Making Realistic Goals

1. A VISION that avoids confusion (which requires the right attitude)
2. An INCENTIVE that speeds up change (often with a deadline)
3. ACTION PLANS that prevent dead ends and false starts (which require correct goals)
4. SKILLS that prevent anxiety
5. RESOURCES that prevent frustration

• What occupies most of your time?
• What do you want to achieve?
• What are my obstacles to it?
• Who else has done this already?

• Visualizing isn’t useful for framing your future status, but is critical for understanding specific parts of the goals you want to achieve.
• Finding motivation requires that we fully understand our purpose.
• Visualizing creates a sensory connection of experiencing, seeing, and feeling through intense imagination.
• Every successful person visualizes their purpose before they’ve created any results.

• If you’re competing against many people, sheer probabilistic chance gives you a disadvantage.
• Instead, aim for things that have a much smaller set of people competing for that space.
• Preferably, if you’re the only one doing something, then you’re safe from people trying to imitate you until they catch up.

• Your future outlook on life
• The routine of your future typical day
• Your future job
• The things you’ll be looking forward to
• Your future family
• The people in your social circle and your closest friends
• Your future physical appearance and fitness
• Your future home
• How you will manage conflicts and hardships
• What you want people to remember you for

• Why do I do (action), and what makes me do it?
• What do I dream about or love doing, and what has kept it from happening?
• Which skills am I good at, and how can I use them more?
• What do other people need, and where do they need it?
• Which opportunities can I use to expand my worldview or learn what I want to learn?
• What strengths and weaknesses do I have right now?
• What opportunities and threats surround me?

• State out loud, “Everything in my life is fine,” then pay close attention to any objections you feel
• If your life is going horribly, anything different than what you currently have been doing is a good start.
• Write down your top 5 problems in your life, then ask why you haven’t done anything about them
• Long-held beliefs, prejudices, and assumptions
• Communications with others
• Mindless routines and habits
• Insufficient time, energy, or resources for your goals
• “Voids” of wasted time, energy, or resources
• Your worst fears

• You should have assembled enough goals that you can place at least a few into each category.
• Short-term goals are things you can technically accomplish right now.
• Mid-term goals look out beyond a year, but before 5 years.
• Long-term goals span 5-15 years.
• As you make the goals, you should be able to feel that your tasks will naturally reflect all three domains at once.

1. Recognize their principle, technique, or idea.
2. Relate their principle, technique, or idea to your experience.
3. Assimilate the principle, technique, or idea as part of yourself.
4. Action it by doing something to prove you now live by it.

• Write a “personal leadership code” of 5–10 principles or purposes you wish to live by.
• Place those rules somewhere prominently.
• Every year, review those rules to be sure they still apply.

• It often takes longer than you think because you’re completely incapable of realizing all the challenges along the way.
• It’s also impossible to stay motivated when things don’t work out the way you expected.

• The most dramatic side effect of long-term planning isn’t from the actual plans, but from how we meditate heavily on the goal.
• Without long-term plans, we often don’t know when to stop or reconsider our actions.
• If we don’t expect to follow through with a goal, it’s better to save the discouragement and not start at all.

• If you aim for 20 BHAGs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals), you’ll probably only do about 3 of them.

• Good systems allow you to build toward ideas and should be flexible to adapt to changes in life.
• Goals, on the other hand, can be discouraging if they’re not correctly set.
• A good system is simple enough to easily provoke you to act, but sophisticated enough to capture your ideas.

• Extraordinary people did above-average things every day for a long time, which required them to simply push themselves slightly more than they were comfortable each day.
  • Making small improvements you can stick to over a long time always yields more results than a large-scale ambition.
• While each person can become extraordinary, they started with unremarkable sacrifices.
• To believe you can achieve something, you must start with something small.
  • We experience a psychological reward when finishing a task, so start something you can finish quickly.
  • Aiming for smaller goals has the advantage of building momentum toward larger goals later.
• Even skills for managing a large organization or starting a business start with remembering to floss every day or do laundry.

• By clarifying what you want, you free up your mind to focus on getting there.
• Jargon and technical terminology separate you from the statement’s meaning, so avoid them as much as possible.
• Avoid extremes and always/never statements, since they tend to foster mental illness.
• Set clear deadlines with a follow-up date to examine your results.

• Work forward from your opportunities, not back from some long-term vision.
• Contrary to most success “advice”, your goal will change much faster than your natural abilities and situation.
• If you must think long-term, imagine the future position that will give you the most opportunities, not the ones that make you happiest or seem most promising.
  1. Clearly define what your problems are.
  2. Figure out all the things that would most likely guarantee failure.
  3. Carefully consider actions you can take to avoid every one of those things.

• Paper, notebooks, sticky notes
• To-do list and note-taking software
• Journals
• Gantt charts, mind maps, spreadsheets

• Create a natural flow from your brainstorming into results.
• Use any medium you feel adds value, and avoid what you don’t like.
• Constantly look for more ways to slice and capture your information better.
• If you want a system that lasts more than a few years and is on a computer, make sure you can directly access the files with at least two or three free software programs (e.g., text files, .doc files).

• You can only organize after you know what you want to do.

• Simple problems are relatively straightforward, even if they have many steps (e.g., most cooking).
• Complicated problems can also be broken down into steps, but there’s no straightforward system to easily use for them (e.g., building a rocket).
• Complex problems are elaborate, interdependent situations that are difficult to simplify (e.g., parenting).

• Remove unnecessary steps or spin them off into projects.
• Group ideas to understand your ambitions.

• After you’ve made your plan, imagine you’ve received a vision that the plan is doomed to fail, then ask why it would.
• Expect every possible thing that could go wrong, then make plans for those.

• If the task breaks into multiple days or multiple parts, it needs subdivision.
• Vague tasks need more clarification, which may require spelling out exactly what to do.
• Every task will start with an “action” verb:
  • Single-step verbs only take a few minutes:
    • Book, brainstorm, buy, call, copy, discuss, draft, edit, email, fill out, find, gather, load, outline, print, purge, read, record, register, research, review, schedule, verify, wait for, write
  • Multi-step verbs take hours or days:
    • Analyze, build, complete, decide, design, ensure, finalize, finish, handle, implement, install, launch, look into, maximize, organize, research, resolve, roll out, set up

• What do I need to create results?
• What skills do I need?
• To make it happen, what resources am I missing?
• What can I control to manage things currently beyond my control?

• We tend to postpone tasks without deadlines forever.
• Without a specific end date, we tend to become perfectionists or lazy.

• Use tags, titles, highlights, and categories liberally.

• For this reason, large-scale success can take up to four times as much work as you’d expect.
• After you’ve made goals you know you must do, don’t think about anything but the present task.

• If you don’t have time, make a “2 Minute List”.

• You should be able to finish the task in the specified time.
• Add room for comfort and error between tasks.

• To avoid wasting time, prioritize the most important tasks at the top.
• We can only complete 6–8 tasks on any given day.
• List fewer tasks you know you’ll finish instead of many you may not get to.
• If you’re done and have time, you can always do something else as a bonus task.

• Aim for To-Do List Zero every day, where there is nothing left on your list.
• Either reconsider the value of everything you couldn’t finish, or move it to the next period’s list.

• While there are many ways to manage your to-do list, the best solution is often the simplest.
• Start with a plain text file or notepad, then work your way up as you need degrees of complexity.
• Technology gives many answers to problems, but the wide variety of options can be very time-consuming.
• Regardless of what system it is, it’ll eventually fail at something.

For cleaning up creative brainstorming.

• Action Items — steps to get the project done.
• Back-burner Items — interesting ideas that don’t quite fit into the project.
• Reference Items — resources and information for completing the project.

For goal-oriented people who want a complex timeline.

1. Set three outcomes you want for the upcoming year.
2. Set three outcomes you want for the upcoming month that line up with that year’s goals.
3. Set three outcomes you want for the upcoming week that line up with that month’s goals.
4. Set three outcomes you want for the upcoming day that line up with that week’s goals.
5. Perform the day’s or week’s tasks.
6. Adjust at the end of the respective periods for the next periods

For people who like measuring everything.

1. Remove any factors that may mess with your energy, such as caffeine.
2. Record what you’re accomplishing each hour you’re awake.
3. Search for patterns in your biological rhythms after collecting productivity data.

For people who are constantly disorganized and find productivity systems difficult.

1. Make a categorized index at the beginning of the document, which you’ll add to as you add components.
2. Write out a future month-by-month log of general tasks you need to do.
3. Write out a daily log to indicate daily activities.
4. Use “signifiers” as bullet points to indicate specific needs you have (task, note, event, task migrated, task scheduled, task complete, etc.).
5. Organize your monthly goals into categories.
6. Store collections at the back of the document you want to accomplish across a year.
7. Cross off items as you complete them, and transfer important uncompleted tasks to the next month.
• More info here

For people who are incredibly uncertain about numerous things.



Organize the problems by their constraints and associations with other things.

1. Simple things are inherently obvious, so they need sensing, then grouping, then responding to them.
2. Complicated things are “known unknowns”, so they require sensing, then analyzing them, then responding.
3. Complex things are difficult to understand, so they need probing further, then sensing, then responding to them.
4. Chaotic things are completely unknown, so they require acting on them to find out what they are, sensing what they are, then responding.

For people who can’t make up their minds.

1. Write down all the options on the left side of a piece of paper.
2. Write each of the factors you want to consider across the top.
3. Give each of the options a “score” based on each factor.
4. Total up the scores to figure out the best decision, and give weight to factors if you want a specific decision.

For people who have a difficult time honoring convictions.

1. Declare a small and intentional routine or habit you want to stop or start.
2. Every day you do the task, cross off the day on a paper wall calendar.
3. Try to avoid “breaking” your chain of days.

For procrastinators who miss deadlines or rush their work.

Inspired by Mark Twain’s quote, “If you eat a live frog in the morning, nothing worse can happen the rest of the day.”

1. Order your tasks from hardest to easiest:
   1. Things you’d rather not do, but must do
   2. Things you want to do and must do
   3. Things you want to do but don’t need to
   4. Things you’d rather not do and don’t need to
   
   
2. Work on the hardest task first:
   • The most important
   • The most uncomfortable
   • The most mind-numbing
   • The most difficult thing to do

For people who feel controlled by urgent things.



Only do what is important (i.e., “above the line”) and disregard urgency.

1. Urgent things are seldom important, and important things are rarely urgent.
2. Most people move to Quadrant 3 from Quadrant 1 because Quadrant 2 never feels necessary.
3. Productive people move to Quadrant 2 by disregarding instant gratification.

For people who don’t trust their ability to focus.

1. Make a vertical list that categorizes everything you do all day, with a few additional entries for miscellaneous needs.
2. Make a horizontal list indicating every 15 minutes of that day.
3. Set a timer for every 15 minutes.
4. Record what you do every 15 minutes, backfilling if you can’t get to it.
5. Review what you did after you’ve accumulated data, noting patterns across days and weeks.

For people who want to organize plenty of loose ends.

1. Collect every single thought, scrap, process, and idea into one “box”.
2. Run everything through the GTD Flowchart:

   

3. Organize the results backward from large-scale goals:
   1. Define your greatest purposes and principles.
   2. Visualize the outcome you want that fulfills those purposes and principles.
   3. Brainstorm how to create that outcome.
   4. Organize what to do to achieve that outcome.
   5. Identify the next actions to achieve your purposes and principles.
4. Routinely review what to do next:
   1. Make a “Tickler File” of 43 folders (31 for each day and 12 for each month).
   2. Review the Tickler file each day and month to remember what to do.
   3. Purge tasks and clear out old or obsolete things.
5. Do your tasks based on available time and energy, context, and priority.
• More info here

For people who want prioritized lists more than graphs.

Group tasks into categories of MUST, SHOULD, COULD, and WOULD.

1. MUST — non-negotiable.
2. SHOULD — also important, but not for today.
3. COULD — whatever you want to do that isn’t necessary.
4. WOULD — may make sense if it didn’t drain so many resources.

For staying focused when you want to automate your work.

1. Specify a task you want done more than a few times per day, then put that many paper clips in a container.
2. Place one paper clip in a second container when you complete the task.
3. Empty the paper clips from the first container by the end of the day.

For staying focused when you have many projects and many responsibilities.

Classify all the information in your life into four major domains:

1. Projects — short-term efforts in your work or life that you’re working on right now.
2. Area — long-term responsibilities you want to manage over time.
3. Resource — topics or interests that may be useful in the future.
4. Archive — inactive items from the other three categories.

For people who dislike planning and seem to have plenty of unfinished projects.

1. Set up “boards” as columns from left to right. (Trello is an online solution)
2. Label the boards at the top.
   1. Not Started
   2. In Process
   3. Completed
3. Place all the tasks on the boards.
4. Break out even more boards to capture all the phases of completion.
5. Move all the tasks across the boards as they’re completed.
   • Subdivide and separate partially completed tasks.
6. If you need to, arrange the board into a grid by placing Priority or Members as a vertical dimension for the tasks.

For getting things done with plenty of distractions.

1. Break down all tasks into pieces that take less than 25 minutes.
2. Focus on that task alone for 25 minutes, then take a 5-minute break (aka a Pomodoro).
3. Do 4 Pomodoros, then take a 30-minute break or end your day.

For people who want to keep in touch with many people without relying on memory.

• A list — valuable people, contact every 3 weeks
• B list — important people, contact every 2 months
• C list — most people, contact every 6 months
• D list — demoted people, contact once a year to make sure you still have their correct info

For people who have a difficult time making their goals connect to tasks.

• Specific — numerous details (SCHEMES acronym)
  • Space — is there room for it?
  • Cash — can you afford it?
  • Helpers/people — are the right people able to assist?
  • Equipment — do you have the right tools?
  • Materials — do you have enough to finish?
  • Expertise — have you researched to the point of thorough-enough understanding?
  • Systems — do you have something to do it with?
• Measurable — how much or how long?
• Attainable/Assignable — who can do it and when?
• Realistic — given everything, is it possible?
• Time-based — what’s the deadline to re-evaluate progress?

For people who want to organize plenty of loose ends, but don’t want to take the time to organize their tasks.

1. Take your system everywere.
2. Capture everything you have, the moment you think of it.
3. Break the tasks into small pieces you can reasonably do quickly.
4. Prioritize the tasks with due dates for anything that’s important but not urgent.
5. Every day, get to to-do list zero.
6. Measure your progress over time and keep adjusting your plans.

For people who have vague feelings about what they want to do, but can’t connect them to their daily activities.

1. Set yearly “themes” for what you want to do, with ideal outcomes for each.
2. Write out daily journal entries on how you’ve done in light of those large-scale themes.
3. Track daily measurable habits to see how well you’ve persevered.

For fighting against interruptions and distractions.

1. Group tasks by the type of work they’re made of.
2. Estimate how much time each task will take.
3. Block off specific times of the day for specific types of work.
4. Enforce each block with a timer.

One popular variation is Day-Theming, with each weekday dedicated to a type of work.

For people who have concerns about unfinished tasks.

1. Start with a To-Done List
   1. Record what you finish.
   2. Focus on your progress alone and ignore incomplete tasks.
   3. Review the To-Done List at the end of each day.
2. When tasks stay incomplete, make a To-Don’t List
   1. Write down a list of activities, bad habits, and distractions that get in the way of your productivity.
   2. Check off each To-Don’t as you avoid each of them.

• The word “no” is a boundary you or someone else could dislike.
• People with low emotional intelligence are usually offended by the word “no”.

• Saying “no” to something is saying “yes” to something else.
• Rebuild your goals for new purposes, but never do anything outside them.

• Evading people creates false expectations.
• Saying “yes” ensures you never have enough time.
• Compromising is often a variation of saying “yes”.

• I have too much on my plate right now./I can’t fit anything else into my schedule.
• I don’t know when I can do it, but I know someone who can help you right now.
• I can help you tomorrow, but here are some resources that can help you today.
• Please ask me in a week/month/year.
• I would, but only if you’re okay with me dropping [task] to do it.
• Can we talk about this later?/Can you please ask me later?
• I wish I could help, but I’m trying to cut back.
• I want to help, but I would like to focus on your task without distractions.

• Review anything you’re instinctively saying “yes” to:
  • Consider the worst thing that could happen if you don’t do a task.
  • Systematically purge anything irrelevant.
  • Renegotiate commitments as soon as you realize they’ve become burdensome.
• Move ego-boosting activities that aren’t helping you or others:
  • Attending a club that doesn’t challenge you
  • Church activities that don’t grow or help anyone
  • Sitting on a volunteer board
  • Pontificating about successes with others
  • Unproductive tasks you’ve mastered

• Assigning 2 hours may turn a 30-minute task into an hour.
• Assigning 20 minutes can make a 30-minute task low-quality or stressful.
• Without experience, our subconscious tends to estimate ideal circumstances, so always add 20% more to it.

• Sharpen your understanding of time by testing specific lengths and deadlines for tasks.
• Give extra room in your schedule to think, plan, and fail.
• Most people use some tricks to “feel” through their events:
  • Declare what they want
  • Keep a productivity journal
  • Make a story about what happened

• Results are volatile and can usually be delayed.
• Most successful people track how well they change their habits.
• Some people try to manage work, but our time estimations are usually very inaccurate.

• It might feel counter-intuitive, but planning for leisure time gives room to relax and recuperate.
• In fact, the world’s greatest ideas usually come from people relaxing or doing something unrelated.

• Since talking is easier than doing anything, talking about them removes the motivation to perform.

• “I can’t wait to finish my book!” instead of “I’m writing a book right now.”
• “I’m eager to show my new design.” instead of “I’m making a design.”
• “I want to share my findings.” instead of “I’ve been researching that subject.”

• Revisit them monthly, weekly, or daily, complexity-depending.

• Strategy influences long-term effects, so you should consider it carefully.
• Tactics, on the other hand, create short-term results that become immediately apparent.

• Make your unfinished goals smaller.
• Consider new pathways with your current position.

• On the way, our original passion can completely shift.
• We should always ask if our “finish line” is the same.
• Align any new short-term goals to existing long-term ones, and vice versa.

• What you can do to improve
• What you’re doing that you shouldn’t
• What you’re not doing that you should
• Whether other people are benefiting from your actions
• The degree of investment you feel toward your goals and tasks

• The things you should or ought to be doing
• What do other people think about your goals
• Whether you’re marketing yourself enough
• Whether your network is growing well enough
• How much you’re honoring what you promised

• How much skill you have or developed
• How much knowledge you’ve learned
• Your ability to handle the burden of your workload
• How much you’ve changed
• The quality and quantity of your communications
• How fast you respond to others
• Your ability to focus by yourself
• Your quality of work in a group and delegate responsibility
• How you make others feel and respond
• Willingness to take on more responsibilities
• How consistent and reliable you’ve been

• How much you’ve done
• The remaining number or scope of tasks you have left

• Natural assumptions you’re making
• Habits you’re slowly developing or losing
• The things you spend the most time thinking about and doing

• You won’t get to do everything you want to do.
• Your estimations about your capabilities and others’ are usually way off.
• Whenever possible, avoid bias by measuring with numbers instead of comparisons, or compare yourself to your past self.

• The entire reason you’re setting goals is to create certainty about what you want to do.
• The goals can’t be so specific that you lose the overall reason you’re doing the goals in the first place.
• If you have too many goals you’ll focus on the easy ones to simply cut down the pile.
• If the goals are too short-term, you won’t see desirable results beyond a few years’ time.
• If your goals make you more anxious than excited, you are not pursuing your passion.