How do you manage your goals (30k ft.) ?

L

loik

0
Hey! Your feedback would be really appreciated!

Every couple of months I try to take the time to think about what do I want to be true within the next 24 months. What emerges from this reflection are my goals (30k ft.). Every time I do this exercise, I end up with a lot of goals (between 20 to 30). My definition of goal is any project that will take me more than 3 month to complete.

I keep my goals in a list in Evernote that I consult every day during my morning routine.
I don't physically link my goals to my projects in my system (not yet).
I don't necessarly set my goals following the SMART technic, and most of them are not planned (that is to say I don't outline most of my goals).
From time to time, I set new projects that will help in achieving my goals.

Typical examples of goals:
  • My annual income is xxx $
  • I have a nice photobook of my trip in the West of USA 2014
  • I am married
  • I took a vacation trip to visit Yellowstone park
  • I am an efficient person (GTD blackbelt)
  • ...
Examples of projects related to goals:
  • Budget the cost of a wedding
  • Make a complete mindmap of the GTD methodology
  • Re-read the GTD book
  • Learn what is the best way to manage goals (30k ft.)
  • Make a photobook of my trip in West USA 2014
  • ...
I am wondering if I should limit the number of active goals in order to be more focussed on what is truly important, and park the rest in a "Dream List" somewhere in my Someday/Maybe list.

The problem is that they are all truly important to me and they all address different areas of my life that I want to move forward (Career, Personal Development, Finances, ...). That's why I don't put them in my Someday/Maybe list, because :
1) my degree of commitment is way bigger than other Someday/Maybe items, and
2) if today I can (or feel to) do something to move one of these goals forward, I will do so and not wait.

How you manage your goals? What's your definition of a goal? Do you limit the number of your 'active goals'? If so, how you manage your 'inactive goals'?
 
FWIW - I cannot guarantee that this is is sufficiently in line with GTD for your taste - I use Goals much more restrictively than you do:

- only for concrete "super-projects" that have the potential to require several regular projects that serve only this specific goal. My actions are linked to projects and my projects are linked to goals. I never use Goals (systematically) for personal values or hallmarks etc that apply across the board. (I think this may differ a bit from textbook GTD, which I think recommends a more uniform and heuristic approach to both types of goals.)

- must have the potential to entail a significant improvement to my life. I never define projects as Goals just because I expect them to take a very long time or because they obviously have at least some value. The value must be very big AND it must take a long time AND it must be a big effort - otherwise I handle it differently (perhaps more in the textbook GTD way, just pondering on a list of keywords from time to time, or as just a regular project, whenever possible). This is because I do not want to drown in goals - I use them to fundamentally organize my stuff and cannot afford to get it messy.

Currently I have 5 of these 30 k entities. Of these 5 only 2 are true Goals in the above sense. Both of them are new business ventures that I need to bring up to a stable and net profit-generating level. The other 3 are actually not goals but rather "groups of areas of responsibility" (which I think is fair to consider to be 30 k in view of the fact that the individual AoRs are considered as 20 k). My 3 GoAoRs are Business (excluding the 2 new ventures), Non-Profit, and Private. I keep projects linked under these as well, just as I do under the true goals. (And under the 30 k level, for single actions that are not associated with a project I use the app's project mechanism to provide me with AoR single task containers. I have 10 of those all in all, as I have 10 AoRs defined, and each one if these is linked to exactly one 30 k entity.)

Hope that helps (probably sounds messy, but I am very happy with it; I have used it for a long time).
 
I started out with a list like that and it quickly became unwieldy for me.
I also have the problem you have which is I couldn't balance it all easily when it was in list format.

(btw, I am a heavy Evernote user as well. It's my list manager, a capture tool and one of my main references).

So now, my 20k-50k are in a mindmap. I have it organised by 10 life categories - beauty, health, organisation, knowledge, profession, recreation, relationships, service, spiritual and wealth. What's nice about this is that on a regular basis I rate each one of those categories on a scale of 1 to 10, and where the number is too low, I can take focus away from another category by perhaps even turning off some projects there, and then dive down into that part of the mindmap for the low-numbered category and turn on some projects.

I've actually blogged about this and so there are some pictures there if you'd like to see how this looks. http://enyo.me/1pTE5KM

Best, Enyo
www.enyonam.com
 
enyonam said:
I started out with a list like that and it quickly became unwieldy for me.
I also have the problem you have which is I couldn't balance it all easily when it was in list format.

(btw, I am a heavy Evernote user as well. It's my list manager, a capture tool and one of my main references).

So now, my 20k-50k are in a mindmap. I have it organised by 10 life categories - beauty, health, organisation, knowledge, profession, recreation, relationships, service, spiritual and wealth. What's nice about this is that on a regular basis I rate each one of those categories on a scale of 1 to 10, and where the number is too low, I can take focus away from another category by perhaps even turning off some projects there, and then dive down into that part of the mindmap for the low-numbered category and turn on some projects.

I've actually blogged about this and so there are some pictures there if you'd like to see how this looks. http://enyo.me/1pTE5KM

Best, Enyo
www.enyonam.com
Click to expand...

I looked at your workflow and I found it interesting. As I understood, you dump/brainstorm everything that you think you want in your life or that is part of your life vision and then organize it in a mindmap under 8-10 main nodes representing Life Categories (Heallth, Career, Relationship, Finance, ...).
From there, for each and every item, you identify the Horizon of Focus it belongs (Habits / Projects / Ares of Focus / Goals 1-2 years / Life Vision 3-5 years).
Finally you tag each item with labels to identify those that are active / inactive.

However sometimes the line can be blurred between Horizon of Focus. For exemple, if I have an item "I am productive and efficient" it can be a goal (a state that can be reach in the future) and also an area of focus (a state to maintain once reached). How do you manage those?
 
Hi all, I thought I could leave my 2cents here.

For 30k I specifically limit the list to goals that I consider to be active, not only "I would like to" kind of goals.
So if you are adding something at 30k, make sure it somehow reflects down to your 20k and 10k and you are actively working on it OR at least have clear defined steps.
Otherwise, goes to someday/maybe list.
 
Nunodonato, I couldn't agree more. I have enough distracting me without thinking about goals I don't have the bandwidth for!
 
Me too. As I said above I only have two goals and both of them are "super-projects" that break down into projects and actions.
 
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