12 questions about how you run your goals

[Ship69]

Hi

I've realized that I've been terrible at running goals, particularly lately. I am still fairly new to GTD and the wheels have come of the goals part - BADLY!

I'd love to hear more about how other people are managing them and how successful they are finding their methods.

1. At any one moment in time:
- How many weekly goals do you have?
- How many monthly goals do you have?
- How many quarterly goals do you have?
- How many yearly goals do you have?

2. Do you distinguish between really important goals and less crucial goals?

3. How do you construct your goals:
a) Do they include a number of something
b) Do they include a specific date
c) Do you make sure they include different areas of your life (if so how many?)

4. How often to you look at each of them?

5. Where do you keep them ?
e.g. Written somewhere in a journal? Electronically in your to-do list manager software... as well?

6. How often do you review/ change them?

7. Do you distinguish between resolutions and goals?

8. Have you formally written down the reasons for each of them?
(e.g.
- Why the goal is important?
- What is at stake?
- And if so exactly how many reasons are you giving for each goal?

9. What actually happens when you fail to hit a goal?

10. Do you commit in writing to any kind of reward if you do hit a goal (and/or punishment if you miss the goal)

11. Do you keep a Next Action running for each goal?

12. Is a goal treated differently from a GTD Project.

I have found myself missing goals often quite badly, and then being hard on myself and working and then harder and harder. And sometimes loosing focus and discipline quite badly for a while. And then working harder again. And then giving up on goals completely. Which is hugely liberating... but only for a while. Because then I find myself being highly productive... but on something that is probably completely the wrong thing to be doing at all. Anyone else been there?

Thanks

J

P.S. Fwiw, I'm still a little confused about all the X thousand levels of feet of the ground... what they are and how and how often to revisit them. [sign]

 

[Folke]

1. At any one moment in time:
- How many weekly goals do you have?
- How many monthly goals do you have?
- How many quarterly goals do you have?
- How many yearly goals do you have?

No such goals. All I have is two long-term goals ("super-projects") that will affect my whole AoR setup if/when they succeed. I have no goals that permeate everything I do, such as "be a nice person" etc.

2. Do you distinguish between really important goals and less crucial goals?

No.

3. How do you construct your goals:
a) Do they include a number of something
b) Do they include a specific date
c) Do you make sure they include different areas of your life (if so how many?)

Well, yes, both are very concrete. Amounts, such as approximate turnover, yes, but no rigid timeframes.

No, I make no point of making sure they include any particular areas. I will create appropriate areas once the goals have been reached. I treat them as being on a par with "groups of areas of responsibility", i.e. ~30 k ft

4. How often to you look at each of them?

5. Where do you keep them ?
e.g. Written somewhere in a journal? Electronically in your to-do list manager software... as well?

6. How often do you review/ change them?

8. Have you formally written down the reasons for each of them?
(e.g.
- Why the goal is important?
- What is at stake?
- And if so exactly how many reasons are you giving for each goal?

I keep them as top-level "folders" in my app, just like "groups of areas of responsibility". I have a description for each of them. I see them all the time, including during my weekly and quarterly reviews. I modify them if I need to, but that does not happen often.

7. Do you distinguish between resolutions and goals?

No, or should I say yes. I make no resolutions.

9. What actually happens when you fail to hit a goal?

10. Do you commit in writing to any kind of reward if you do hit a goal (and/or punishment if you miss the goal)

When I successfully reach a goal, the result will affect my ongoing AoR structure, and I will remove it as a goal. If I fail, whatever useful remains of it I will move to appropriate parts of my AoR structure. The success or failure is sufficient reward/punishment in itself.

11. Do you keep a Next Action running for each goal?

12. Is a goal treated differently from a GTD Project.

I typically have several projects under each goal, and a few next actions in each.

 

[mcogilvie]

I find that I do not need much structuring and elaboration of 1-2 year, 3-5 year or lifetime goals if my projects and areas of focus are in good shape. Your questions suggest to me that you want to treat them like super-projects. I would no more introduce artificial dates, for example, in a goal than I would in a project, nor would I prioritize them. Things that don't work for next actions and projects are not going to magically work for goals. I have a pretty clear idea of what I want the next five years to look like while still being open to serendipity, and I am comfortable with that vision.

Let me give you a specific example: my mother died about six months ago, and my father a few weeks ago. I had a goal of assisting them in having the best possible lives consistent with their age and health while preserving the well-being of other family members as well as my own. It was a very ambitious goal. In many ways, it was the hardest thing I have ever done. The projects and their successful outcomes kept changing. Next actions were often not obvious, but sometimes just extremely hard to face. I did not get everything done that I wanted to do, but in hindsight, I have realized that my intuitive prioritization of people over paperwork was correct. There remains a pile of paperwork, and one of my areas of focus has moved from "Mom and Dad" to "Dad" to "settle estate." My point is not that I had to deal with something difficult and sad, but that our goals are not necessarily about planning and doing, achieving success or facing failure, but about who we are and how we want to live.

 

[TesTeq]

Let me give you a specific example: my mother died about six months ago, and my father a few weeks ago. I had a goal of assisting them in having the best possible lives consistent with their age and health while preserving the well-being of other family members as well as my own. It was a very ambitious goal. In many ways, it was the hardest thing I have ever done. The projects and their successful outcomes kept changing. Next actions were often not obvious, but sometimes just extremely hard to face. I did not get everything done that I wanted to do, but in hindsight, I have realized that my intuitive prioritization of people over paperwork was correct. There remains a pile of paperwork, and one of my areas of focus has moved from "Mom and Dad" to "Dad" to "settle estate." My point is not that I had to deal with something difficult and sad, but that our goals are not necessarily about planning and doing, achieving success or facing failure, but about who we are and how we want to live.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

I think you gave an example of a perfect goal/area of focus. If your parents live together you cannot have two goals "mother's health" and "father's health" and assign priorities.

Similarly in the business environment you cannot prioritize between increasing sales and reducing costs. You must do both. The goal is bigger: "to make my business healthy and profitable".

 

[Oogiem]

1. At any one moment in time:
- How many weekly goals do you have?
- How many monthly goals do you have?
- How many quarterly goals do you have?
- How many yearly goals do you have?

2. Do you distinguish between really important goals and less crucial goals?

3. How do you construct your goals:
a) Do they include a number of something
b) Do they include a specific date
c) Do you make sure they include different areas of your life (if so how many?)

4. How often to you look at each of them?

5. Where do you keep them ?
e.g. Written somewhere in a journal? Electronically in your to-do list manager software... as well?

6. How often do you review/ change them?

7. Do you distinguish between resolutions and goals?

8. Have you formally written down the reasons for each of them?
(e.g.
- Why the goal is important?
- What is at stake?
- And if so exactly how many reasons are you giving for each goal?

9. What actually happens when you fail to hit a goal?

10. Do you commit in writing to any kind of reward if you do hit a goal (and/or punishment if you miss the goal)

11. Do you keep a Next Action running for each goal?

12. Is a goal treated differently from a GTD Project.

I don't really make goals as such, certainly not that detailed. I look at my areas of focus and create projects that move me forward. The only real thing I have written down is my life purpose and I re-read that at least quarterly and whenever I feel down or depressed or like I am not making a difference. I am writing down some 3-5 year goals right now but I probably won't do anything as detailed as you describe. Instead I'll re-read them once a year or so. I am willing to bet that in 4 years when I re-read them I'll have most of them either done or well on the way to completion with no additional effort.

In the past I've written down some major projects, multi-year types of things, that I wanted to accomplish in this lifetime. I rarely visited those projects other than a quick read once a year or so. What I discovered is that just the mere fact I wrote them down meant that over time I was creating GTD projects that led to the completion of the big giant ones. Once I had them written I had them in my mind and as I did my weekly reviews and quarterly reviews even with no prompting I'd include things that helped me along the road to completion.

Now, 7 years into a full on implementation of the GTD process I am just now thinking that I should be attending a bit more to goals. So this past year end review I wrote down a few major goals for each area of focus. That's all Iv'e done but we'll see how well I did in another 5 years.

I wouldn't worry too much about goals as such right now. Get the lower levels under control and on autopilot and then the goals and higher levels will come.

 

[ChristinaSkaskiw]

I've been setting yearly goals for 15 years, using a process described in "Your Best Year Yet" by Ditzler, and I've been a GTD practitioner for over 20, so I have tried and tweaked goal setting within the frame work of GTD for some time now. I treat a goal as a GTD project, because a goal is an outcome.

Goals come in different forms. There are the SMART goals -- specific, measurable, etc. They can be things like "holiday on Cape Cod", "participate in 10 K race", or "crochet runner for Thanksgivings table setting". They can be checked off as done.

Then there are what I've called intentions, which are more about improvements. Like installing new habits, improving efficiency, getting in shape, learning something, or other ways of becoming a better person. They are harder to quantify and they don't come with obvious due dates. These are more like a focus area, i.e. the level above goals. You can then set yourself shorter terms goals to keep yourself on track. For example: next week gym workout on Tuesday, body pump class Thursday, badminton on Saturday, and cross-country skiing Sunday weather permitting or else swim 1 K. These sort of goals are good to set at weekly review time. Or a more over-arching goal: in Q1 exercise on average 3.5 times per week. I do find it more inspiring, though, if I can set a specific goal to aim for. I got a camera from my father for my recent birthday and to give me something concrete to do in order to learn to use the camera well, I set the the goal to make a photo book for my dad for next Christmas.

So if your "goal" is an intention, treat it as a focus area and give yourself shorter term specific goals = GTD projects. Goals on a longer horizon than one year can be divided into milestone outcomes = GTD projects. I don't know what a resolution is that is not a goal or an intention, only that it's a word often used after "new year's".

To answer your specific questions in some random order: As to how many, I don't have a goal to have goals, if you see what I mean. I find it more stress-free and engaging to work on one goal at a time if I can. Intentions tend to run in parallel, of course. Also, over the years, I've found that my yearly goals and intentions should be inspiring or create some sort of relief. I used to pick 10 top goals, but now I set fewer and I make sure they are relevant to me. Goals will be more or less crucial, but I know that inside and I don't categorize them in my system. I use index cards for my lists. I make up a "Best Year Yet" card and when I start working towards a goal that is a project (i.e., not an intention) it goes on my project list and gets next actions as appropriate. So I don't distinguish BYY goals from other projects (I know which ones they are); they are only distinguished in the sense that these are goals for improving my life, different from filing taxes or re-painting the house. The process described in "Your Best Year Yet" helps you select areas in your life where an improvement, or break-through, would make a big, positive impact, so typically not areas of focus already on cruise control. (You probably know where your passions and pains are anyway, without the book, I mean.) At the time of setting the goals, I do some journaling to help the process, but that's the only other documentation except the distilled list on my index card. I don't have to tell myself why I want to take great photos. The reward is reaching the goal, no punishment for failure. If a goal loses its luster or gets off-set by something more important, I drop it. Sometimes major goals get added "ad hoc", but not very often. Life happens

I would also like to chime in with previous posts not to be too concerned with goals, but if you have been setting goals before becoming a GTD practitioner and that has worked for you, I thought I could share how I manage my goals using GTD.

 

[Jodie E. Francis]

I don't have much time today, but will say that I have a 2'x3' year-at-a-glance wall calendar that I began using Jan 1st to track not only my goal deadlines for the year, but all our family vacations, summer camps & swim lessons, PD days, birthdays, ... and I.am.loving.it.

Though I initially thought I would have 'put it away' by now, it remains visible from the breakfast table, and is a fantastic tool not just for me, but also for my husband and the kids to see what we'll be up to this year. It has already prompted much discussion about the experiences our family wants to share.

I review it weekly, with my textual 'Why' for each goal, as well as the related projects and next actions during my Weekly Review. In future I may move my goals from it to a personal calendar, but for now it is helpful to see how they intersect with the other Areas of my life, so I don't over-commit.