David Hollingworth

If you’re anything like me you’ve probably got dozens of on-going goals or projects that you went to get done. How do you keep track of all of these and ensure nothing gets missed?

Part of the answer is in having regular reviews; but then you need to have something organized to look at when it comes to review time. Now you can either go high-tech (computerized) or low-tech (paper based) in this and there’s often an on-line debate as to which is better and what tool is best for the job. It’s not what you use that matters, it’s making it work for you that counts.

My current goal tracking system starts with an All Projects list.

The All Projects list is used as a high level overview of all the goals I want to achieve. An entry on here ensures none of my goals slips under the carpet and gets forgotten about.

I was amazed when I wrote out my All Projects list that I had so many things I wanted to get done. It was no wonder some things never got addressed - there were just too many of them to keep them all going around in my head. Here’s the first page of the list in full and thumbnails to the second and third pages if you want to take a look:

That’s one big list of projects; but some of these aren’t active yet. In fact I’ve only got eight active projects out of this list of thirty one. When I decide I’m going to address a project or a goal I move it onto a Current Projects card.

Now I can see the eight goals or projects that are currently active and need me to spend some time on so that’s narrowed the field down somewhat. However some of these projects are temporarily on hold so I use transparent sticky tabs to highlight those projects that can be worked at present:

At every review this shows me which goals I should and can be addressing now. At review time I can check my All Projects list for anything that has come into scope and needs further work; these get moved to my Current Projects list. I then check my Current Projects to see which projects need my immediate attention and which are on hold.

In a future post I’ll be looking at how the project cards integrate with task lists and to-do lists. Until then I’d love to read how you manage your high level goals, particularly if you’re using a low-tech system.

I set my weight loss goal on 25th April and it’s now mid-June so it’s definitely time for a review. I had a fairly major life change at the end of May when I was made redundant. So another reason to take stock and review.

I followed my goal review method and above is the resulting map (please click the thumbnail for a larger view). From this you can see that:

1. Relevance is still very high - loosing the weight is still very important to me
2. But that the walking goal I set for the month of May didn’t pan out as expected. The feedback here is that:
   1. Things started well for the first week or so
   2. Then I got ill with a stomach bug
   3. For the latter half of the month the redundancy proceedings took over and completely threw out any sort of routine

   It boils down to the fact that I found it impossible to establish the new walking habit at lunchtime because I needed to be more flexible at that time. I could have done it; but I chose not to!

3. Any new sub-goals to contribute to my weight loss goal?
   1. I can cycle instead of walk. I’ve always enjoyed cycling and used to cycle a lot in my thirties. This needs a new goal set with targets. I’ve much more motivation to cycle than walk, and I’ve a new bike!
   2. Do the ‘I Can Make You Thin’ 90 day challenge. This is a book (and a TV series) from Paul McKenna. I followed the TV series and I believe the challenge is based on some sound principles. This too needs a SMART goal that I started to sketch out on my review card.
4. Finally, Next Actions! What am I going to do next to kick start the weight loss goal again?
   • Set a SMART cycling goal with weekly targets, making it very easy to start so that I can establish the habit.
   • Set the 90 day challenge and follow through the work book.

I’ll be following up on these new goals in a latter posting.

By the way, I have lost some weight! I lost 5 pounds during my stomach upset and, at the last weighing, I’d kept them off!

Life has a habit of dealing out distractions. Just when you think you’ve everything tied down, you’ve the goals set, you know how you’re going to get there and everything is going swimmingly and then the slightest little thing an take you off on a tangent.

When you realize this has happened then it’s time to take stock and have a thorough review. This isn’t about, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” as the White Rabbit in Alice In Wonderland was wont to say. This is about saying, “This is where I am now, what’s the next step I need to take”.

Here’s my recommendations for a goals review;

• Make a list of your top level goals, hopefully you have these in one place somewhere already. If not then write them down now.
• For each goal in turn take a separate piece of paper (I prefer index cards myself) or use some software like MindManager; and write a single goal on that paper.
• Now ask yourself:
  • Is this goal still relevant to you? Has your life changed in any way so that the goal simply isn’t worth pursuing? If the goal doesn’t pass this test then bin it now.
  • What are the challenges you’re currently facing in the completion of this goal and what resources do you need now? Note down anything that comes up, it’s possible there are some hidden blockers here that will have to be addressed. The sooner their out in the open the better.
  • List any and all sub-goals. Revisiting the goals in this way can often bring additional goals out into the open that you didn’t know existed. Or possibly take you down a different path to your goal.
  • Lastly decide what the very next action is to be for this goal and any sub-goals. Write them down, it helps to make them stand out from the rest of the list or map so you can quickly identify the tasks next time you look at the paper.

Do this for each goal in turn. When you’re done collate all the ‘next actions’ for your goals and start work on the first one. Now you’re both physically back in touch with your goals and have readjusted your mind set into goal oriented mode.

Benjamin Franklin once said:

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

You’ve possibly heard that quote so many times you’re blue in the face with it; but never the less it’s true. If we want to achieve our goals we must prepare for our success.

Recently I suggested you make a list of your long term goals; anything that you want to achieve in a few months time right out to life long goals like having a nice home to retire to. These goals may seem very remote and consequently you may find it difficult to plan for them; but these are the goals that require the most planning to ensure success.

Let’s take the retirement home as an example. Suppose you want to be in a position to purchase a house to retire to in, say, 20 years time. So you create your SMART goal:

• Specific - purchase a 3 bedroom house with a sea view. You’d want to make this much more specific; but I shall save space.
• Measurable - You’ve bought the house and moved in.
• Attainable - So long as you start early enough this is attainable (alternatively you could rob a bank; but I don’t condone such action to attain your goals).
• Relevant - contributes to my family and environment values.
• Timed - You’ve 20 years.

So where do we go from here? Forget about the goal for 20 years and then say, “OK, missed that one”? No!

The next step is to brainstorm all the things we think might, in some way, help us to get to our goal. To do this set aside some quiet time where you’re not going to be interrupted. If this is a goal to be shared with your partner or work colleagues then include them in the brain storming session.

Here’s a quick brainstorm I did for our example goal;

• Raise the finances
• Find a new house
• Sell the current house
• Move house

The first item, “Raise the finances” needs some further investigation as we’ve identified here another goal, a sub-goal of the goal to buy a house by the sea.

Sub-goals need to be treated in just the same way as the main goals; they need to be SMART;

• Specific - “Raise the finances” isn’t specific. We need to specify what our goal is, I.e. how much we want to spend on the house in 20 years. Raise 2.5 million in savings is specific.
• Measurable - Just look in the savings account or get a statement from our stock broker.
• Attainable - Yes because we’re putting the work in now to achieve our long term goals
• Revelent - Yes because it contributes directly to the parent goal
• Timed - We have a little less than the parent goal to get this done; say 19 years.

Now we have a (slightly) shorter time scale goal to raise 2.5 million in savings in 19 years. So we perform the same process on this goal; brain storm all the things we need to do to accomplish it:

• Get a better paid job - one that earns at least 100K a year
• Invest savings

Two new goals! Both of these need to be done as soon as possible to get the maximum financial gain. Investing the savings we can accomplish within three months. The search for a better paid job might take 6 months. Again these goals get the SMART treatment.

By now you’ll have got the picture. Keep breaking each step down into it’s sub-goals and make each sub-goal SMART. At the end of the process you’ll have mapped out all the stepping stone that are going to take you to your goal, even if it is twenty years in the future.

If you’ve any questions at all on this process please don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments. Next we’ll be looking at making goals work for you on a day to day basis.

Stay tuned!

I’ve already made a number of posts about making goals SMART; but I read recently on businessball.com a reference to SMARTER goals.

The SMART bit was basically the same as I’ve already described, which left me wondering what the ER was. Well the E stands for Ethical and the R for Recorded.

The Ethical bit I’m not convinced by. As I’ve also said in another post; your goals are ultimately defined by your values. Now if you have the values of, say, a bank robber then you’re goal may be to rob a bank. Not very ethical; but the SMART part still works very well for this goal as it does for any other.

Maybe the E should stand for Enthusing. If the goal doesn’t fill you with enthusiasm then you have to ask yourself, “Why am I setting this goal?”.

The R for recorded I’m much more in favour of. This means write your goals down and record the steps you take in achieving them. Not only does this give you a record of what you’ve done but every time you write about your goal you’re reinforcing it in your mind.

So make your SMART goals SMARTER by adding Enthusiasm and Recording them.

(By the way if yu want something digital to record them in then I’d not hesitate to recommend The Journal from David RM Software).