I imagine that most folks set goals for themselves sometimes. New Year's Day is especially popular. Thomas S. Monson has (famously) said "When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates." My old set of goals was looking a bit stale, so I've spent some time over the past couple of weeks revamping my goals, getting them written down, and figuring out how to keep track of whether I'm meeting them or not.Most of the goals are pretty simple things. Being more regular about giving to charity, for example, or having an exercise program. Some of them are really difficult to define, though, like trying to spend more time doing social things. It's a little difficult to have a check-box for "yes, I did something social today!" What counts as "something social"? I have a few ideas, but I don't think I've nailed it yet.
My current approach to tracking is to print out a bunch of small paper booklets carefully sized to slide into the billfold of my wallet easily. I tend to have my wallet with me all the time, so it's easy to pull it out and write on it (this is really useful for tracking eating and exercise). I haven't found a writing instrument that fits in my wallet yet, and I haven't gotten in the habit of carrying a pen everywhere, but other than that it's worked pretty well.
So, readers, what do you do to track your goals?
5 comments:
Huh, goals, that's a good idea. You should get one of those flat pens that sometimes comes with notebooks or planners.
I sometimes write them down. Or if I have a big goal, like going to Hawaii, I calculate exactly how much money I need to stash away weekly so that I can get to Hawaii on such-and-such a date. However, then mom points out that what I really want is to go to Russia, so I do that instead.
A social activity is anything that you do with someone who is not your roommate. You might want to disclude your family, too, although I don't intend to leave you alone while I'm in Provo. If you're looking for some kind of eternal companion, you should also set a requisite for social activities with a girl, sometimes called "dates."
That's my advice, anyway.
Since I usually prove hopeless with anything so organized as regular measurement, my most effective way of making and keeping goals is to keep a regular journal and review it often. That way, I'm always reminded of what I've said I want to do better. The results aren't very quantifiable, but, if journal keeping happens to be one of your goals, it is two birds with one stone...
Eve
I'm not sure where to get a flat pen from, but otherwise I like that idea. I shall have to look.
In the absence of a better idea, I'll probably use Cav's idea for defining social activities :-P. And yes, dates definitely count as being social.
I do keep a journal, and yes, it is awesome to see progress over a long time (it was fun reading my list of goals from when I was 14). I'm mostly trying to speed things up a bit. I've been good at keeping a regular record in the past (I just take 10 seconds to check off a list every night before I go to sleep), and I've noticed that it definitely affects my behavior, so I'm fine tuning for better results.
Thanks for the comments, all :-).
On an unrelated topic....
So, I, um..... created my own blog you can now feel mildly but not really obligated to read. :) *sigh*
PS--I'm coming into town this weekend and probably bringing your game...
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