Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the seventeenth day of the month is "Method."
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On my most recent quarterly goals update post, there were a lot of comments expressing how much tracking it must all take to keep track of everything. And I guess that's true, but none of it takes me very long. The key is that I have to log everything every day. If I skip even one day, it can very easily get out of control.
So, in my quarterly goals, I have six big areas of goals: reading, connection, post-pandemic reentry, health, house, and Hannah. Here's a breakdown of how I track each area.
Reading is pretty easy. I have a spreadsheet (based on one Stephany sent me) that I fill out after I finish a book with name, title, and a bunch of other stats. I also add it to the post I create for this blog every month about what books I've read. I also do a write-up on the blog of most books I read, although I certainly don't write up each one. It's easy for me to look at the spreadsheet and see if I'm hitting those goals. That's the easy part.
Most everything else gets tracked in a notebook that I got as a Christmas present in 2021.
I create a row for each day and check off what I did on each day for daily activities that I track, like walking Hannah and exercising.
I also use the notes area to track things that are weekly or monthly, like my weekly adventures, mail I send, house projects, when I take Hannah to the dog park, and things like that. I tailor it each month to my goals for that quarter.
I also like seeing my blog schedule, so I have a printed out calendar page each month so I can plan ahead. I didn't used to this until I started posting every day because posting every day is challenging for me (I think for some people, posting every day is not so hard, and I am envious of those people).
And that's it. I swear that it takes me about ten minutes to format my journal pages every month and maybe one or two minutes every day before I go upstairs to bed to fill it out. It's not as complicated as everyone seemed to think in the comments of that post! I promise! It's just a combo of bullet journaling and calendaring. I'm pretty sure there's an actual journal out there somewhere that probably has this same thing, but for right now, this works for me. I think I have enough pages in this notebook to get me through 2023 and we'll see what happens next year.
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What methods do you use to track your goals, if you set them? If you don't set goals, do you have a paper planner or do you use an electronic calendar?
I use the Google calendar, and have for years. I used to use a paper planner, but eventually went electronic, and it works for me, including for lots of notes and reminders--I used to have lists and bits of paper everywhere. That said, Mom and I use two weekly dry-erase calendars on the fridge, to make sure we each know what the other is doing when.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I share a Google calendar, so a lot of my life is on there. It's just these are things that I don't think he needs to know/cares to know about, so I keep them in a separate location. That being said, it is annoying to have some stuff in a paper planner and others in an electronic format. I think I should go all in on one or another.
DeleteYou are the organizer of my dreams. I am a pen-and-paper type of person. I keep a paper calendar and make a to-do list every day. However, this is amazing.
ReplyDeleteI used to keep a blog post schedule, but I don't anymore. But if I published a post every day like you do now, I'd do the same thing to stay organized.
Ha! I wish this actually meant I was organized in other ways. There's so much in my life that slips through the cracks and I haven't been able to figure out a way to make sure that doesn't happen.
DeleteDitto what Kari said. You are organized in ways that make sense to me. I use pen and paper, having decided doing a schedule on my phone took longer than just keeping handwritten lists. I also use a monthly calendar to keep track of my blog, often adding colorful stickers on the days I post. I do that so I can see I showed up and to refresh my memory of what I wrote about when I wrote about it.
ReplyDeleteOooohhhh... stickers! I should add that into my planner somehow for next year. Maybe give myself a literal gold star for days I hit all my goals.
DeleteI love seeing how other people track their goals because it is SO HARD for me. Your point about needing to do it every day or things will fall apart is so apt. But that's the part I struggle with. Consistency is so hard for me and I don't know how to fix it?!?! (Just be consistent!) I did track some of my daily goals in an Excel spreadsheet earlier this year, and I liked seeing the little checkmarks pile up. But if I missed a day for whatever reason, I got completely derailed and eventually I just stopped. SIGH. Anyway, I love seeing how you keep all your goals and your posting schedule in line. Very impressive and aspirational!
ReplyDeleteConsistency is really key. The best way to get things done is the way that gets things done, I say, whether that's a paper or electronic tracker. I just know that I will NOT sit down at my computer at the end of the day to fill out a spreadsheet, so I have to do it this way.
DeleteI love seeing how you track, and that it's analog! I am all electronic (spreadsheets and calendars) now, but have purposefully stopped tracking MANY things because it was not healthy for me anymore. The only thing I still track with a spreadsheet is rocks hidden/gifted and the shows/movies we are watching. I write my editorial calendar on Google as I go. I let apps (Goodreads, Garmin) do the rest. Okay, and I write a private training recap each week on my blog. I used to be way into those stats and it was not serving me anymore so I stopped!
ReplyDeleteI do let my blog do a lot of tracking for me, too. I track books, workouts, and a lot of podcast listening on my blog, so it's done automatically and I don't have to think about it. That does end up saving me time in the long run. I don't think I can go fully electronic, though, because I know I won't open up my computer right before bed. If it works for you, that's wonderful! I love that it's all in one place.
DeleteI use ROAM for daily logging, to do and notes andf I just have a ready made checklist of "possible" activities I do. I usually copy that list across to each day and tick off ehat I actually do.
ReplyDeleteThat's great that you have it all in one place. Can you use it to easily assess progress (figure out percentages, etc.)?
DeleteThis was so fun to read! I love learning how people are tracking their goals like this.
ReplyDeleteRight now, all of my reading is tracked in a spreadsheet (and the A-Z reading challenge is on a different tab in the spreadsheet. I'm glad that my spreadsheet helped!
I have three sheets that I printed out to keep track of Peloton workouts (trying to get to 100 this year), daily walks, and daily water. (Here's what they look like: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn0ng2ysO-W/) I found a great printable that lays out the entire year on one sheet with each day a numbered bubble (organized by month), so if I get in my walk and/or water, I just fill in the bubble for the day! It's really satisfying the color in the bubble!
I'm not as great as keeping track of the movies/comedy specials I'm watching. I usually write it in my monthly recap post, though, so that helps me when I'm writing my quarterly check-ins.
I have my blog post schedule in a Google calendar because I like that I can easily move things around, depending on what I want to write about. I try to be at least a month ahead in my schedule so I'm not scrambling for an idea the night before.
Those bubble sheets are genius! I like the visual aspect of having it there in your face so if you miss multiple days in a row, it would be very obvious!
DeleteBecause I share a Google calendar with my husband, I sort of hate the idea of cluttering it up with blog stuff, too. I think I should probably create a separate Google account for my blog and have an email, drive, and calendar that's separate from the rest of my electronic stuff, but then that starts to make my blog seem like a bigger deal than it is!
I've done many different methods over the years... primarily on paper, but more recently, dabbling in moving almost fully digital. So many mixed feelings on it and I waver back and forth, though. I think I like the idea of paper but then the functionality and practicality of digital sways me back over that way! It's always so fun to see how other people track goals and things. I don't feel totally at peace right now with my systems, but I think in part it's because I just have not been fully consistent with ANYTHING in this last month or so with so many interruptions (family, vacation, etc.). I'm hoping to spend a little time screwing my head back on straight and sorting out some things, including my tracking/ goals systems again a bit.
ReplyDeleteUgh. I really hate when my routine is broken. LOL. My husband calls me "regimented" and laughs when I bring my journals on vacation. d
DeleteIt's a great system and I agree: it just has to be a daily habit and then it takes only a few minutes. The stuff I track (workouts, etc.), I track in a digital spreadsheet and/or word document. I am also in the habit of writing this down daily (so I can do my weekly run downs, for example).
ReplyDeleteI love that you're using a notebook.
I'm considering how to track things in 2024. Kae recently wrote about the Kindle Scribe and that's an option, I think. We'll see! I like having a paper record, but it would be nice if everything were in one place and not some digital, some paper.
DeleteWow. Maybe this is why I don't actually, you know, track or meet goals. Huh. (I'm joking, I know that tracking is needed but... the thought of adding one more thing? is hard.) The thing is, I have goals, I'd like to meet them, and maybe something like this would keep me accountable. I've gone mostly digital, though, so maybe now it's a matter of figuring out how to track those goals...
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