Ask the Readers: What are Your Top Goals/Productivity System?

stayfly Says:

April 21st, 2007, 17:55 pm

making and achieving goals is an area of my life I really want to master. I have tried repeatedly but I’ve yet to find a system that really works. I look forard to hearing what others have to say on this topic :)

1) What are your top goals?

my current top goals are;
i. pay off my mortgage
ii. achieve excellent posture/body alignment and healthy body
iii. develop personal appearance I love
iv. help mum buy an apartment she loves

2) What’s your current system for being productive?

basically to follow GTD principles in terms of next actions and weekly reviews etc.

3) What habits have you created that help you in your daily life?

hmm, that’s a question I really have to think about. some would be paying a set amount off my mortgage every fortnight. others would be to follow GTD principles

Leo Says:

April 21st, 2007, 18:33 pm

Awesome, stayfly. Thanks for responding! I was serious — I really love reading about other people’s goals and systems and habits. I love the goals — especially the one about your mum!

Deb Says:

April 21st, 2007, 18:58 pm

This is a tough one for me as I have been having a very hard time with goals and productivity - thus the reason I read this blog!!!

My top goals
1- lose 50 lbs
2-pay off all my debts
3-earn enough in my business to make a comfortable living
4 -find a meaningful relationship

My current system???
Its a mish-mash right now. I am trying to implement some GTD, but really enjoy your Zen system and am trying to implement it.

What habits?
I am on day 14?? of the April challenge
I try to drink 6 - 8 glasses of water a day and more importantly try to remember to record on my wallchart
I have changed the automatic check of email from every 15 minutes to every hour!
I review my income and expenses every week, sometimes 2 - 3 times!

Lodewijkvdb Says:

April 21st, 2007, 19:00 pm

1) Goals
My goals are related to my values and my ambitions. My main values are Love, Fun, Freedom and Authenticity. My ambitions are:
- To be a good father and husband
- To enjoy and create beautiful things
- To learn and teach about wisdom
- To have a lot of fun all the time
- To be authentic in all aspects of life
- To be healthy and vital

My goals are related to those, but on a much shorter time-frame:
They are things like:
- Get my weight to 70 kg
- Read a book a week
- Spend 30 minutes of quality time a day with my baby boy
- Spend 60 minutes of quality time a day with my wife

Thinking about it, I have two kind of goals, the ones about achieving something, and the ones about adopting a habit.

2) Productivity system
Basically it’s GTD, but I have my twist of the good stuff (like most of us I guess). I use Thinking Rock to implement all my actions, except for the ones that are related to e-mail. I use a GTD-like folder-setup in my e-mailclient to get those done.

3) Habits:
- Do stuff (or give up procrastination)
- Making realistic commitments (through conditional yesses)
- Plan family time
- Keeping my inboxes empty
- Review my actions, projects and future items regularly
- Writing down ideas, thoughts, goals and so on
- Read quality books and blogs
- Visualize

And the trick to all is to maintain the discipline to keep it up. The ones where I find it difficult to maintain discipline, Well most of them evolve around discipline

emjones Says:

April 21st, 2007, 20:54 pm

My Goals:

-Not life paycheck to paycheck
-Be a loving husband and father
-Make partner at work
-Improve my socializing skills

My Productivity System:

-A small notebook/journal that goes with me everywhere, to record ideas that come to me randomly throughout the day. This notebook also doubles as my to-do list for home and the office. I write blog ideas and other craziness into it for future reference. Some of my best thinking occurs when I am not near a computer or paper and pen. The notebook helps me implement the productive impulses that occur to me throughout the day.

-At work I use the printable CEO sheets to organize my day and keep track of billable hours. Things occur so fast, I always have to remember to go back and keep these things up. But when they are current it is very useful. I like the focusing on getting 3 major tasks done in a day, as my workload can often get overwhelming, ruining my productivity.

-My workspace is constantly overrun by information that I think is important and want to save for future use. The numbered document retreival system has been invaluable to me in cleaning up my workspace, and allowing me to retreive important items in a few minutes instead of scrambling around looking for things for much longer.

Habits:

-I try to schedule time to read emails and answer the phone, for the first hour at work and after 11:00am till lunch. By minimizing the interruptions I can get some design work or other work that requires concentration for long periods of time. One phone call or somewhat important email can take me 15-20 minutes after the interruption to get back into my work.

-Getting up earlier. I have never been a morning person, but I have found that rising early in the morning is making me more productive. It is hard for me, but it has been paying off for me now that I have a little more time to do some things for my mental and physical well being.

-Prioritizing my tasks on a daily basis is crucial to keeping productive and keeping the clients happy.

-Getting time away from the computer and telehone makes me more productive at tasks that aren’t related to those tools, and makes me more productive when I return to the computer or telephone. Using the computer all day can end up burning me out, and lots of phone calls breakup the workday to much to get a lot of important work accomplished.

Ann M. Says:

April 22nd, 2007, 0:06 am

In keeping with one of my unwritten(!) goals, I am going to keep this brief, but I’ll share some of my habits and systems.

I am working on implementing most of Leo’s systems (both ZTD and the systems he had set up prior to that). I keep a little notebook with a basic to-do list in it, as well as project to-do’s and notes. Each night I try to go through and highlight about 3-4 MITs for the next day. I haven’t implemented the Big Rocks for the Week yet because I am still updating and refining my goals. I know I should get on that, but moving in 2 weeks and my job for the summer has been on my mind so I havent’ concentrated on goals as much as I should.

In terms of habits…I used the 30-day method to start flossing regularly (almost every day!). I also have a habit of reading my little mantra on the bathroom mirror at least 2x/day.

2 other things that have helped me out–I got rid of the email notifier in my system tray, I rarely turn on my instant messager, and I force myself to skim through blogs and only subscribe to 10 at a time, if I want to subscribe to a new blog I have to unsubscribe from a present one first. When I read them, I just skim most of them, and I star anything (in Google Reader) that I might find useful later if I want to read it further.

Wallet Rehab - Ways to save money Says:

April 22nd, 2007, 0:08 am

Wow, what a great post idea!

My goals are:

1. Love myself. I have got awful low self-esteem sometimes. Eventually, I would like this to become “Fall in love.” But I’m not ready yet. I’ve finally realized this.
2. Lose 25 lbs. I’m at 205, and I haven’t been 180 since I was 18 years old.
3. Generate $1000 per month in income from my websites.
4. Be good at marketing.

My productivity system used to be a clean GTD system, but now it’s more of a mess than anything.

I have too many lists right now:
1. My e-mails (personal, web and corporate)
2. My RSS reader
3. My Todo pocket notebook
4. My cell phone
5. Anything in progress in a blog

I realized the other day part of my problem is that I don’t have anyone I can be accountable to. So on the weekends, when I need to be more focused, I make promises to friends. This is my first weekend trying it though. *crosses fingers*

Let’s hope it works!

Zia Says:

April 22nd, 2007, 2:26 am

I’m also an advocate for GTD as a productivity system, but the one thing that’s really made actually doing the tasks easier is Merlin Mann’s (10+2) * 5 rule.

Leo Says:

April 22nd, 2007, 4:40 am

Thanks for all the wonderful comments, guys! I don’t have time to respond to all of them right now (I’m on the way out the door) but let me just say that I’ve enjoyed reading them all and think you guys have some great goals and great ideas. Looking forward to hearing from more of you!

thendrick Says:

April 22nd, 2007, 8:23 am

My Goals:
To win ‘father of the year’, ‘husband of the year’, ‘boss of the year’, and ‘community leader of the year’ perpetually each year. Not actually, but figuratively. Basically this means achieve balance with home / work / community.

My Productivity System:
I’m in the middle of switching from a home-grown paper based system (basically a written checkbox list of todos) to a more formal GTD system using Google tools for capturing and tracking.

My Habits:
-Keep that inbox empty! I’ve had this habit for a long time, even before I started implementing my formal GTD system recently.

-One that I learned in the last few years after having some health issues - get enough sleep. I can’t emphasize that enough.

-Get rid of things that you don’t like working on. Only work on the things you want to. OK, this is easier said than done, but if you try you’ll find that a lot of what you do can be done by somebody else or not at all.

Cat Says:

April 22nd, 2007, 10:39 am

It’s been inspiring to read others’ goals and systems, and thanks to Lodewijkvdb for reminding me to visualize my goals.

1. Goals:
- To make $X per year through my business. I’ve broken this down to $Y per day, so I can as myself, “How am I going to make $Y today?”
- Finish my new house by Jan. 2008.
- Spend 3 weeks in Europe, preferably this year (I’m in the US).

2. Current system:
- Use LifeBalance task manager for my overall to-do list. I love this program.
- Write the 2-3 biggest items for each day on a scrap of paper the previous night and put the paper on my keyboard.
- Use TimeEqualsMoney to track billable hours.
- Have email from clients set off an alert; all other email comes in without interrupting me.

3. Habits:
- Turn off the phone and Skype whenever possible.
- Use a timer widget to make me focus on a task for 45 minutes at a time.
- Keep my Mac desktop very clean.
- Hide all windows I don’t need at the moment.
- Simplify menus to hide stuff I don’t use.
- Take many physically active breaks from the computer.
- When tempted to spend a lot of time on something, ask myself, “How will this help me achieve my goal of [whatever]?”

Kim Says:

April 22nd, 2007, 12:38 pm

Fairly new reader, but loving this blog. Felt the need to chime in.

My goals:
Finish my dissertation (long overdue and a major source of stress)
No Debt (except mortgage, and try to reduce that)
Get this house clean and organized (I’m overwhelmed!)
Move to a bigger house within 2 years
Write a novel

Systems:
GTD, sort of, with stuff picked up from Merlin Mann, Flylady, and ZenHabits, plus anyone else I’ve been reading for the past few months. (Blogs and selfhelp sites are a new passion of mine)

Habits:
Week ToDo list, 10+2*5, Tickler File, Joe’s Goals (to keep track of new habits I want to train myself on), etc.

To you: Keep up the good work on this site. It helps me keep thinking about what I want to do to get back in control of my life and pursue my dreams. Thanks!

John Says:

April 22nd, 2007, 12:41 pm

1) Have just the one goal - to wet-nurse a book I’ve written through a very painful editing process and have it ready for potential publication by the end of this year.

2) Current system - none. I’m taking Bambi steps with the original GTD system at the moment, but as a congenital procrastinator I’m finding that I almost treat it as an end in itself, rather than a means to an end. Having tinkered with all the various folders and moved stuff around and got everything nice and neat, I feel as if I’ve done a day’s work, and off I waddle into dreamland.

3) Around 15 years ago I unwittingly created a habit that has proved very beneficial. Off work for a year I became concerned about turning to flab, and started a personal exercise regimen: 100 press-ups, 30 toe-touches, 50 stomach crunches, plus various assorted bendings and stretchings (what’s the one called where you rotate on your spine with your arms held up parallel to the ground? I do 30 of them). After my time house-bound I found that I’d simply got used to doing this, and carried it on. I must have missed only 10 days of this exercise regimen in total ever since (due to illness or other circumstance). I’m in my mid-30s and the effects of this habit are very noticeable when I encounter my peers… It’s my one good habit in a sea of bad ones. I feel odd and incomplete if I don’t get my daily exercises done.

Tina Says:

April 22nd, 2007, 14:14 pm

My Goals:
-Finish all current pro-bono projects and reel in some paying clients.
-Get my son potty trained by summertime.
-Find a way to take pool lessons from an ex-professional.

Current System:
I used to subscribe to Flylady.net when I was first became a wife. It really helped me learn how to spot and clear clutter, and set some good habits and routines. I find that routines, as opposed to schedules, help me get more done. Alas, I had to ditch flylady when my email inbox became too cluttered with stuff from Flylady that was of no use!

I still have a motivation problem with trying to get mundane tasks done, so each week, I write a list of 30 things I need to accomplish that week, and then use an online random number generator to pick the next task that I do. It hasn’t been working really well for me lately, which is why I’m reading this site. I’m trying to implement a system of using my email inbox for my to-do list, which is working great for my work to-do’s, but not so much for housework.

My daily habits:
-Check email and blogs during breakfast
-Plan MITs for the day
-Wake up the hubby
-Spend 15 minutes straightening up the house
-1 Load of Laundry everyday
-Clean Dishes everyday
-30 minutes of Wii Sports everyday

Greg Says:

April 22nd, 2007, 22:17 pm

Long time reader, first time responder…

Curent Goals:
- Be a better husband and father
- Start running again to get healthy/loose weight (starting tomorrow as a matter of fact!)
- Pay off debt by end of year
- Maximize time at work (using GTD of course)
- Obtain my CLP (Certified Linux Professional)

Current System:
My system has finally stabalized after several months of tweaking. Like others, I gather bits and pieces from numerous blogs to improve my system, usually from 43Folders or this site. Currently trying to get better at setting MITs for the day as well as big rocks for the week.

I am an OS X user, so my system is Mac centric:

- I use iGTD to maintain lists and projects
- Journaler for creative thinking and tracking
- Pocket Moleskin for capturing tasks and ideas while away from a computer

Daily habits:
- Up at 6:00am and intend to start running prior to sitting at my computer
- Plan MITs for the day
- Get inspiration reading productivity blogs
- Have a shut down period each night to reflect on day’s activities and think about what is coming up tomorrow.
- Asking my kids and wife how their days were…it’s amazing how important they feel when you are interested in what their day was like
- SImplify, simplify, simplify…I try and keep desk clean, desktop free of junk, and complicate file storage to a minimum. Taking a queue from here, I now have a small set of email folders: One that is cleared out each day for those longer then 2 minute emails, a second for any email I want to keep for the month, and a third that contains past archives for each month (similar to a blog.)

Leo Says:

April 23rd, 2007, 1:18 am

I’m tellin’ you guys, I’m really loving this thread. You guys rock. I truly love all of these goals and habits … you’ve given me a million ideas for posts.

@Greg: thanks for finally commenting, and for reading the blog all this time. I loved your comment, especially your habit of asking your kids and wife about their days. I do that too, and it really brings you home to those you love.

@Tina: great stuff, but my favorite was the 30 mins of Wii sports. :) I’m a fan of Flylady too!

@John: good luck with your book! Publishing a book has always been a dream of mine, and one that I will accomplish one day soon. And I love your exercise habit. You’ll have to tell us how you made that such a strong habit — I’m sure it would be enlightening.

@Kim: great stuff! Thanks for the nice comment. And except for the dissertation goal, your goals sound a lot like mine. :)

@Cat: You’ve got some excellent habits. My favorite goal of yours is “How will I make $Y today?” Classic.

@thendrick: Awesome goals! I’m also trying to be in the running for father and husband of the year, so look out! :)

Martin Muehl Says:

April 23rd, 2007, 4:05 am

My goals:
- finish the Ironman Austria 07 sub11
- get more productive and stop procrastinating (JFDI!)
- get used to get up at 6am again
- surround myself with successful people
- if I do waste my time, don’t watch TV but do something more useful (like cleaning the house, get rid of old stuff, …)

Current system:
I just started with GDT and the most important aspect for me is the “What’s the next action” rule. Since I have always plenty of new ideas for new projects, I used to let them go because I thought there would be so much to do and so little time.

Daily habits:
- I started a triathlon blog to be more bound to my training goals because I know every reader knows when I was lazy
- I stoppped leaving stuff all around the house and clean it only like once a week but started to clean it steadily - especially my workplace.
- Every new idea gets written down so that I know it won’t get lost.

BTW: This comments are the most useful I read in a long time!

Leo Says:

April 23rd, 2007, 4:16 am

Great stuff, Martin! I agree, these are extremely useful comments. My favorite comment thread on this site so far! Good luck with your Ironman! That’s a lifetime goal of mine for a few years down the road.

Jose Says:

April 23rd, 2007, 12:13 pm

I just discover this site like two or three weeks ago. The advise I’ve found so far is excellent. I saw this post and I thought I’d add my input so far.

Three questions:

1) What are your top goals?
-Become an early raiser at 5:30AM each weekday (weekend at around 6:30AM or 7AM). I’ve been inspired by those blogs on how to accomplish this. This weekend I woke up at 8:30AM, and I was done with my MITs at the sametime I used to wake up (11AM). It felt great. I didn’t have those sunday evening regrets of “I should’ve done this and that during the weekend.”
-Work with the MITs. I’m still trying to figure out how the system is going to work for me.
-Make my notepad an extension from my body. I always carry a to do notepad everywhere for personal things. I’ve another one for work only that I keep at work. This approach works fantastic….simple but very powerful.
-Get back to physical shape. I’d like to get toned and just feel good.
-Feel like I am in control of my life again many ways: career, family, finance, physically. I guess this is going to be the result of just changing some bad habits. I’m very optimistic about it.
=======
2) What’s your current system for being productive?
-ZTD…notepad notepad notepad! Write everything down and DOING it. As simple as it sounds, it works.
-No multi-task and concentrate at one thing at the time.
-Writing index cards for evening routines
-Waking up early
-Downloaded the cool timer tool since I am in front of a computer all day.
=======
3) What habits have you created that help you in your daily life?
-Waking up early even during weekends.
-Writing everything down and doing it (don’t you see a pattern already?)
-Visiting this site for inspiration.
-Keeping things simple.
-Cool Timer helps me keep track of time and work in 30-40min bursts. Taking a break 10min breaks to cooldown.

I want to do it all but I’m holding myself back. I don’t want to feel burned out and then disappoint myself like in the past. I want to make sure all these efforts do not go to waste this time. Since I’ve been motivated to do things lately, my gf is also picking up my habits. Can’t wait try additional ZTD methods but first things first.

Pril Says:

April 23rd, 2007, 16:10 pm

1) What are your top goals?
my top goals are to learn to keep a clean healthy household, to paint on a regular basis, to hold a yard sale, to have an art exhibit, to suceed at work, to gain more education, main goal to live off grid..

2) What’s your current system for being productive?
i just have a thing with todo list! i create them over and over sometimes this is not good! i need to put action sometimes! but over all i look at my goal and i see the steps that will help me achieve this goal and i work daily to it!

3) What habits have you created that help you in your daily life?
Well i want to be healthy I stop smoking over 6 months ago! :) I am able to focus better on what i really want out of life!
and i prep my self to get into shape! weekly

Leo Says:

April 23rd, 2007, 16:19 pm

Hi Jose … wow, it’s great to see someone implementing the ideas of this site! I wish you the best of luck and hope you’ll report back on how it goes. And I know what you mean by how hard it is to hold back on doing everything at once … but you’ll be glad you did. It sounds like you’re doing great and I have a feeling you’ll only find continued success!

MaryBeth Says:

April 24th, 2007, 9:54 am

I had what I think was a pretty good idea this morning. From now on, I’m going to set my passwords for e-mail, computer logon, etc. as my goals (or some representation thereof). That way, I’m thinking about these goals at LEAST once a day.

Example: goal to lose 10 pounds — password might be lose10lbs! It’s a good, solid password too.

Leo Says:

April 25th, 2007, 3:21 am

MaryBeth: that’s one of the coolest ideas I’ve heard in a LONG time! You rock. Could I do a post on that if I give you credit?