Get Everything Done

At first, when I started toying around with SMART goals, I convinced myself that they would work.

I said to myself: "DIT's Task Diary is essentially a daily SMART goals list. So is Covey's Weekly Compass. Yes, the notation is a bit different and you wouldn't have to have numbers for all aspects of it, but they are TIMEBOUND. Additionally, SPECIFIC enough so that you could know when to cross them off."

All I had to do was to alter the planning horizons, but I had proof they worked, as I had DIT as the unshakeable evidence for it. Right?

Well? Wrong, of course, it's me after all.

Both, Covey and Forster, use emergent goals for their respective systems, if you want to look at the tasks and appointments in them as goals.

Yes, they are time bound. But after you engaged once with the task, you get the chance to re-define the ultimately desired outcome and thus the task for the next time.

Both are rigid in their planning, but after once engaging in a given project, you are free again to renegotiate the workload completely new.

That's 100% compatible to emergent goals.

Also both systems acknowledge that while you can't always plan the day perfectly, you shouldn't let slide the work for too long and be back on top of your work within a few days or the week.