Really like this kind of "Reverse Engineering" mindset of our goals !
I use it personally, with one additional twist : Instead on starting with my year goals, I start with a value : "In N Years I want to be the kind of person that does X,Y,Z"
Then, from those values I derive :
- How far I am from those values
- How can I close the gap this year
Then once I have the gap I want to close in a year (not too easy and not too hard) => I do the same process as Jordan !
But a great read, you put words on some internal thinking I've done, thanks !
I love the action-basee checklist. I just realized that I often to look through my reading list and cannot make decide.🫣 this post reminds me that I should pick books out of the reading list to another list that I can look and then go reading without spending time to decide which one to read.
10/10 great post on how to set goals, action-based checklist and etc! 👍
I felt the same way when I did my action based checklist for books too. It was nice to do a pre-filtering of what I want to read this year and then in each quarter. Don't have to, but if it helps, it helps! For me, it was a nice breath of fresh air to know, "Ok, I just need to find time to read this 1 book" rather than, "I need to find time to look through my entire collection and figure out what I want to read then read it"
I'm also not a goal-setter; I'm more like a sailor in the open sea, adjusting as I go. I aim for a direction and then try to support it with whatever I've got.
We watched Ali's video where he mentioned the Wheel of Life when it came out, it's a big one. We'll be doing this experiment with my wife this year.
Thank you for this article. This articulates so well exactly what I had in my mind when I intentionally try to set out goals for me. Really nice read 🙌🏽
Breaking down our goals is so important if we want to accomplish them.
It reminds me of approaching a massive new product feature or coding project. It’s overwhelming and unlikely to get done unless you break it down into understandable, trackable and clear steps.
I also loved what you said about visually the end (what you want or where you want to be) and then working back from there.
100%. I had so many analogies in the article originally of how it relates to shipping big projects, but decided to cut it down to just 1 or 2 for brevity. But it's exactly the same way.
I know that some people use the same apps you use for major projects like Linear, Asana, Trello, etc. for stuff like this and it makes sense why. It's exactly the same just on an individual level
Thank you so much, Dennis. Agreed that is my favorite part now that I have a process set up for it.
I do daily planning, weekly planning, and monthly planning, and its nice to know I don't have an infinite checklist but just one to do for the day, or the week, or the month and have a process in place to remind me too
Thanks! This genuinely cleared my path for starting a SaaS with focus groups. Can't believe I tried to set a SMART goal without knowing about focus areas.💀
Thanks Jordan, great advice! I feel like even more so than goals, it’s helpful to identify the guiding principles/values, which are impossible to ever exhaust. For example, “get (X) more friends this year” is a goal, but the guiding principle is “I want to be more kind/listening/curious about others”. And then short-term goal setting guided by these principles helps us to grow in these areas.
Outcome based goal setting is better than creating a large todolist. Most of the new year resolutions fail because of the lack of why. If you the reason behind a goal, then it will motivate you further.
I LOVE your use of the Todoist board to organize your overall goals by focus area! I just started using Todoist and it's an excellent use of the tool...which I will absolutely be borrowing!
Thanks Jordan for writing this. I have always struggled with Goals and every time I end up repeating my mistakes. Liked the way you have brought systematic approach to setting and tracking goals.
Nice article, Jordan. I also share a similar approach of breaking down from yearly goals to quarters.
In your example, you can break 8 books as 2 per quarter. But it's also good for other goals to allocate a quarter to do them. This removes the overwhelming feeling of having 10 goals "open" at the same time and not knowing where to start
Hey, thanks for this. This is EXACTLY what I needed. You put into words the thoughts I had in my mind. Thank you!!!
Ahh, that's so amazing to hear, Rio. Thank you so much for sharing with me
really resonate with this idea, it highlights the difference between wandering and travelling. Great read!
So cool to hear! Thank you for your comment!
Really like this kind of "Reverse Engineering" mindset of our goals !
I use it personally, with one additional twist : Instead on starting with my year goals, I start with a value : "In N Years I want to be the kind of person that does X,Y,Z"
Then, from those values I derive :
- How far I am from those values
- How can I close the gap this year
Then once I have the gap I want to close in a year (not too easy and not too hard) => I do the same process as Jordan !
But a great read, you put words on some internal thinking I've done, thanks !
Yes, 100%! I think that's closely similar to identifying the focus area.
There is likely an implicit exercise in that which I missed to explain in exactly what you said.
"Who do I want to be and what are the focus areas which will bring me toward that?"
I love the action-basee checklist. I just realized that I often to look through my reading list and cannot make decide.🫣 this post reminds me that I should pick books out of the reading list to another list that I can look and then go reading without spending time to decide which one to read.
10/10 great post on how to set goals, action-based checklist and etc! 👍
Thank you so much!! That's so nice to hear.
I felt the same way when I did my action based checklist for books too. It was nice to do a pre-filtering of what I want to read this year and then in each quarter. Don't have to, but if it helps, it helps! For me, it was a nice breath of fresh air to know, "Ok, I just need to find time to read this 1 book" rather than, "I need to find time to look through my entire collection and figure out what I want to read then read it"
I'm also not a goal-setter; I'm more like a sailor in the open sea, adjusting as I go. I aim for a direction and then try to support it with whatever I've got.
We watched Ali's video where he mentioned the Wheel of Life when it came out, it's a big one. We'll be doing this experiment with my wife this year.
I totally get you, Akos.
One of Ali's videos that resonated with me was where he said, we kind of implicitly do have goals, but we just don't define them explicitly.
I'm viewing this exercise as doing that explicit callout
Thank you for this article. This articulates so well exactly what I had in my mind when I intentionally try to set out goals for me. Really nice read 🙌🏽
That's such a nice compliment, Johnny. Thank you so much!
Breaking down our goals is so important if we want to accomplish them.
It reminds me of approaching a massive new product feature or coding project. It’s overwhelming and unlikely to get done unless you break it down into understandable, trackable and clear steps.
I also loved what you said about visually the end (what you want or where you want to be) and then working back from there.
Thanks Jordan, solid and helpful read. 🤝
100%. I had so many analogies in the article originally of how it relates to shipping big projects, but decided to cut it down to just 1 or 2 for brevity. But it's exactly the same way.
I know that some people use the same apps you use for major projects like Linear, Asana, Trello, etc. for stuff like this and it makes sense why. It's exactly the same just on an individual level
Hey Jordan,
thx for this super roundup. I really like to see many different peoples approaches to writing these.
I’ve been through most of what you describe. I like the types of goals you lined out. Each type should be approached a little bit differently.
You also mention one of the most important things imho: checking in with your targets regularly. I see „forgetting“ about our goals as the ultimate nemesis of personal accomplishment. I recently wrote about this very topic: https://open.substack.com/pub/fractalproductivity/p/how-to-finally-stop-forgetting-stuff
Thx again and Godspeed for 2024!
Thank you so much, Dennis. Agreed that is my favorite part now that I have a process set up for it.
I do daily planning, weekly planning, and monthly planning, and its nice to know I don't have an infinite checklist but just one to do for the day, or the week, or the month and have a process in place to remind me too
Thanks! This genuinely cleared my path for starting a SaaS with focus groups. Can't believe I tried to set a SMART goal without knowing about focus areas.💀
Whoa, that's so cool!!! Thanks for sharing with me. I suppose that means if you win big I can get 1% since I was in early? 😂
Thanks Jordan, great advice! I feel like even more so than goals, it’s helpful to identify the guiding principles/values, which are impossible to ever exhaust. For example, “get (X) more friends this year” is a goal, but the guiding principle is “I want to be more kind/listening/curious about others”. And then short-term goal setting guided by these principles helps us to grow in these areas.
Love that callout, Denis. Definitely agree. I like the idea of doing it in layers and working downward or upward from there.
I think that guiding principle layer would go higher than the layers I included in the article, which I agree makes sense to have
Definitely- and breaking down goals into steps as you described makes it that much easier to follow through!
Outcome based goal setting is better than creating a large todolist. Most of the new year resolutions fail because of the lack of why. If you the reason behind a goal, then it will motivate you further.
Yeah, the outcomes are great though sometimes its hard to have direct control over it.
I agree with you though that generally its better to start with something like:
- I want to lose 20 pounds
And work backwards into:
- I want to go to the gym 3 times per week and eat healthy by doing X
Rather than starting at:
- I want to go to the gym 3 times per week and having no strong "why".
That's why I advocate for whatever type of goal you set, to make sure you define your "why" behind it
I LOVE your use of the Todoist board to organize your overall goals by focus area! I just started using Todoist and it's an excellent use of the tool...which I will absolutely be borrowing!
Thank you for your continuously helpful content!
Ahh so cool to hear. Thank you, Mindi. Always appreciative of your thoughts and feedback.
Thanks Jordan for writing this. I have always struggled with Goals and every time I end up repeating my mistakes. Liked the way you have brought systematic approach to setting and tracking goals.
I am gonna try smart goals this year. 😀
Nice article, Jordan. I also share a similar approach of breaking down from yearly goals to quarters.
In your example, you can break 8 books as 2 per quarter. But it's also good for other goals to allocate a quarter to do them. This removes the overwhelming feeling of having 10 goals "open" at the same time and not knowing where to start