At some point, Stephany asked me how I track my goals. I have a number of quarterly goals, so how do I even figure out what's what.
I have written about this a few times before. Here's a post I wrote about it last year when I pestered everyone by writing daily. Here's a post I wrote at the end of the year when I was mulling over how to continue tracking things when my paper planner was out of pages.
But I hate to disappoint all of you and especially Stephany, but the method has basically remained the same. I have five main areas for goals: Professional, Pets, Health, Reading, and Fun Stuff. I have a paper journal and use it to track most of these goals.
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| Current journal |
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| Blank page. |
On the first of the month, I lay out a lot of the things I track daily and create a simple chart for checking each day. Let me stress that if I skip even a single day, this whole system goes off rails, so even if I'm exhausted at night, I take a minute or two to fill this out. And it really does only take a minute or two to fill out!
I also have a place to track weekly goals on the next page.
So, as you can see, I track a lot of my professional, pet, and health goals here. There are a handful of fun goals here, too. Last quarter I admitted that I had not even considered the "learning chess" goal at all and that it had slipped my mind. Well, it slipped my mind because I don't have it written down on my tracking sheet! (And, I just noticed that it still isn't there. Hm. This must be my subconscious telling me how I really feel about this goal.)
The last couple of pages of this journal are where I'm tracking all the mail I send.
I have a separate spreadsheet in Google Drive that tracks my reading goals, so I do not track that by paper. And that's it. It really doesn't take that much time, I promise. Every month I figure out my stats for the month and add it to a draft of a post I keep for my quarterly goals update and then at the end of the quarter, I figure out quarterly stats. Easy peasy!
I would 100% like to find a journal where a lot of this work is already done for me in terms of setting up the pages, but I'm also way too lazy to take the time to go through journals and find one that has all these things already pre-filled, doesn't have inspirational quotes that will make me roll my eyes, and doesn't have extra pages with "homework" (those pages that ask you to write your goals for the day/week/year, etc.).
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Do you have a preferred paper planner? If not, do you just keep everything in an electronic calendar?
I love that you paper-track as well.
ReplyDeleteHere's my weekly planner layout--it has stayed constant for years at this point. Blue is professional work, green is relational, orange is household, and pink is personal--it gives me an at-a-glance check of keeping things balanced. https://www.pocobrat.net/2021/03/days-are-short.html
Do you ever get the colors confused? I ask this because I was working on a project at work and I was double- and triple-checking details and I was doing it in three colors (blue = the course is offered and still open, green = the course title is correct, pink = the gen ed designation label is correct) and I was constantly using blue when it should have been green and getting really frustrated with myself. Ha!
DeleteNope! It's a decades-long practice, so when I begin to get them confused it means it's time to put me in assisted living lol
DeleteI use Sprouted + a thick-papered sketch book for a running list (so I can use a Sharpie and it won't bleed through), plus scratch paper. I abhor digital calendars.
ReplyDeleteI should have something like the thick-papered sketch book for my running to-do lists. Instead there are just scraps of paper everywhere with half-completed lists. *sigh*
DeleteWow, you're so organized with your goal setting! I only have a paper planner that I put my daily tasks and appointments into.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could get away with just an appointment book! It seems so convenient to be able to carry it around with you everywhere.
DeleteI agree that it's hard to find the right planner! I also don't want a lot of extra pages for things I don't use. My current planner (always a paper planner, for me!) is working pretty well. I use it to track my workouts, and there's blank pages in the back where I keep track of books I've read. We also have a wall calendar where we put important dates (upcoming concerts for the kids, days off of school, etc.) and that's about it!
ReplyDeleteI think I wrote about my paper versus digital conundrum in the last post, but I don't track everything manually in paper! Books and money are all digital, so I sort of do a hybrid system. I do think it would be cool do just do it all one way, but here I am with a mix. I feel like we should have a giant wall calendar, but my husband and I share a digital calendar. I want the big visual!
DeleteDo you have a preferred paper planner? Yes, I use an old-school Franklin-Covey datebook with monthly paper pages. On those pages I write down all appointments, fun or practical. Then I use quad ruled steno book to keep track of details like lists or goals or details for the appointments. It might not be the ultimate in sophistication but between the two I stay organized... enough.
ReplyDeleteIt's just a monthly spread? That's awesome. How big are the boxes for each day? Do you ever feel like you run out of space?
DeleteWoohoo! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI have a small paper planner that allows me to set up 6 daily goals to hit, so I've been using that for my "Daily-Ish Routines." I like it, but a part of me does want to use a more goal-centric planner for thinking about my monthly/weekly goals. Like you, I haven't found one that works for me yet so alas, I will stick to my little planner for now.
it would be nice if I could simplify a little bit. I have some digital trackers (money, book spreadsheets), some paper, and some I just track on my blog. Hmmm...I like your small planner idea.
DeleteFascinating!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI have:
a paper calendar (always with me)- master plan
an accessory notebook (always with me); serves as as a catch all
a three months paper calendar on the refrigerator
Daria's projects and areas (the ever-changing google doc)
A wish list for each season - digital.
So many things!! Do you find it annoying to have to put things in multiple places (the paper calendar and the one on the fridge, for example) or does it all just make intuitive sense to you?
DeleteWell, I think you already know I have moved largely digital, after being 100% paper for a long time and then sort of a hybrid system for a while as well. I have just really found that in this stage of parenting the digital calendar makes the most sense for me. I think in part because Asher is a swimmer- there are upwards of 8 practices offered per week, though he doesn't attend all of them. But the ones he goes to vary week by week, depending on what else is going on. So with the digital calendar, I can just subscribe to the swim team calendar, see them ALL listed there, then only add the actual ones we think we'll go to that week, and then just click to hide all the rest. Then if something comes up and he wants to consider a different one, I can un-hide it to check the other times, etc. Also Ethan has tennis/ soccer almost every day, so that is also a lot to manually add all the time to the calendar! And THEN, it seems like things inevitably change, so I'm frequently deleting or moving things around. As you can imagine, when I was trying to do all this on paper, it was quite a mess. LOL.
ReplyDeleteI do love the idea of notebooks for goal setting though. I have not been doing a ton of goal setting really lately- more focusing on just sort of treading water and surviving what seems like a busy.... year? But I do think there is something lovely and quaint about sitting down with a beverage to sketch out goals on paper. I think your system in the notebook makes sense! I personally don't mind some of the re-writing of categories, etc. It's rather mindless and oddly I find it a bit soothing. :)
Well, this does not actually represent calendaring, which is its own giant pain in the ass (why won't Outlook sync with Google?!). My husband and I share a Google calendar with things color-coded (his work is one color, mine is another, things we each do socially are another color, social things we do together are another color, family stuff is another color, etc.) and we live and die by the calendar. It used to be more important when we only had one car and really had to coordinate who had it when, but now it's just important mostly to make sure someone can leave the dog out at an appropriate time. But it is annoying because we both use Outlook for work and it won't sync with Google and so we each have to copy every work-related appointment on to a second calendar. We do share each other's Outlook calendars, but we don't want to put personal stuff on our work calendars. ARGGGHHH.
DeleteI do get annoyed at having to set up my spreadsheet every month, but it doesn't really take THAT long, so I get over it. It's also a really good reminder of my goals every month, especially if I didn't focus on a goal very much in a given week/month.
I have a paper planner to track life and habits as well as my 5 year journal and my reading journal and a weekly planner for my work/life day to day planning and appointments. I have somewhat of a quandary because last year I use a Hobonichi Cousin to track life and habits, but it was kind of bulky so this year I ordered another, thinner planner, to do my time tracking. And I love the new planner, but it doesn't have the right layout for me to track everything so I still use a Hobonichi Cousin and as a result have more notebooks to keep track of than I would like. (oh the irony!). I do also put my work schedule/kids' activities/appointments, etc. in a google calendar to share with the Husband, and will also write a lot of those things into the wall calendar in the kitchen so the kids can see too.
ReplyDeleteOh, I am enjoying the layout of the Hibonichi planners. Maybe next year!! This sent me down a hole about paper sizes, so I'm sure you'll be happy to learn that fact about me. Do you have an A5 or A6?
DeleteI have the A5 Cousin. And then for time tracking this year, I use a Jibun Techo Lite Diary. I like the slimmer size and soft cover. I used to use an Inamio 24 hour planner to track time and habits, but I like the daily pages in the Cousin - I use those when I travel to write longer daily reflections. Which might be a waste of paper since I only travel once or twice a year...
DeleteI should do a post on all my tracking - I like reading when other people post about their methods...
Okay, I think I'm going to seriously consider the A5 Cousin or at least one of the Hibonichi planners. They do seem to be perfectly aligned with what I want. I'm so glad you mentioned these because they seem ideal. I guess I don't even mind if they're a little bulky if I can keep everything in one place.
DeleteI still have a paper planner and love that you do a lot of tracking on paper, but I have pretty much gone fully digital with trackers, mainly because I can easily change, adjust and most importantly "search for" things. It's just less messy than doing it on paper (although I still can't seem to ditch the paper planner completely).
ReplyDeleteWhat are you searching for in your trackers? Because I do quarterly reviews on my blog, I can search there, but I'm curious why you find the search function useful.
DeleteI don't track things that closely and have no qualms about skipping any planner 'homework', so don't think I've got any useful advice, but you should totally submit this question for a podcast answer by SHU! I'm sure you're not the only one looking for a goal tracker like that. https://theshubox.com/
ReplyDelete(ps I am not SHU! I just really enjoy her pod/blog.)
You know what? Diane posted some planners that look like they might work. I'm going to have to keep them in mind for next year!
DeleteSo interesting to see how you track your goals. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete