This is a guest post by Alan Baljeu long-term contributer to the Comments and Forum sections of this blog:
I will describe my process below, but after two months experience working and adjusting, I am convinced that what matters is not the precise process, but the mindset the system supports: Think regularly about your goals, why you want them, and how you will get there. By doing this, you increase the motivation to work on things you care about, and clarity so that your work is more effective.
This idea came to me about two months ago and has proven to be a gift to me from God. I say this because it came to me suddenly in a moment of despair. Prior to this, I had been somewhat successful in sticking to a process of writing tasks and doing tasks, I did not feel I was really making progress on things that mattered. And when I tried to push myself harder to really work on those things, I became overwhelmed and ended up doing less.
At the beginning, I recorded some of my thoughts. (Jordan Peterson’s Self Authoring program surely inspired me here.)
Each of these statements describes a situation in an area of my life (a Life Area) I wanted to address. So I developed and followed the system to address all of them at once. Following the system has been an unqualified success. While life still has ups and downs, days when I execute poorly, I find overall I am more motivated, work harder, I am making progress on all the above, and as a metric my “How good do I feel?” score now averages about 8.
Tracking a Life Area
I tried writing instructions for this process, but every time I did, it got complicated, when it is really simple, as I illustrate here. Basically, it is freeform, whatever I find helpful. I write goals and notes and organize and highlight as will help motivate me to achieving the work.
(the line numbers are merely for discussion)
1 Lose weight and increase health via #food
2 + !(2021-02-25) Overweight, low energy, persistent inflammation issues. Not eating that well, though I have cut some foods. Now setting on a course to become healthy again, like when I was younger.
3 + !(2021-03-01) `goal` lost weight - 1 pant size
4 + `food log`
5 + !(2021-03-30) - !(2021-04-12) Committed to rule: ~~Has wheat? Can’t eat~~.
6 + !(2021-04-13) - !(2021-04-20) Continue healthier diet. Think what else might improve it.
7 * !(2021-04-19) Prepared salad, sandwiches, ribs
(aside: the sandwiches are made without wheat)
8 * !(2021-04-20) Buy fresh vegetables.
Explanation
This is an outline, with a header and the second level items shown. A leading + indicates there’s more detail hidden at deeper levels. A * indicates nothing else is below. Dates are when I started [ or plan to start ] working towards an objective. A second date is when I accomplished [ or hope to achieve ] the stated outcome.
Line 1, the header, shows an aspect of life I want to improve, with an evocative title.
Line 2, records how things were at the outset, and what I wanted to change.
Line 3 is a goal, with no end date because it’s still being worked on and I haven’t set a target.
The food log is just that; it contains a record of what I ate each day
5 and 6 are a couple subgoals which I tried and completed, as indicated by the start and end dates.
7 and 8 are what I plan to do [eat] today and tomorrow. When these are done, I will file them away under line 6.
I try to write these goals as outcome based usually (but not always). When I achieve it I will write the end date. Because it was written as an outcome, what I wrote initially stands sensible without having to rewrite. Under this I have archived what I worked on towards achieving it, details I don’t need to see now.
Everything you see here functions as a dashboard to remind me of what I’m trying to achieve. Everything not presently useful for that is filed away.
Processing a Life Area
Processing the outline is very simple. I simply look at it, remind myself what I want to achieve and what I need to do next. If now is a good time I do that next step. After, I plan a subsequent step. I may choose to plan ahead. I may think about the bigger picture and note those things.
If a goal is achieved, I note the success. If a goal changes, I note the new goal, but also for the record I will note how it changed and when. If a date slipped, I must record it as a way of keeping myself honest and not committing without taking the commitment seriously.
For another kind of goal I might have more hierachy and planning to the subgoals. In that case, I will show the first step (or two) at each level of the plan, but the format is the same. When something is complete that I don’t need to see any more, I archive it under the higher goal it belongs to.
There is no rewriting in this process. Every entry is specific for the detail you worked on each day. When you are ready to plan the next step, write what you want to accomplish next.
And that’s all! Processing all of this (not counting actual work such as food preparation) amounts to no more than 5 minutes per day. The actions described above can be done at any time; you don’t have to do all at once. This is because merely looking at the document makes it obvious what you need to do.
The benefit is, whenever I look at my “Lose Weight and Increase Health via #food” goal, I see why I want to do this, what steps I am taking, and what I am to do next. Because I look at this every day, I remember my purpose, my plan, and the next step. I always know what to do and why. The tangible effect of this is I keep motivated to move things forward. I also have a total record, so it functions as an ongoing journal of my life by subject which I can review and see what went well.
Building up to a Complete System
The above is a goal achievement process for one area of my life (#food). To make a complete system, I simply replicated this for a dozen separate life areas, covering my whole life. The first week of executing this process was a resounding success. HOWEVER: It was overwhelming in the second week, and I needed to back off a bit. Therefore, I suggest anyone else trying this to start with about three or four goals and build from there after you get those under control.
Start by thinking about basic life areas, such as Food, Fitness, Family, Work, Business, Learning, God, Finance, House Maintenance. Start particularly with what you most want to change. Currently I have 13 items. I don’t think anyone would have as many as 20, and more than 10 takes effort to manage. I don’t get to all of them every day, but I do get to all of them at least every three days.
To implement this physically, I use an outliner which I find ideal. My outline is simply what I showed above, with one branch for each life area. If you use any non-outlining note taker, I suggest keeping a document for each life area. At the top of each document, I would keep the dashboard information of what matters now [ e.g., the content you see in my #food example], and then below this keep and organize any the detailed notes.
For paper, I haven’t tried this, but I propose writing in a notebook, not too small. Put each life area on a separate page. Write your evocative title at the top, then the information below. Because you can’t edit your notes, just keep everything as a journal/diary in chronological order within the page. Use your favorite highlighting techniques to have the important information stand out. Mark off when things are complete. When the page is full, start a new page and carry forward just the title and the larger active goals - stuff you want to see regularly to that new page - and mark off the old page as complete.
Particular Life Areas of Note:
Processing the Complete System
If you are using a notebook, just flip through the pages until you hit on a life area you want to address - and address it. Then flip some more. What could be simpler?
But with a digital approach, I prefer to treat it like one of Mark Forster’s systems with a constantly reorganizing list. In my case, simply collapse the complete outline and treat my 13 life areas as a short list of 13 “tasks”. In that context, I found the following algorithm works beautifully:
You don’t need to act on all life areas in a single day, but it is likely you will cover all of them over the course of a few days.