Goal tracking and life progression tracker with template and examples.
Did you know there is a tracking system out there which will 10x your results?
You will never witness progression in life, financially, mentally or physically if there are no goal tracking systems in place. I have used and read about many tracking systems. None of the systems I worked with delivered as efficient as the current system I have developed.
For this system to work, you will need two tools. A To-Do List (With Task Due Date Feature) and a Spreadsheet.
I use ASANA (Free version) as the To-Do list and Google Spreadsheets as the spreadsheet. Mainly because they are free and are cloud base, meaning I can access them from any computer, anywhere in the world. They both also have mobile Apps.
I wrote an article about Why you should schedule your day here
The tracking system
This is a very powerful system. Please take a moment to totally understand the power of this simple method.
Step 1 – Set Goals
What are your goals for the next 3 months?
These goals should be a sub-goal of your long term 1-5 year goal in life.
Break them down into “Projects”. For example, you can have a “Fitness” project. Anything related to you fitness goals will go under here. This could be things such as, meal preparation, gym workouts, mobility etc
Other examples of “Projects” can be things such as, a skill you are working to improve, your current job, Your Current “Side Job”.
Step 2- Assign tasks that will help you get closer to your goal in the next 3 months.
For example, if your ultimate 1 year goal is to add 15KG muscle and lose 10KG fat, then write down the tasks you need to do in the next 3 months in order to achieve that goal.
For example, set days you plan to run, with a due date. Set days you plan to prepare your meal, with due dates. Etc.
If you are working on a side project for example, (Let’s call it: Launch of Project X), then you would need to break the project into small actionable tasks with a due date (I have included an image explaining this further)
You can keep adding / modifying tasks and due dates as you go along. It’s ok if you are not sure what you are doing in 5 weeks from now for example. Just make sure you know what you are doing next week for sure.
Once you’ve assigned tasks to a specific week, then you will add the number of tasks to the Spreadsheet as GOALS. For example, if you happen to be doing 6 tasks related to “Launch Project X” in that specific week, then your Goal for is 6. Once the week is over, you will update the spreadsheet with Completed Tasks. If you managed to complete 5 tasks out of 6, then your completion rate is 83%.
Assign tasks for EVERY SINGLE GOAL you have in the upcoming week. Make sure you put some time aside every week to review and modify your spreadsheet and to-do list.
If every single week you are getting 100% Completed task rate, then you know you can increase your capacity. If you are getting anything lower than 70%, then you know you are over committing, or procrastinating, not planning properly, etc.
This system is a massive wake-up call for most my clients. I had people telling me they only achieved 5% of the tasks they were planning to complete. And upon monitoring and analysing their behaviour for several days, I usually found out they were spending too much time socialising, surfing internet, watching random videos / TV, spending time on messaging services, thinking on what to do next, etc.
The key for a successful goal achievement is SCHEDULING all your tasks. Some people schedule the whole month in advance, some do it daily, some do it weekly. I usually schedule important tasks months in advance, but leave less important ones, such as “What time I am eating” , “What time going to workout” etc on a weekly basis. I also adjust revisit my calendar / tasks every morning and re-adjust as required.
Start with daily schedules. Do NOT start your day without scheduling your tasks for that day. If it’s not on the calendar, it won’t happen!
How to make sure important stuff are actually done on time?
Ideally, you should finish ALL the tasks set for the day. If you are not completing 70% of the tasks daily, then you will need to revisit your To-Do list and readjust. Saying that, unexpected is expected! To avoid the unexpected disruptions affect your goals too much, follow the rules outlined below before starting your day:
Set ONE THING that MUST finish that day, no matter what.
Set 20% of your tasks as SHOULD FINISH for the day. These are tasks that will have a great impact towards reaching your goal.
Set the rest of 80% of tasks as “Have to finish”
Ask yourself, if you had an illness that wouldn’t allow you work for more than 2 hours a day, what tasks are crucial to finish to get closer to my goals?
Prioritise your goals! Make sure you give more importance to an important goal, which has a long term success factor. That doesn’t mean you should abandoned your other goals! It means you will do MORE tasks from the IMPORTANT goal.
Read your personal statement several times during the day. Read on why you should write a personal statement here