> A review of your “ideal you,” your ideal future, your major goals and desires in life.
One 'problem' with many task management methods is that when you slip (which most of us do) there's an aversion to opening up your Wunderlist/Excel/moleskin months later and seeing how far your current self is behind your aspirational self.
Task managers are good at atomizing goals into objectives but overlook motivations and outcomes. They lack a 'remind me again what's in it for future-me?' feature.
I'm currently attempting to code such a feature into my app. By way of example, take learning French as a goal:
* Tasks: the usual list of todos. Go to evening classes; Watch 5 hours of TV5Monde each week. etc.
* Resources: links to Youtube videos, uploaded language podcasts, communities on the web.
* Inspiration: images of French cities you want to visit, scenes from a favorite French film, quotes, a mini journal-entry about that French girl or guy you met that one time. Snippets of things the French-speaking-you will appreciate.
* Insights: how much time you're dedicating to the goal, hours already spent and estimated completion date based on your current rate of productivity.
So your task manager serves not only as a checklist but also as a control-room (or if you like, moodboard) for that goal. Tasks, tools, motivation and a feedback loop all in one place.
I use it too, and it's been shockingly effective for something so simple. I find the prompt to _think_ about what I _really_ want to do incredibly inspiring
Love the inspirational stream...they could be global and shared between users; I often think about this for giving up smoking, ever time I get a craving I want to be reminded that it'll pass, that going outside to take a breather is okay and that spending your life worrying about getting ill is very repetitive.
You're definately on to something here. Not sure if "Inspiration" is the right wording. Perhaps this could be configurable.
I personally do not need "Resources" or dairy features in my tasklist system. (Then again, this is typically you get 1001 opinions when asking 1000 people).
I'm trying a new approach for 2017: personal goals, made public [1].
A public GitHub repo where my goals are recorded as issues and accomplishments are closed tickets. I've created milestones for each year (e.g. 2016, 2017) to track my progress. I've backdated some of my 2016 acheivements to get a feel for how it will work.
I hope that writing down my aspirations for the year ahead will help me fulfil them.
I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but you should watch this TED talk about publishing goals: https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yo... The TLDR is "people who talk about their ambitions may be less likely to achieve them." As with many TED talks, the message is thought-provoking but not guaranteed to be based on solid science.
In any case, best of luck. I hope you achieve your goals -- but please don't interpret this encouragement as false social reality.
Sivers later clarified that it's only true for "identity goals" where telling people about the goal is part of what the goal is. Like "I want to be a runner." By saying so you're making it sort of more true in that you're identifying as at least a wannabe runner.
I believe that for specific, discipline-oriented goals -- like "I want to run 3 times a week" -- you're well advised to shout it from the rooftops, as common sense would dictate.
I've found that using one of Sivers' alternate approaches - "I'm going to do x and please kick my ass if I don't" - works remarkably well. Of course you need to choose people who actually will kick your ass, otherwise you start figuring out who amongst your network will let you slide and tell only them, defeating the purpose of the exercise.
"kick my ass" can also be translated to a major monetary penalty - Steve Kamb tells us about his friend who bet $500 to his friends if he didn't lose weight
I applaud making goals and reaching them, but when I see 'Learn ELM' (or, in fact, 'Learn X') that was marked as completed after 2 days it makes me wonder if it shouldn't be, in reality something like 'Play with X'. I've been doing some things from that list for quite a while, some of them even for years and I still am not sure if I'd dare to say that I've 'Learned X'.
That was a 2016 goal that I backdated (I had the goal months ago, but only just recorded it, and immediately marked as 'done'). To get a feel for how it will work going forward to 2017.
Perhaps I should make the goals more concrete than "learn". As an example: build a form to do X in Elm and deploy to production. Agree that learning is an ongoing, and never ending goal.
There is evidence that making your goals public actually makes you less likely to accomplish them because the act of being praised is in itself a reward.
Interesting to hear that. I didn't look into the evidence about public goal setting and its affect on achieving them. I'll need to reflect on the approach and report back.
#meta -- don't report back :) keep those to yourself. make a post at the end of the year to reflect on what you ended up doing, not what you plan to do.
I don't follow any specific goals or planning but I have come to realise the value of their intended purpose. I think many people — as did I — see these lists as overburdening. But, the more I have worked towards creating or accomplishing something the more I have realised how many things are under realm of attainment with a little push. These small accomplishments make you more confident and happier.
Earlier, I lacked focus to read a book without fiddling around my phone and managing only a few pages in a spurt. Few months back, I pushed myself to concentrate and try to finish even if my mind pushed me towards just checking HN / Reddit. I managed to finish four in a month which is not a bad considering that earlier figure was one. I didn't lose any hours of my happier life but spent some in being more knowledgable.
Even without the knowledge, I find intrinsic value in training yourself to focus. Also find it helps to focus on how the activity is enriching myself, or future benefit. I might want to leave a sink full of dishes overnight, but if I do them now I frame it as a gift to my future self and the amount of relief I feel having tied up loose ends like this each day is enormous. The more I do it, the better and more efficient the habit becomes, the less time it takes.
There is more resistance to get started because of inertia but once I get going that inertia works in my favor.
I find that thinking about things I have to do is much less enjoyable than actually doing those things. It's definitely true that the more often you convince yourself to just get up and at 'em the easier it is to overcome those mental hurdles in the future.
I remember a classic breakdown of 7 areas of life which has in a few places when reading about goals etc: Career, Family, Financial, Mental, Physical, Social, Spiritual. These aren't terrible decent, but I think Alex's breakdown is much better for sparking useful thought:
• Values & Purpose
• Contribution & Impact
• Location & Tangibles
• Money & Finances
• Career & Work
• Health & Fitness
• Education & Skill Development
• Social Life & Relationships
• Emotions & Well-Being
• Character & Integrity
• Productivity & Organization
• Adventure & Creativity
I actually liked these so much that I integrated them right into the yearly review section of the productivity app I run, Complice (https://complice.co/). The app is subscription-based, but you can use the yearly review without paying :)
Almost all these self-help "how to do X" guides focus exclusively on Conscientiousness. Yeah, they all pay lip service to "relationships" but it gets the same treatment as "bigger car": work! work! work! daily goal!
> • Values & Purpose • Contribution & Impact • Location & Tangibles • Money & Finances • Career & Work • Health & Fitness • Education & Skill Development • Social Life & Relationships • Emotions & Well-Being • Character & Integrity • Productivity & Organization • Adventure & Creativity
That list is absurd. If you're unhappy enough with your life to turn it into a 24-point daily checklist you need a vacation and possibly treatment for depression. If you think that's not it, here's some advice:
Get "Values & Purpose" straight and everything else will follow.
There is something important to be said about the effect of having a really clear sense of purpose. I think this is seriously underrated.
But I think it's also the case that part of how we discover purposes to orient towards is thinking about areas of our lives and envisioning how they could be different.
(Also I'm not sure why you're comparing the Big Five list with these lists)
Is it really necessary to manage your life like a software project at a big co. Would it be possible to come up with something less intimidating and practical like
This hyperproductivity might only be advisable in small doses and only when one is young (under 30 if not under 25) Then it has a small chance of leading to some "greater" utilitarian good (ie you become next Elon Musk)
As I get older I realize how little time I have left. There are myriad of things I will never get to do no matter how hyper organized I get.
The worst realization is that there is no real time to master something new when you are older past the age of 40. You can fake it by setting lower goalposts but that feels deeply unsatisfactory.
Only solution is to enjoy the present (family, friends, my existing skills, a good book, a game, etc) as there is no real success in the end (the pieces all go in the same box).
Anki (and spaced repetition in general) is an amazing tool enabling you to learn more in less time. The problem is that the learning curve is quite steep. Alex's manual holds your hand up the learning curve with clear instructions and practical advice.
I tried maybe two or three times prior to integrate Anki into my flow. It wasn't until I worked through this booklet that it finally clicked.
I am going to give it a sincere try.. Hope I can find some grip in climbing anything that is steep (whether its Anki itself or my other goals).. I guess motivation in itself is another trainable skill..
I wish I produced content which made my website die, but I also would never want that to happen to me. I can't understand why everyone doesn't just run an S3 static website for most of these personal websites/blogs.
And then I remember almost every tool/plugin/theme/etc. is for wordpress and I think "Oh man, must be nice..."
Thanks for sharing that, I hadn't read it before. As an engineer just getting started with my life and career I've been struggling with the sorts of concerns in that article. It was good to read something that was sympathetic to my worries.
That said, the article doesn't really provide answers. It merely points out what maybe should have been obvious: excessive time management is excessive. It's true that productivity for the sake of productivity is a poor goal. However, suppose that with your increased productivity you are able to enrich not your life, but the lives of others. Then you are faced with the choice of working harder or letting others down. It's easy to say that taking a trip to another country for the sole purpose of filling your Instagram is just masturbatory (which might not be a bad thing!). A more difficult question might be whether it's worth taking such a trip to do charity work during a holiday that you would ordinarily spend with your family. The trade-offs between helping strangers vs letting down your family and between getting some rest vs using your time off well are complex.
At this point I am rambling. The shortest answer I have right now is the same, vague answer I have for similar complex things: operate in moderation and things will work themselves out. Finding exactly what the appropriate balance is will probably be a life long struggle.
> A review of your “ideal you,” your ideal future, your major goals and desires in life.
One 'problem' with many task management methods is that when you slip (which most of us do) there's an aversion to opening up your Wunderlist/Excel/moleskin months later and seeing how far your current self is behind your aspirational self.
Task managers are good at atomizing goals into objectives but overlook motivations and outcomes. They lack a 'remind me again what's in it for future-me?' feature.
I'm currently attempting to code such a feature into my app. By way of example, take learning French as a goal:
* Tasks: the usual list of todos. Go to evening classes; Watch 5 hours of TV5Monde each week. etc.
* Resources: links to Youtube videos, uploaded language podcasts, communities on the web.
* Inspiration: images of French cities you want to visit, scenes from a favorite French film, quotes, a mini journal-entry about that French girl or guy you met that one time. Snippets of things the French-speaking-you will appreciate.
* Insights: how much time you're dedicating to the goal, hours already spent and estimated completion date based on your current rate of productivity.
So your task manager serves not only as a checklist but also as a control-room (or if you like, moodboard) for that goal. Tasks, tools, motivation and a feedback loop all in one place.