Post Your Goals Where You Can See Them

Post Your Goals(gōl) Where You Can See Them

By Steve Pavlina

One simple tip(tip) for staying on track(trak) towards your goals is to write your weekly goals on a marker board in your office. This isn’t a to do list. It’s a list of the important items you expect(ikˈspekt) to have accomplished(əˈkämpliSHt) by the end of the week. On the left side I write my primary(ˈprīm(ə)rē,ˈprīˌmerē) goals for the week (maximum(ˈmaksəməm) of 3), and on the right side I list my secondary(ˈsekənˌderē) goals (this week I have 9 of those). I setup(ˈsetˌəp) my primary goals such that achieving even one of them is better than achieving all the secondary goals combined(ˈkämˌbīn).

Whenever you achieve one of your weekly goals, just draw a line through it. Don’t erase(iˈrās
) anything. Then at the end of the week, your marker board contains your accountability(əˌkountəˈbilitē) record for the week. You can see which goals you achieved and which you didn’t, and then you can think about how you can improve next week. Maybe you tried to do too much. Maybe you succumbed(səˈkəm) to too many distractions. Maybe you achieved most of your secondary goals but none of your primaries. Or maybe you achieved all your goals and believe you can push yourself a bit more next week.

I keep most of my planning docs and lists on my PC and then print them out on paper periodically(ˌpi(ə)rēˈädikəl), but I like using the marker board in my office for posting my weekly goals. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the actions of the day and not be able to see the forest(ˈfär-,ˈfôrəst) for the trees, and when you look at your long-term goals, they may seem very distant(ˈdistənt). So I like having these weekly mini-milestones(ˈmīlˌstōn), since there’s a natural rhythm(ˈriT͟Həm) to a week, and when I do my weekly review and update all my planning docs, a quick glance(glans) at my marker board helps me set new mini-goals for the coming week.

…
https://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/02/post-your-goals-where-you-can-see-them/