小时的目标，而另一些人则被鼓励以 "每两周8小时 "或 "每周4小时 "为目标来实现他们每年200小时的目标--这些信息将更大的目标分解成更多的短期目标。

The researchers found that how they frxd the goals influenced how many hours crisis counselors actually spent volunteering.

研究人员发现，他们制定目标的方式影响了危机咨询师实际花在志愿服务上的时间。

Milkman said: “Our major contribution is to demonstrate in a large, organizational setting that simply encouraging people to pursue bite-sized, short-term subgoals when they are committed to big, long-term goals substantially boosts their achievement over the long-term at absolutely zero cost.”

米尔克曼说：“我们的主要贡献是在一个大的组织环境中证明，当人们致力于实现大的长期目标时，只要鼓励他们追求小规模的短期子目标，就能在长期内以绝对零成本大大提高他们的成就。”

How to Accomplish Goals Without Procrastinating
Breaking down a big goal into smaller ones means there are more immediate obxtives to meet (or miss). This means there are more frequent and immediate deadlines, which previous studies along with Milkman’s research show can reduce procrastination.

如何不拖延地实现目标
把一个大目标分解成更小的目标意味着有更多的直接目标需要实现（或错过）。这意味着你有更频繁、更直接的最后期限。研究表明，这可以减少拖延。

“We believe that setting more detailed subgoals can help people stick to their goals because these smaller steps require less time commitment compared to tackling the whole goal at once,” Milkman said. This aspect makes commitment to the goal more appealing, similar to the “pennies-a-day” effect. For example, in a 2020 study, participants were more willing to sign up for a savings program when it was frxd as deducting smaller amounts more frequently from their bank account compared to a larger sum deducted less often.

米尔克曼说：“我们相信，制定更详细的子目标可以帮助人们坚持努力，因为与达到宏大目标相比，这些小目标所需的投入更少。这将使得对目标的承诺更具吸引力，类似于‘一天挣一分钱’的效果。”
例如，在2020年的一项储蓄计划研究中，总金额相同的情况下，A计划是更频繁地从他们的银行账户扣除较小金额，B计划是频率较少地扣除较大金额。参与者更愿意参加A计划。
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While setting more detailed subgoals has its advantages, it also comes with some risks that are explored in the paper. One danger is that it can make people feel too comfortable. Subgoals act as clear milestones of progress, which can make people feel that they have already accomplished a lot early on and can relax their efforts. “This means people might slack off or lose motivation,” Milkman said.

虽然设定更详细的子目标有其优点，但也有一些风险，本文对此进行了探讨。一个危险是它会让人们感到过于舒适。子目标是进步的明确里程碑，它会让人觉得在早期就已经完成了很多，并可以放松努力。米尔克曼说：“这意味着人们可能会松懈或失去动力。”

“Micro goals are beneficial up to a certain point, but pushing too far into the details … would likely actually start to impede progress.”
— Katy Milkman

“微观目标在一定程度上是有益的，但如果过于深入细节……实际上可能会阻碍进展。”— 凯蒂·米尔克曼
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Flexibility Is Key to Achieving Your Dreams
Another significant risk in suggesting people strive to achieve micro-goals on short time scales is that it offers them less flexibility in how they’ll achieve their long-term obxtives. For instance, if your goal is to visit the gym 120 times a year, there are many ways you could accomplish that. But if you break it down into a monthly goal of 10 gym visits, your options for achieving that goal become more limited.

灵活性是实现梦想的关键
建议人们在短时间内实现小目标的另一个重大风险是，这给他们实现长期目标提供了较少的灵活性。例如，如果你的目标是每年去健身房120次，有很多方法可以实现。但是，如果你把它分解为每月10次去健身房的目标，你实现这个目标的选择就会变得更加有限。

“The smaller the goals, the less wiggle room you have to change your plans. This lack of flexibility can lead to a higher chance of failing or facing setbacks, which might make you give up on the goal altogether,” said Milkman. Research on what’s called the “what-the-hell effect” has shown that when people don’t meet their goals, it increases the likelihood of them giving up on their goals entirely. For instance, a study from 1975 found that dieters who exceeded their daily calorie limits often ended up abandoning their diet entirely by overindulging.

米尔克曼说：“目标越小，你改变计划的余地就越小。这种灵活性的缺乏可能会导致失败或面临挫折的几率更高，甚至可能会让你完全放弃目标。”所谓的“地狱效应”研究表明，当人们没有实现自己的小目标时，就会增加他们完全放弃大目标的可能性。例如，1975年的一项研究发现，超过每日热量限制的节食者往往会完全放弃节食计划并且过度放纵。

And yet, more recent research has highlighted the advantages of being flexible in pursuing goals. For example, a study from 2021 by Wharton’s Marissa Sharif showed that incorporating psychological flexibility into goals, by allowing for “emergency reserves” like skipping days in a gym routine, helped improve goal performance by far more than just setting less ambitious goals overall. Flexibility reduces the feeling of failure when there’s a setback; additionally, being flexible in pursuing goals gives people more control over their schedules, which studies show has various benefits like improved well-being and work-life balance.

然而，最近的研究强调了灵活追求目标的好处。例如，沃顿商学院的玛丽莎·谢里夫（Marissa Sharif）2021年的一项研究表明，相比于设定不那么雄心勃勃的总体目标，通过将心理灵活性纳入目标，例如允许“紧急储备”（如有几天都不去健身房），将远远更有助于提高目标表现。灵活性可以减少挫折时的失败感。此外，具备一定的灵活性将使人们能够更好地控制自己的日程安排。研究表明，这有多种好处，如提升幸福感以及工作/生活的平衡度。
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In exploring their own data, Rai and his co-authors found some “suggestive evidence” that shows describing subgoals more flexibly — for example, encouraging volunteers to work “8 hours every 2 weeks” rather than “4 hours every week” — slows the decline of volunteering rates (which generally decay over time). These findings imply that flexibility in goals might be more important for maintaining commitment over the long-term than for initially motivating goal pursuit, Milkman noted.

在探索数据时，研究者发现了一些“暗示性证据”。比如如果你能更灵活地描述子目标——例如鼓励志愿者“每两周工作8小时”，而不是“每周工作4小时”——将可以减缓志愿服务率的下降（志愿服务率通常会随着时间的推移而下降）。米尔克曼指出，这些发现表明，实现目标的灵活性对于人们保持长期承诺比对于激励目标追求更重要。

“Essentially, what we’re saying is that subgoals can enhance progress,” said Milkman. “However, as these subgoals become increasingly small, they also become less adaptable. This means that micro goals are beneficial up to a certain point, but pushing too far into the details — say, with hourly goals — would likely actually start to impede progress.”

米尔克曼说：“从本质上讲，我们所设定的子目标是希望它促进进步。然而，如果子目标变得越来越小，它们的适应性也越来越弱。微观目标在一定程度上是有益的，但如果你过于深入细节——比如每小时的目标——那就实际上会开始阻碍进展。”