How do you document and track your personal goals?
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It’s the new year, so I imagine many of us are thinking about what we want to do in our own lives over the coming weeks and months.
What systems/tools/formats do you like to use to capture these goals, and how do you prefer to follow up/track progress against them?
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Not to be glib, but I don’t.
If I have personal stuff going on that requires more than a page in notebook, I probably have too much going on.
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Totally with you. I don’t either.
It’s not about being glib or pessimistic. For me it’s about my sanity. The list of things I want to do and haven’t will always be longer than the list of things I have. In a perfect world, I would have PhD, be the author of a wildly popular programming language or library or something, and be highly regarded in my field. There’s nothing wrong with being down to earth and realizing at this point in my life the odds of any of those happening is slim. I’m okay with that.
Now on a positive note, that doesn’t mean I’m not constantly out to do something I haven’t. Or trying to accomplish a new goal in my life. I just try not look back.
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A markdown file that I sync between phone and PC and view in the android app “Markor”, with the following format:
# 2021 January - [ ] Start an exercise habit - [ ] Meditate 30min 6 times - [ ] Figure out python asyncio - [ ] Buy new table # 2020 December - [X] Just survive 2020 - [ ] Start an exercise habit  Key points:
- I add as many months as I care to plan ahead for
- Of course a headers like “2021” or “2021 January-March” are possible as well
- The lists contain (optional) checkboxes, so I can see what worked and what didn’t
- If I care enough, I carry over failed items into the next month
- Sometimes I write additional paragraphs to detail my plans or break down why a plan failed
- I add memorable photos to get a sense of progress, continuity and gratitude when I scroll through the file
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High level : I recommend starting with the journaling and (self dialog) habit e.g. “it would be nice to do xxx by feb”. If you have it searchable you can easily reference your ideas.
Qualitative ones: google doc or google keep note. Quantitative Ones: Spreadsheet (e.g. financial goals, tax goals) Reminders: followupthen.com e.g. you can send email to [email protected].
disclaimer: I’m very sloppy at this.
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I’ve been using a kanban-style workflow with a Trello board for the past few years, and it’s been pretty life-changing. It’s hard to remember how I used to get stuff done beforehand, in the dark days of a brief list scribbled on my whiteboard. I’ve completed 1028 tasks since June 2018.
It’s more of a to-do list than a goal tracker… but I guess I could handle large goals with a new column for epics, and linking other cards to those. Or just a new label.
For some goals, like eating a few portions of fruit or vegetables every day, I use beeminder. A daily recurring Trello card would be way too much overhead. I only have three of those, though.
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I have started with a similar Kanban + Trello model. And just recently, I have moved to my own simplified “Get Things Done” solution. I have analyzed what parts of Trello I am using, and it turns out not many. So I have written my small tool using vanilla JS and Go.
Concepts:
- Each to-do item is a Project;
- Each project consists of Actions;
- I always split Project into the most simple atomic Actions;
- “Drafts” is for something that is not refined yet;
- “Active” is what I am going to do next, sorted by priority;
- “Next Actions” is a unique column that contains Actions from “Active” projects. The column gives me a list of simple things to do that moves me towards my goals;
- “Waiting” is for tracking delegated Actions;
- “Maybe” is for something that I want to do in the future, but it is not a priority. It is nice to have such inspirational goals separately and not at the bottom of your current Projects.
- “Done” is for completed items that I keep in this column for a week and then archive during the weekly board review;
Columns:
- Draft projects
- Active projects
- Next Actions & Waiting
- Maybe / One day
Why it is good for me:
- I dump every plan there and keep my head free from these thoughts;
- I analyze and refine every Project while I am fresh. Then I just complete primitive minimal Actions one after another during the day;
- I do not forget about household chores because I have both professional and personal projects on the board;
- I am not trying to sell myself any kind of golden plans and perks to boost my app with features that I do not use;
- It is not a universal Kanban board; contrary - it has a rigid structure, where I have one way of doing things;
- I own my data;
- I learned new things while implementing it;
- I am the only customer, so this is 100% product-market fit.
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I have tried everything under the sun, but only Notion does it for me.
Notion is a DIY Knowledge Management System. Kind of like a wiki but so much more powerful than what you are used to. In Notion, I use backlinks, kanban boards, reminders, and more!
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I have a bunch of text files in a folder (some are links from elsewhere). I open the folder in vim using an alias and then work on whichever notes I need. It is good enough for smaller notes, but a mess whenever it goes 100+ lines. Too lazy to bother with searching and learning a better way to organize. And I sometimes dread opening one of the todo list that keeps growing exponentially, too many ideas and too little time/motivation.
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I use the Bullet Journal method. Electronic/digital tools don’t work for me, they are inhumane, inflexible, and I have too many distractions.
I suggest reading the book. It has lot of stuff one might know from other places, still it gives a toolset to organize your life with one of the simplest and most flexible tool available: pen and paper.
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