[Productivity] Goal-Setting

Goals must be SMART:

• Specific - Goals must be explicitly defined in plain language and without ambiguity. Any adult should be able to look at your goals and see exactly what you're trying to achieve. 
  
  
• Measurable - Goals should be objectively measurable through quantitative measurement. Any adult should be able to measure exactly how much of your goal was achieved.
  
  
• Achievable - Goals must be grounded in reality, but still scare you personally. You want your goals to be challenging and inspiring, but not something humanly impossible. For instance, you probably can't fly to Mars this year - but you probably could in 20-years...
  
  
• Relevant - Goals must be aligned with who you are, the type of work you enjoy, and your ultimate mission in life. Goals also must not conflict with your values, principles, or primary motivations.
  
  
• Time-bound - Goals must have a start-date and a deadline attached to them. Deadlines help prioritize and plan realistically. While you may achieve a goal without a deadline, you'll have trouble achieving many goals and staying consistently productive. You can't consistently keep achieving more goals without effective time-binding your goals.

Ultra-productive people will add ER (SMARTER) to their Goals:

• Evaluated - Goal execution must be evaluated regularly by a manager to coach & expedite. For you personally, this is what the Goal-Tracking System is used for (along with the Weekly Check-In Process).
  
  
• Revisited - Goal execution must be revisited after completion to see if objective has been achieved. Penetrating questions are asked at this point in a tear-down process. For you personally, this is covered with the Goal-Tracking System along with the Quarterly & Annual Reviews.

Additional tips on setting effective goals:

• Goals should always start with a verb like do, get, make, give (see PDF below for more examples).
  
  
• Your goals must be exciting and inspiring. They can not bore you or feel monotonous. Entrepreneurs must continue to challenge themselves to keep growing. If you know you can achieve your goal, then you're not aiming high enough. You should be a little unsure if you can achieve each goal.
  
  
• Don't worry about exactly how you'll achieve each goal during this process. Right now we're in a purely inspirational space, where we're visualizing to define our ideal outcomes. Let's find what drives us now, and figure out how to achieve it later. With how the Goal-Tracking System works, you'll naturally be adjusting goals over time anyways. What's most important is you set the right goals now, so you don't run into chronic uncertainty and indecisiveness later in the year.
  
  
• It's almost always a bad idea to share your goals with other people. Research has shown that telling others about your goal before it's been achieved significantly decreases your likelihood to achieve the goal. Your brain will become addicted to the positive social feedback of telling others about what you will achieve, and your subconscious will lose it's motivation to struggle and achieve it. You should only share your goals with 1 or 2 ultra-supportive people, and almost never share it outside of them.
  
  
• Writing down your goals is important, but it's much more important to check back on them. Goals are not useful unless they're actually guiding your action and behavior. Use the Goal-Tracking System along with the Weekly Check-In Process to make this easy.
  
  
• Setting effective goals is a skill like anything else. The first time you do it, you will probably suck at it. Over time, you'll develop the skill of setting effective goals one-after-another. This is one of the most essential skills required for successful entrepreneurs.

Examples of Good/Bad Goals:

• Be a better parent - Great...how are you going to do that specifically? When are you going to do it? How will you know if it's done? (SMART)
  
  
• Publish a book - When are you going to do that? What's the book about? Does writing a book leverage into any of your other activities, or is it unrealistically time-consuming? (SMART)
  
  
• Lose 15 pounds - Getting better, but when are you doing this by? (SMART)
  
  
• Play in an NBA Game - Depending on your age, this might be a good long-term goal. But for most, this is unrealistic and irrelevant from your current life. (SMART)
  
  
• Make $20,000 more this year - This is a good goal. Any adult could look at this goal at any point during the year, and immediately know if it's been achieved or not. It's time-bound, achievable, and relevant. (SMART)
  
  
• Launch my personal brand website by June 1st - This is a great goal. Beyond making more money, you've identified a leading objective which will produce outcomes you're looking for. Any adult could look and see if this has been achieved. (SMART)

We all have some goals and missions in our head right now, so let's get them out!

For example, for 2019 I put...

- Do More on YouTube
- Increase Revenue per Employee
- Redo Personal Brand
- Spend More Time w/ Family

When measured against the SMARTER Goal criteria, these are all BAD goals. But once I got these out of my head, my brain could start working on how to actually make these happen (rather than just remembering everything I want to do).

Now FORGET ABOUT those and open up the Goal-Tracking System...

Open Up the Goal-Tracking System

First, click on File > Make a Copy in the Top Left corner top make your own copy of this system...

The directions to set up & use the Goal-Tracking System are embedded into the system upon copying it. Follow those directions to set up your system correctly...

1) Decide on Priorities

Let's first decide what the overarching priorities of our year will be...

Each year you will make sacrifices, whether you know it or not. It's important that you consciously realize what your priorities are for this year.

Use Cut & Paste (Ctrl+X & Ctrl+V) to move the priorities up and set your annual priorities for this year...

2) Review Everything Else

In the next section, we'll actually go through and set your annual goals. I'd encourage you to read through and explore the Goal-Tracking System now, just so you know where you'll be plugging everything in.

However, don't set your goals just yet. Review and explore everything, then proceed to the next step...

3) Erase All Sample Data

The final step before setting our goals is to erase all the sample data and get the Goal-Tracking System ready for your live data 🙂

Remember - you can always go back to the official Goal-Tracking System Template to see the original instructions again 🙂

• Keep your priorities under Column A (that's the only thing we won't delete here)
• Delete all dates under Column B (Deadline)
• Delete all instructions under Column C (Goals)
• Delete all data instructions under Column D
  

• You may also want to delete any dates which have already passed

• If you don't delete any dates, use the "Format Painter" to erase colors from Column D

4) Proceed to Setting Your Annual Goals

Your Goal-Tracking System should look like this before proceeding to the next step...

1) Write Down 7-15 Annual Goals

Now fill out your Goal-Tracking System with your annual goals. Refer back to Step 1 of this SOP (Setting Effective Goals) if you need reminders on setting effective goals...

Here's your ideas from the 'Bad Goal Brain Dump' -

{{form.Write_down_any_existing_goals_you_have,_including_bad_ones_that_are_not_well-defined...}}

Spend 30-60 minutes focused on nothing but your annual goals. They should evolve over a few iterations.

2) Evaluate the Quality of Your Goals

After you've filled out your Goal-Tracking Sheet with 7-15 goals & deadlines, evaluate each one against the SMART Goal criteria system. If needed, you can re-read Step 1 of this SOP (Setting Effective Goals) to refresh yourself.

Ask yourself with each and every goal -

• Does this fit into the SMART criteria?
• Could this better fit into the SMART criteria?
• Is there some way I could improve the quality of this goal?
• Is this goal conflicting with any other goal?
• Are my deadlines laid out in a realistic and logical manner?

Continue this for 10-20 minutes until you've further improved your annual goals a few times...

3) How Will Each Goal Change Your Life?

After you've set up each goal, now go through and include a note on each one...

To attach a note to a cell in Google Sheets, simply Right Click > Insert Note

For each goal, add a note that answers these questions - 

• How will your life be different once you achieve this goal?
• How painful would your life remain if you were to never achieve this goal?

For instance, one of mine might say -

GOAL = $500,000 Revenue Per Employee
After I achieve this goal, my business will be much more efficient and I won't have to work overtime to put out fires. We will grow faster while working less and having more fun. If I don't achieve this - I will be a slave to this business until I burn out from the monotony of inefficient tasks. The business can't grow based on me working harder.

4) Reposition Your Priorities (optional)

I like my priorities column to match up with my goals. It's not necessary, but it's nice 🙂

If you'd like to do this as well, simply use Cut & Paste (Ctrl+X & Ctrl+V) to move your priorities & goals around until they're lined up in your preferred manner.

Check out the [EXAMPLE] Goals sheet for an example of how this looks...

5) Write Out Your First Week of Action Items

Following the instructructions on the example Goal-Tracking Sheet, go through Column D and set up your Weekly Action Items for next week...

You've now created a Goal-Tracking System that far surpasses what 99% of entrepreneurs will ever use...

Your job now - is to use it!

1. Set a weekly appointment with yourself to review each goal and it's Weekly Action Items
2. If you accomplished the task, color it GREEN 🙂
3. If you didn't accomplish the task, color it RED 🙁
4. After you've done this for each goal, then go through and list out NEXT WEEK'S Action Items
5. You'll now have a GPS Guidance System to always keep your subconscious on track!