The loudest version of this is the obvious one. A Reviews.org survey published this year puts the average American at 186 phone checks a day, about once every five minutes you’re awake. Of course, not many of us plan to spend three hours on their phone, and no one pencils late-night YouTube in as a goal for the week. But it happens and it is a choice. It happens in small unwatched moments, and at the end of the week you are someone whose attention lived mostly there.

But this isn’t really a piece about phones. Phones are just the example where the loss is easy to count. The same thing is happening to attention you give to your work, to the people you sit with, to the conversations you do and don’t let yourself fall into, to the hobby you keep saying you’ll come back to, to the thing you keep meaning to make.

Whatever you actually look at, think about, listen to — that is the material your life is being built out of. There isn’t a separate, hidden life running in parallel that the real you is busy living.

Annie Dillard put it in one line: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.” It sounds like a platitude until you sit with it. A day spent half-here, mind elsewhere, is a piece of life lived that way. A week of those is a week. The arithmetic does not care that you meant to do something else.

An older version of the point comes from William James, writing back in 1890: “My experience is what I agree to attend to.” I suppose his point was that reality, for any of us, is just the thin sliver our attention picks out of what’s happening around us. Everything else, however present in the room, does not really land. Two people can be at the same dinner and live different evenings, because attention is the editor and they cut different films.

Put those two together — Dillard’s days-make-lives and James’s attention-makes-experience — and the title’s claim stops being poetic and starts being almost mechanical. Your life is, in a real sense, whatever has been steadily eating your attention.

The harder half of the title is the second one. Whether you notice that choice or not. Because the choice gets made either way. If you don’t make it, something else will — an algorithm, a habit, something in the background of the room. The default isn’t neutral — it’s everything else competing for you, and the room is louder than it’s ever been.

I tried a small version of paying attention to my own attention recently. I asked ChatGpt to take everything I had ever told it about my work and my life and give me an honest read, with no flattery and no encouragement. The hardest line it returned was that I confuse motion with commitment. I recognized it instantly. I had been doing it for years and calling it being productive. The motion was where my attention had been going; the commitment had been getting far less of it.

That is the unsettling thing about the title. It isn’t that we make bad attention choices so much as that we often aren’t aware we’re making one at all. We watch the surface — the calendar, the to-do list, the inbox — while the actual decision, the one that compounds into a life, is happening underneath, in what we keep letting our eyes and minds drift toward.

You can test it on yourself in a day. Don’t change anything, don’t try to optimize anything. Just notice where your attention actually goes when you aren’t dressing it up. Notice who you think about, what you check first, what you reach for when you feel a small dip, what you keep coming back to after deciding to stop.

Whatever that turns out to be might be what your life is becoming. It might or might not be what you want. But it’s happening either way, and the only edge you have on it is the noticing.

This article was written by Mal James who is a writer at Space Daily covering self-development, productivity, relationships, and the psychology of work. To learn more about him, please visit https://spacedaily.com/author/mal/.

The post Life slowly becomes whatever we give our attention to first appeared on GoalsOnTrack Blog.

Anyone can say no to bad ideas, but only a focused person will say no to good ideas.

Focus is something that people consistently bring up as a key to success. When Warren Buffett was asked the key to his success, he simply replied, “Focus.” Bill Gates had the same reply. And Jonny Ive, mentioned it was the biggest lesson he learned from Steve Jobs:

This sounds really simplistic, but it still shocks me how few people actually practice this, and it’s a struggle to practice, but is this issue of focus.

Jobs was one the most focused people in the world. While focus doesn’t ensure you will be victorious, not being focused virtually ensures defeat.

The most misunderstood thing about focus is that it’s not a light switch that you can simply turn on and off when you want to. It’s more like a muscle that you have to practice every day.

Focus is not the sort of thing you aspire to … or you decide on Monday. It’s something you do every minute.

Since not doing something always gives you more time than doing something, Jobs would often test people, asking them, “How many things have you said no to?” or “What have you said no to?”

People often tried to make things up, but Jobs would see right through them. This is a lesson Ive learned:

I would have these sacrificial things, because I wanted to be very honest about it. And so I’d say, “Well, I said no to this and no to that.” But he knew that I wasn’t vaguely interested in doing those things anyway, so there was no real sacrifice.

What focus means is saying no to something that you, with every bone in your body, you think is a phenomenal idea and you wake up thinking about it, but you say no to it because you’re focusing on something else.

A world with abundant opportunities encourages poverty of commitment. And without commitment, you can’t have focus. Without focus, your energy gets diffused, and it impact is reduced.

Filtering with Focus

People and organizations tend to lose focus. It’s entropy.

Staying focused requires a lot of effort and discipline. One clue outstanding people leave is that they tend to commit and focus on something for an abnormally long period, even if the results are not immediately visible. Jobs was fired. Gates slept at the office for a decade. Few had heard of Warren Buffett until the 1980s, nearly 30 years after he started. Imagine working 30 years on the same thing.

The only people you should hire are focused ones. The only competitors you should worry about are the focused ones.

People naturally lose focus when they forget that focus means saying no to good opportunities and good people. Average ideas are everywhere, and they try to pull you in. The more successful you are, the more people want to work with you.

If you start saying yes to average ideas, you quickly lose the space and time you need to execute on the great ones.

Focus is hard, and because it’s hard, it also creates a hidden place to find opportunities.

Finding Ideas

The focus of others creates opportunities. Since focus requires saying no, it also means that really smart people and strong competitors are saying no to really good ideas.

If you’re trying to find your way in an organization, it’s worth thinking about the most focused people around you and asking them about the best idea they’re not working on. While they might not say it directly, they’ll leave clues a curious person will find.

If you’re a company, it’s worth thinking about what your strongest competition is not doing. You can often figure this out by interviewing smart people from the competition.

Energy into Results

The people and organizations moving the fastest are the focused ones.

Not only do they focus on a few ideas, but within the scope of those ideas, they relentlessly focus on the key variables. Identifying the variables that matter comes with focus. When you commit to living with a problem, you understand things about it that the casual observer misses.

Focus converts energy into results. Why spend time on your 5th most important idea? All of the energy that goes toward anything that is not the most important thing comes at the expense of the most important thing.

Narrow the focus. Raise the standard. And set yourself apart.

This article was written by Shane Parrish, author of Clear Thinking. Please visit https://fs.blog/clear/ to learn more about it.

The post The Ultimate Productivity Hack is Focus first appeared on GoalsOnTrack Blog.

I usually sit down to make one when I get into work and put everything on it: priorities for that day, tasks that could help me move bigger projects forward, tasks that could get done next week … Needless to say, these lists can be as long as 10 items long.

So when I heard David Rock, author of “Your Brain at Work” and founder and CEO of the NeuroLeadership Institute, a science-based leadership company, speak at the Fast Company Innovation Festival this year and encourage people to include only the three most important items on their to-do list every day, I was intrigued.

The brain can hold and process three items much more fluently than four or more, he later told me. We feel more capable of getting them done and recall them more easily.

I tried limiting my list to just three items per day for about a month. Here’s what I found.

I felt a sense of relief from having so little to do

There were definitely benefits to using this method.

The length of my lists often leaves me feeling overwhelmed. I can’t actually get the number of items done that I include, and having so many unchecked at the end of the day leaves me with a sense of guilt and lack of accomplishment. Even on productive days, it can feel like I’ve gotten very little done.

Writing just three tasks down lightened the emotional load and helped me release that sense of guilt. It was much easier to check everything off the list and even if something didn’t get done, it was one item as opposed to seven.

I have ADHD: I need to make longer lists

That said, there were challenges with using this method.

There were usually more than three tasks I’d need to do every day, even if some were quick ones. Often tasks came up that I hadn’t accounted for, like multiple rounds of edits, but I felt like I couldn’t add them to the list.

I have ADHD, so writing things down — even smaller tasks like checking emails — is crucial to be able to keep them organized in my brain. Limiting myself to three items meant I had to remember them instead. That ended up being pretty stressful in and of itself.

Overall, Rock’s method can definitely help lower stress around workloads, but it’s not necessarily best for some jobs or, at least, some brains.

Going forward, I will limit the list of my tasks per day, but I’ll cap it at five items instead of three. I’ll try to write just four items in the morning and leave that fifth one open for whatever comes up unexpectedly. If there’s anything I want to put on the list that can be done another day, I’ll put it on that day’s list ahead of time so I don’t forget.

This article was written by Gili Malinsky, a lead reporter at Make It covering psychology, mental health and relationships.

The post 3-item To-do List Strategy for a Month first appeared on GoalsOnTrack Blog.

Here’s my step-by-step plan for a mid-year review and some suggestions to get back on track if things aren’t as expected.

Step 1: Gather Your Goal-Setting Materials

Before you start your review, gather the materials related to your goal-setting process. This might include:

• Your list of goals for the year (my guide to setting goals)
• Any tracking sheets or apps you’ve been using – I use this sheet.
• Journals or notes where you’ve documented your progress
• Calendars or planners

Having everything in one place will make the review process smoother.

Step 2: Reflect on the Past Six Months

Take a moment to think back on the past six months. Consider the following questions:

• What were my main goals at the beginning of the year?
• How much progress have I made towards each goal?
• What successes have I experienced?
• What challenges or obstacles have I faced?

Write down your reflections. This helps to clarify your thoughts and gives you a record to look back on in the future.

Step 3: Evaluate Your Progress

Next, check your progress for each goal. You can use a simple rating system, such as:

• Achieved: The goal is complete.
• On Track: You’re making good progress and should achieve the goal by the end of the year.
• Needs Attention: You’re behind but still believe you can catch up.
• Stalled/Off Track: You’ve made little to no progress, and it’s unlikely you’ll achieve the goal without significant changes.

My free goal setting template has these status fields in a drop-down menu.

Be honest with yourself. The purpose of this review is to understand where you stand, not to beat yourself up.

Step 4: Analyze Why Some Goals Aren’t On Track

For the goals that are in the “Need Attention” or “Stalled/Off Track” categories, dig deeper to understand why. Consider:

• Were the goals realistic? Sometimes we set goals that are too ambitious given our current circumstances.
• Were there unforeseen obstacles? Life can derail our plans.
• Did you lose motivation? If so, why? Was the goal not as important to you as you thought?
• Were there external factors? Other responsibilities can impact our ability to focus on certain goals.

Reflecting on the reasons behind your lack of progress can help you figure out what needs to change.

Step 5: Adjust Your Goals and Plan

Based on your analysis, decide how to adjust your goals and plans for the rest of the year. Here are some strategies:

• Revise the goal. If the goal was too ambitious, scale it back to something more achievable.
• Change your approach. If your current strategies aren’t working, try a different approach. For example, if you wanted to exercise more but can’t find time for the gym, try home workouts.
• Set new deadlines: If you’ve fallen behind, set new, realistic deadlines.
• Break it down: Break larger goals into smaller, more manageable steps. This can make them feel less overwhelming and easier to achieve.
• Seek support: If you’re struggling, consider seeking help. This could be from a mentor, coach, friend, or online community.

Step 6: Create a Detailed Action Plan

For each goal, create a detailed action plan outlining the steps you need to take to get back on track. Include:

• Specific actions. Clearly define what you need to do.
• Deadlines. Set new realistic deadlines for each action step.
• Resources needed. Identify any resources you need, such as tools, information, or support from others.
• Potential obstacles. Anticipate any challenges you might face and how you’ll overcome them.

Writing down your action plan helps to clarify your path forward and makes it easier to stay focused.

Step 7: Recommit to Your Goals

After revising your goals and creating your action plan, take a moment to recommit to your goals.

Remind yourself why you set these goals in the first place and how achieving them will benefit you.

Visualize your success and how it will feel. This can help reignite your motivation and determination.

Step 8: Track Your Progress Regularly

Going forward, make it a habit to track your progress regularly.

This could be weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, depending on what works best for you. I put a calendar entry in once per month to check my personal goals sheet and see where I can.

Regular tracking allows you to see how you’re doing and make adjustments as needed.

Use tools like journals, apps, or spreadsheets to keep a record of your progress.

Step 9: Celebrate Your Successes

Don’t forget to celebrate your successes, no matter how small.

Celebrating milestones along the way can boost your motivation and make the journey more enjoyable. Treat yourself to something special or share your achievements with friends or family.

What to Do If Things Aren’t Going as Expected

Even with the best intentions and planning, things don’t always go as expected. Here’s what to do if you find yourself struggling:

1. Reassess and Adjust

Don’t be afraid to reassess and adjust your goals and plans. Life is dynamic, and it’s important to be flexible.

If a goal no longer aligns with your priorities or circumstances, it’s okay to change it or let it go.

2. Seek Support

Reach out for support if you’re struggling. Talk to a friend, family member, mentor, or coach.

Sometimes an outside perspective can provide valuable insights and encouragement.

3. Focus on What You Can Control

Concentrate on the aspects of your goals that are within your control.

Let go of things you can’t change and focus your energy on what you can do.

4. Stay Positive and Persistent

Maintain a positive mindset and keep pushing forward. Be relentless and focused.

Progress may be slow, but persistence is key. Remember that setbacks are a natural part of any journey, and they don’t define your overall success.

5. Be Kind to Yourself.

It is easy to get discouraged if things aren’t going as planned – but self-criticism can be counterproductive.

Acknowledge your efforts, forgive yourself for any missteps, and keep moving forward.

Takeaways

A mid-year review is a good opportunity to reflect on your progress.

You can celebrate your achievements, and make adjustments to stay on track. By following these steps, you can ensure that you’re making the most of the year and moving closer to your goals.

Remember, it’s not about perfection; it’s about progress.

Keep pushing forward, stay flexible, and believe in your ability to achieve great things.

This article was written by Matt Rutherford, who lives in Dublin, works in tech, and writes about practical career growth. To learn more about him, please visit https://www.mattrutherford.co.uk/about/.

The post How to Conduct a Mid-Year Review of Your Goals: A Step-by-Step Guide first appeared on GoalsOnTrack Blog.

What’s not simple is acting on it.

Most of us were taught to think of purpose as our why—a grand, overarching explanation for our lives. Something noble. Something impressive. Something that would look good printed beneath our name in a conference program. The idea sounds inspiring, but in practice it turns purpose into a high-stakes guessing game. We start trying on identities the way someone tries on outfits before a big event, hoping one finally fits. When none feel quite right, we assume the problem is us.

That’s when purpose starts to feel elusive, mysterious, and just out of reach.

When you believe there is only one correct answer to the question “Why am I here?” it creates a kind of psychological scarcity. You start to think there’s a single hidden purpose out there with your name on it and if you don’t find it, you’ve somehow missed your chance. It’s like searching for a needle in a football field of haystacks. The pressure alone is enough to paralyze you.

And paralysis feels a lot like confusion.

But what if we’ve been asking the wrong question all along?

Rethinking Purpose

In my experience, purpose isn’t a cosmic explanation. It’s behavioral. It isn’t something you discover in theory, it’s something you experience in action. A much more useful definition is this: purpose is what you do that lights you up.

Those moments are rarely hard to identify. Most people already know, at least intuitively, what energizes them. For one person, it’s dancing. For another, it’s hiking. Someone else feels most alive wandering through antique stores or playing pickup basketball or tinkering with code late at night. These are not mysteries. They’re clues.

When we stop obsessing over outcomes and instead pay attention to what genuinely pulls us in, purpose suddenly shifts from something abstract to something practical. Don’t ask, What am I meant to do with my life? Instead ask, What makes me feel most alive when I’m doing it?

That’s the simple part.

The hard part is what comes next.

The Challenge of Taking Action

Because once you know what lights you up, you still have to act on it. And action is where purpose tends to stall. Thinking about what excites you is safe. Doing something about it is not. Action requires effort, time, and the willingness to risk being bad at something. It asks you to step out of imagination and into exposure.

You like basketball? It’s easy to say so. It’s harder to find a game, organize a league, or sign up for one where you might be the worst player on the court. You enjoy writing? It’s pleasant to think about starting a blog. It’s much harder to hit publish and risk silence—or worse, criticism.

Action invites uncertainty, and uncertainty makes most of us uneasy.

That’s why purpose and courage are so tightly linked. Not because purpose itself is mysterious, but because living it requires you to face the possibility of failure. Every meaningful action carries some chance that it won’t work out. The league might never form. The blog might never grow. The podcast might launch to an audience of three.

Still, none of that invalidates the purpose. In fact, it confirms it.

I’ve run into this tension repeatedly in my own life. Starting my medical practice was an obvious step toward a purposeful career. I didn’t need years of reflection to know medicine energized me. But knowing that and actually building a business were two very different things. The paperwork, the logistics, the financial risk—all of it was intimidating. The path was clear. Walking it was not.

The same thing happened when I felt drawn to personal finance education. It was obvious to me that talking and writing about money lit me up. But recording my first podcast episode or submitting a book proposal felt like standing at the edge of a diving board. The water looked inviting. The jump still took nerve.

Identifying Purpose Anchors

That’s the pattern I see over and over: purpose is rarely hidden. Action is what we avoid.

If you feel stuck or uncertain about your purpose, the solution is surprisingly straightforward. Start with what I like to call your purpose anchors—the activities that consistently energize you. Not the things you think you should enjoy. Not the things that impress other people. The things that actually make you feel engaged, absorbed, or quietly satisfied.

Notice when time seems to move differently. Notice what you look forward to without being told. Notice what you return to even when no one is watching.

Once you’ve named those anchors, the next step is expansion. Ask yourself what actions could grow out of each one. If you love reading classic literature, could you start a small book group? Commit to one novel a month? Write essays about what you read? The moment you look for possibilities, you realize there are dozens. Maybe hundreds.

Purpose is rarely a single path. It’s usually a branching network.

Then comes the final step. The one most people resist. Do something. Anything. Take the smallest available action in the direction of what excites you. Momentum doesn’t appear first; it follows movement. Each concrete step, no matter how minor, lowers the psychological barrier to the next one.

You don’t need a master plan. You need a starting point.

Purpose as a Spark

We tend to think purpose should feel like a revelation. In reality, it behaves more like a spark. Sparks don’t look impressive at first. But given oxygen and fuel, they become fire.

So perhaps the real shift is this: stop treating purpose like a riddle you must solve before you can begin living. Instead, treat it like a direction you confirm by moving. The question isn’t “What is my purpose?” The question is “What action am I willing to take today toward something that energizes me?”

Purpose isn’t complicated. It’s behavioral. It’s immediate. It’s already whispering to you through your interests and curiosities.

All it asks in return is courage.

This article was written by Jordan Grumet, M.D., who completed his degrees at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University. He is the author of The Purpose Code.

The post Purpose Is Simple; Courage Is Hard first appeared on GoalsOnTrack Blog.

But goal-setting can also leave you miserable. Burnout, stress and disillusionment are high on the list of potential side effects.

The crucial difference between success and burnout often comes down to how your goals are designed. Done wisely, setting goals can be a positive experience—not just successful, but life-affirming. Here are seven research-based suggestions to help you design better ones.

1. Aim for Hard, but Believable

For over four decades, psychologist Edwin Locke has been central in research on goal-setting. His research has three consistent findings:

1. Setting goals improves performance.
2. Hard goals improve performance more than easy ones.
3. Specific targets work better than simply trying to “do your best.”

Early research on goal-setting found that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between difficulty and performance. This means that easy goals lead to weak efforts, but so do goals that are too hard. The key factor here seems to be that goals need to be challenging, but also believable to be effective. If you don’t think you can actually reach a goal, you won’t.

Thus the best goals to set are those that demand effort from you, but you’re confident you can achieve if you put in the effort.

2. Use the 80% Rule

How do we build motivation to pursue our goals? Psychologist Albert Bandura developed the concept of self-efficacy to explain why some people eagerly face challenges while others shrink. If you don’t feel you’ll be successful, why bother?

The danger is that self-efficacy can create either a vicious or a virtuous cycle. If you don’t feel you’ll be successful, you don’t put effort into your goals. This leads to failure and seemingly confirms your inability. The reverse is also true: you can pick successful goals, achieve them and steadily boost your confidence.

One way to build confidence is the 80% rule. Psychologist Barak Rosenshine, in his review of successful teaching, found that this was approximately the success rate students should experience while in school. Too much success, and you’re likely not picking hard enough goals. Too little, and you can fall into the confidence trap.

One way to calibrate this is to set smaller goals (think 30 days) and track your success rate. If you’re under 80%, try setting a more achievable target. If you’re over 80%, try something a little more ambitious.

3. Deadlines Are Poison for Creative Problem-Solving

A significant exception to the power of specific, challenging goals involves creative problem-solving. In tasks that require complex thinking, such as learning, problem-solving or creative work, goal-setting can backfire.

Why is this? It’s because these activities require the full use of your working memory. Working memory is a psychological concept that corresponds roughly to mental bandwidth. It’s been known for several decades that the amount of things we can keep in mind at one time is limited—and often less than we think.

A stressful deadline to come up with a creative solution can hurt. The goal itself occupies so much space in your working memory that you have little left to try out new possible solutions. In these cases, you’re better off in a relaxed state with minimal distractions.

Of course, here we have a conflict. Goal-setting works by marshaling motivation and energy to reach a goal. Without goals, we often fail to put in the effort needed to achieve. However, if we are thinking about the goal while we’re working, we lose that mental bandwidth to develop creative solutions. How do we fix this?

One way is to set goals to work on a creative problem for a chunk of time without interruption or expectation of results. This allows you to focus on the task and gives your mind more space to think of solutions.

4. Visualize Failure

A common suggestion for goal-setting is to visualize success. But visualizing failure might work even better.

Psychologist Peter Gollwitzer suggests a key ingredient to the success of your goals is what he calls implementation intentions. These are when you visualize difficulties that might come up in pursuing your goal and decide in advance how you will handle them.

Many goals get derailed by events that are unexpected but not unimaginable. You get sick two weeks into an exercise program. Your exam gets rescheduled. You were ready to start your business, but the permits are delayed.

Imagining obstacles in advance and deciding your response can make those responses more effective when the time comes. Since your motivation is usually highest when setting the goal, this planning can keep you from abandoning your goal when things get difficult.

5. Keep it to Yourself (At Least to Start)

Should you tell other people about your goals? Surprisingly the answer is sometimes no.

In addition to implementation intentions, Peter Gollwitzer also studied the effects of telling people about the goals you want to achieve. Interestingly, his research found that telling people about your goals can substitute for actually taking action. Why is this?

Gollwitzer explains the results in terms of his theory of symbolic self-completion. According to this theory, we all want to maintain our image in the eyes of others. To do that, we display signals of our self-identity. Announcing our goals can make us feel like we have sent that signal, and our motivation to achieve the actual goal can go down.

This suggests we should focus first on taking action, not talking about it.

6. Break it Down and Make Yourself Accountable

Why do we procrastinate? The common perception is that procrastination is caused by perfectionism. People who need to do everything perfectly waste time getting started.

Except research doesn’t bear this out. In a comprehensive review, psychologist Piers Steel found perfectionism didn’t predict procrastination. What did? Unpleasant tasks and impulsive personalities.

One difficulty with setting goals is that our motivational hardwiring doesn’t cope well with the future. When a deadline is far off, and the immediate work isn’t always fun, we’re likely to slack. This persists until shortly before the deadline when the fear of failure spurs us to action. Unfortunately, as we discussed in point 3, these last-minute efforts aren’t ideal for complex work.

The key is to break down your goals into smaller, daily actions. If you know what needs to be done today, you’re in a much better position to act on it.

It is even better is if you can create a compelling incentive to stick to the daily plan. A powerful tool for overcoming procrastination is precommitment. Telling a friend or spouse that you’ll give them money for each day you miss your plan is a surefire strategy to stay committed.

Less extreme solutions can also include following a “don’t break the chain” strategy. Once you’ve set your daily plan, keep a tally of how many days in a row you’ve followed it. The goal is not to miss a day. If you do, reset your tally and start over.

For goals that don’t break down into simple, daily habits, you can still focus on daily actions. Break the goal into smaller milestones that have short-term deadlines. The closer you can move your goals to the present, the more successfully they will guide your behavior.

7. Set Goals You Want to Achieve (Not Just Those You Feel You Should)

Much of the stress and disillusionment people experience with goals comes from setting ones that aren’t truly their own. When we work on the goals of other people, goals we feel pressure to achieve but don’t actually want, the result is often misery.

Self-determination theory was developed by psychologists Edward Ryan and Richard Deci. They found that external incentives, such as paying someone to complete an otherwise interesting puzzle, could crowd out internal motivation. People would play the puzzle while being paid to, but they would play less when the rewards stopped.

They argue that many of the goals we pursue are only partially our own. We chase them because we feel we should, but they are somewhat “alien” to our deeper selves. Since these goals mainly just fulfill social expectations, they are harder to motivate ourselves toward consistently.

I suspect that the prevalence of these goals is why many have soured on goal-setting altogether. They have too many goals that aren’t truly their own. As a result, they are poorly motivated to achieve them, often fail to put in adequate effort, and experience stress and burnout.

For goal-setting to be life-affirming, the goals pursued have to feel deeply meaningful to you. Getting in touch with what you really want out of life, and separating out the things you merely think you “should” want, is perhaps the most essential part of goal-setting. A good life isn’t measured by the sum of your achievements, but by the meaning you attach to them. Choose wisely.

This article was written by Scott H. Young, a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, podcast host, computer programmer and an avid reader.

The post The Science of Achievement: 7 Research-Backed Tips to Set Better Goals first appeared on GoalsOnTrack Blog.

Yet, it isn’t so easy considering everything that requires our attention. Cue mass emails and texts, never-ending projects, family events—the list goes on! So how do you get enough done to feel better about your work and about how you’re spending your time?

We have a handful of time-tested tips to increase your productivity. But first, let’s get on the same page about what exactly productivity means in the first place. Then we’ll lay out some insights on how to measure productivity and how you can boost your efficiency. 

What Is Productivity?

At its core, productivity is the measure of your efficiency to complete tasks and achieve goals within a certain time frame. It’s the ratio of your output (e.g. tasks completed) over what resources it took to complete them—like time and effort. 

Being a productive person—in contrast with being busy—is maximizing your output while minimizing your input. Think of someone who you consider to be productive. You probably think of how much work they can do in such little time. They use their time (an input) well to create impressive outputs (e.g. completed tasks). 

When you start thinking of productivity this way, you begin to see all your actions as either adding to your efficiency or reducing it. It transforms your entire work process.

How To Measure Productivity

Measuring productivity is intuitive: compare what it took to do something to what you did. The most common metrics for measuring our efficiency include:

• How much time it took to complete a task
• The quality of the project completed
• How often projects are completed in a given period

But, you can only measure how productive you are if you have goals or benchmarks in place—you need something to measure against. For example, I use a time-tracking app to see how long it takes me to complete projects in my freelance business. If I spend less time on a project than I did before, and the quality is the same, I’m more productive. 

In a business context, my measurement of productivity is my effective hourly rate. 

But that’s only one aspect of productivity. Employees are routinely measured for efficiency through performance reviews, for example. Employers want to know how well an employee is using their time and may use productivity software to track certain metrics. These could include how often a team member completes assignments or how many sales they bring in per week. 

There are myriad ways to measure productivity depending on your context—don’t get caught up in trying to find the perfect system of measurement. Measuring your efficiency helps individuals and groups identify their strengths and weaknesses. By doing so, they learn exactly where they can improve.

How To Increase Productivity

Increasing productivity can be done in many ways, but the most common is to focus on using your time better altogether. This way, you can fit in both personal and professional activities. 

By having a less demanding schedule so you’re working less but doing just as much—or more—you’ll have more energy to devote to things that are important to you.

One way to increase your efficiency at home and at work is by using productivity tools. This can be as simple as using a paper journal or a complex software program that measures your time spent on multiple projects.

Finding your peak productivity might not seem easy at first, so we’ve laid out some of the most common—and easy to implement—tips for increasing your efficiency.

Build Your Time Management Skills

Getting better at planning your time and strategizing your days is key to becoming more productive. The better you become at time management, the less time it takes to get more done. 

A key pillar of time management is learning what to allocate your time to. That’s harder said than done, especially when it feels like there are a thousand different things you could be doing at any moment. Setting clear priorities and goals to help you stay on track is crucial. 

The Eisenhower Box (or Eisenhower Matrix) helps you organize your priorities. By doing so you can focus on high-output management rather than deciding what to do next.

Dwight Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, was one of the most productive men to ever walk the Earth. He came up with a time management strategy to decide on which tasks to do and when by separating them into four different categories. 

1. Urgent and important tasks that need to be done immediately (do now)
2. Tasks that are important but don’t need to be done immediately (schedule for later)
3. Tasks that seem urgent but are not important (delegate to someone else)
4. Tasks that are not urgent nor important (eliminate)

Remember that it’s important to break up tasks into small steps so you don’t overwhelm yourself.

Create A To-Do List

We’re all familiar with writing the things we need to get done on paper. However, creating a to-do list for productivity requires a completely different approach.

Productivity legend and author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, David Allen, understands why people might have an aversion to listing all of the tasks they need to complete. “Looking at them creates as much stress as they might have relieved in the first place,” he writes.

Allen’s approach is to be as specific as possible when creating a task list by eliminating any decision making—that should be written down as part of the list. Instead of writing “organize team meeting” you should include steps on how to do that, organized by urgency and importance.

But it’s not enough to simply have a list, you need to review it from time-to-time, and update it as tasks are completed. And, if your priorities change, your list needs to follow suit.

Use the Ivy Lee Method Approach

Focusing on what needs done can quickly overwhelm you—it can feel like hundreds of tasks require your attention every day. How do you decide what needs to be done first? 

Ivy Lee, a productivity consultant from the early 1900s, came up with a simple framework now known as the Ivy Lee Method. Lee’s approach is summed up in six steps:

1. At the end of your work day, note the six most critical tasks that need to be completed tomorrow. Only six.
2. Rank those tasks by their importance, listing the most important task at the top of the list. 
3. The following day, only concentrate on the first task on the list until it is done. 
4. Move on to the next task, working on it alone until it is done, repeating this approach until all the tasks are completed.
5. Repeat this list every business day.

Lee’s approach can help anyone reduce their overwhelm and stress, and increase their productivity, by helping them realize what tasks actually matter—not just the ones that seem like they do. 

Author Mark Twain emphasizes the necessity of only completing the most important task each day as well. “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”

The phrase “eat that frog” was made more commonplace by productivity consultant Brian Tracy. It emphasizes doing the most important task—even if it’s the most difficult—first thing.

Stay Focused

To keep your attention solely on what you’re working on at hand, minimize distractions as much as you can. For many of us, our phones are a major culprit in removing our focus from our work. Putting your phone in a different room while you work can make a big difference. 

Creating a work environment that helps you focus is also key. You can do this by reducing noise from outside environments and creating a neutral-colored space that isn’t distracting. Additionally, try keeping only work-related equipment in the room. 

Famed entrepreneur Alex Hormozi works in a windowless room to minimize outside distractions, for example.

Though initially contradictory, staying focused also means taking a break. One study showed that individuals who took even a 10-minute mindfulness pause had increased “attentional resources” when working on tasks than those who did not.

I work at a computer all day at my day job in a law office. Stepping away for five minutes to walk around to give my eyes and mind a break refreshes me to work harder.

One Task At A Time

Multitasking can severely reduce productivity. This is especially true if the tasks we are working on use different thinking processes. Think about trying to solve a math problem and then write an essay at the same time. Ouch. 

In fact, one study found that students who tried to do multiple tasks performed worse academically. Those who spent more time multitasking while completing their homework spent more time studying outside of class instead. Any time gained multitasking is often lost switching between tasks or reducing the quality of the work you’re doing.

Rather than try to do as much as you can at once, devote your time and focus to completing one task at a time. You’ll have more brain power to finish that task quickly before moving onto the next.

Delegate Tasks

You cannot do everything. That’s why delegation is a key piece of the productivity puzzle. 

Individuals have their strengths and weaknesses, and delegating tasks accordingly leads to efficiency. That can only be done if tasks are delegated to the right employees. 

Delegation also allows you to focus on high-priority tasks that best fit your role. For example, a C-suite executive wouldn’t work on basic data entry tasks. This particular task isn’t beneath them, but their skills and expertise don’t align best with the work.

Use The Pomodoro Strategy

The Pomodoro Technique (or Strategy) is a productivity tool used to keep you focused without reducing mental freshness.It’s approach is simple: 

1. Pick a task or project to work on
2. Set a timer for 25 or 30 minutes
3. Once the timer sounds, take a two- or three-minute break
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for four sessions
5. After the fourth session, take a longer break to recharge

By working for 25 minutes at a time and taking strategic pauses, you can be more alert for longer periods of time. Taking a break in between sessions doesn’t mean working on a different task—you need to step away from work entirely.

Overcome Perfectionism

Perfection is a productivity killer. Don’t get me wrong, it’s vital to do quality work, but that’s different from perfect work—an unreachable goal. 

Perfectionism has been connected to burnout, stress and anxiety. All of these reduce your ability to get things done. Instead, aim for excellence in your work: complete a task while doing your best given the resources that you have. To make this process easier, set clear, concrete goals for each task you work on. You need to know what a finished task looks like. 

For example, if you were tasked with writing an office memo, some potential goals for the document could be: 

• Explains the topic at hand clearly
• Offers advice and next steps for staff that are understandable 
• Uses clear language and is easy to read

Notice how these goals are much more manageable to attain and don’t induce the same type of stress created by aiming for perfection? They also allow for imperfections; though clearly not wanted, they are a necessity of life and business. Learning to accept them helps you work faster without unneeded stress. 

Remember: not trying to attain perfection doesn’t mean you aren’t continuously improving either. It just means your end goal is achievable.

Avoid Toxic Productivity

Working hard toward your goals is good, but letting your drive to work and maximize output overtake all aspects of your life is damaging. That’s known as toxic productivity. 

It’s documented that overworking leads to little-to-no gains in productivity, even reducing your output. Focusing too much on being as efficient as possible can take a massive toll on your mental health and pull you away from those around you. If all you are doing is thinking of ways to efficiently use your time, are you focused on those around you? 

In contrast, healthy productivity is holistic. You take breaks, prioritize self-care while still focusing on your goals–both professional and personal. As Warren Buffet has famously said, “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.” 

Additionally, setting clear, manageable goals can help you know when you’ve achieved a desired outcome, letting you know when to stop. Think of goals as guardrails against toxic work habits.

Conclusion

From habit stacking to strategic rests and the 1-3-5 rule, trying to be more productive can feel, well, unproductive. There’s a lot of tips, tricks and options to choose from. But remember that becoming more productive is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Any techniques you come across should be implemented into your routines slowly. This way you can get used to them and learn how they work with your schedule. 

For instance, try using the Eisenhower Box during one of your less busy days. Trying to prioritize your tasks with a new system when you’re already juggling too much likely won’t motivate you to keep using it. 

Productivity should be a means to a fulfilled, enjoyable lifestyle, not simply a tool to turn you into a high output management machine. In an interview with Zapier, David Allen aptly describes his productivity method that sums up this view. “Getting Things Done [Allen’s methodology and book] is not so much about getting things done; it’s about being appropriately engaged with your life so that you can be present with whatever you’re doing.”

This article was written by Brett Surbey who is a corporate paralegal with KMSC Law LLP and freelance writer who has written for Yahoo Finance Canada, Pivot Magazine, Publishers Weekly, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes Advisor and multiple academic journals. He and his family live in northern Alberta, Canada.

The post 11 Productivity Strategies That Actually Work (Backed by Research) first appeared on GoalsOnTrack Blog.

Plan ahead

First things first: A good morning starts the night before by planning ahead for the next day. “Preplanning the day ahead and making decisions ahead of time makes the rest of your day potentially calmer and less stressful,” says Melinda Rathkoph, MD, MBA, founder of Declutter Docs and spokesperson for the National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals. “Set yourself up by knowing what’s coming.”

One aspect that frequently gets overlooked as people try to optimize their schedules is the downtime needed in between your to-dos—such as commuting time for appointments, Rathkopf says—so make sure that’s built into your schedule.

Optimize your sleep

“Get a good night’s sleep” seems to be the remedy for everything from stress to immune-system ills—and so it should be no surprise that a lack of sleep can impact your productivity, too. “Sleep is so vital to daily functioning and brain health,” Rathkopf says. “Start with how much sleep you need to feel refreshed, then work backwards from there and schedule sleep first.”

Skip the screens

No one is immune to losing time scrolling—and time management expert Julie Morgenstern, author of several books, including Time Management From the Inside Out, recommends you avoid the temptation altogether by minimizing your interaction with your phone. That includes placing the phone far from your bed, and perhaps even blocking off apps that’ll stress you out or become a major time suck.

“The number one thing that can boost morning productivity has to do with screen time,” she says. “We should not be on our devices an hour before bed, and we should not be on our devices for our first hour of the morning. In the morning, you don’t want to wake up and the first thing you do is check your phone—it just will suck you in and you’ll lose time.”

She knows exactly how hard this is (she’s currently in the middle of a digital detox with a family member), but insists it’s essential. “The phone can be a useful tool, but it’s designed to keep us on there. Think of it like sugar—you have to really manage your consumption, and take charge. It’s the key to morning productivity, engagement, your relationships, everything.”

She recommends swapping out that morning and evening screen time for something analog—like reading a book, getting outside, or having a conversation with someone. “Replace screen time with something more nourishing for your body, brain, and soul,” Morgenstern says.

Streamline your routine (and your kids’ routines, too)

You may have seen a million social media posts with people flexing about their killer morning routine, featuring pre-dawn wake-ups, journaling time, yoga, some sort of complicated smoothie, and of course, a 10-step skincare regimen. But for many people, an elaborate morning routine like that is a one-way ticket to overwhelm (or falling asleep at your desk before lunch).

A complex morning routine can really backfire. “It can make you stressed out—’Oh god, I didn’t meditate long enough!'” Morgenstern says. “Add three to four elements maximum for a morning routine. Otherwise, you’re habituating to something that’s unsustainable.” So choose the big three elements that really start your morning on a strong, calm, and powerful note, and stick with them.

Of course, if you’re getting ready with others in the a.m., that complicates matters. Young kids, in particular, can cause plenty of morning chaos. If that’s your situation, Morgenstern recommends getting your routine fully done before they wake up and look for ways to streamline their mornings, too. “Study each kid and see how long it takes them to get ready,” Morgenstern says. “Do what you can to streamline their habits.” For instance, if dressing your preschooler requires multiple outfit suggestions, have them narrow it down to one or two the night before so you can take that stress out of your morning.

Make each morning as predictable as possible

Even at work, aim for creating a predictable cadence. “Our brains love predictability,” Rathkopf says. “When you have a predictable routine, you’re reducing your stress and cognitive load.”

One key for productivity—especially with deep or creative work—is creating a predictable time of day where you’re engaging in that activity. “You’re habit building for the brain,” Morgenstern says. “If you have a predictable head-down time, your brain gets acclimated to it—it’s 10:30, that’s when we do our deep thinking. I’ve never seen anyone build proactive work with an erratic schedule.”

Start your day with your highest impact work

Put your best foot—and your best work—forward by putting your initial time in on a big-impact to-do that requires your freshest self. (Fun fact: The morning is when you make your best decisions, so it’s the perfect time to think through big picture projects and complex tasks.)

“The number one difficulty people have is that the day starts off all reactive, and they can’t get to proactive work,” Morgenstern says. “So start with the most high-impact project of the day. Deep thinking work—like writing or coming up with a strategy—is usually an incredibly productive boost to your day. Even if you only get that one thing done, you’ll feel the greatest sense of relief that you’ve done your job.”

If you work somewhere where your schedule is set—and includes a first-thing-in-the morning meeting, Morgenstern recommends blocking off a period of time a half hour or hour after the meeting for your quiet, productive work. (That buffer time lets you address any to-dos that came out of the meeting before you settle in on your key work.) Or, better yet, see if you can get the higher-ups to buy in on a “quiet hour” before you launch into the morning standup. “Suggest that you’d all be much more productive if you all use the first hour of the day for proactive work and then have standup, and see if you can get alignment to just move the meeting,” Morgenstern says.

Schedule in self-care

Again, we’re not talking about a big, long 20-step self-care routine that requires an uninterrupted two-hour block—because no one has time for that. Instead, look for ways to install little self-care mini breaks throughout the day.

“Add microbursts of self-care in your day—5- to 20-minute activities that recharge you,” Morgenstern says. “You need to have regular, steady sources of fuel and refuel built into your day so that you’re not just working until you drop at your desk. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but it should be something you can squeeze into any day.” Some suggestions: a short walk, listening to your favorite music or podcasts on your commute, or reading a book.

It’s especially important to take these recharging moments when you’re at your very busiest. “The harder you’re working, the harder you have to recover,” Morgenstern says. “You have to increase your recovery time, because you’re working that much harder.”

Change it up as needed

Don’t consider your morning routine a set-it-and-forget-it proposition—change will be inevitable. “You may need to change it based on other obligations, at different stages of your life, or even in different seasons,” Rathkopf says. (Because no one wants to be jogging outdoors when it’s blizzarding out!)

You may also decide that an element of your morning is actually a detriment to your productivity—and it may be time to let that go. “The worst thing would be to try to make yourself do something that doesn’t work for you—everyone’s different. You can take other people’s ideas and then adapt them to your own life.”

She also suggests you give yourself grace, too, if your morning isn’t as productive as you’d hoped—or doesn’t look like those perfect TikTok routines. “Don’t be mad at yourself—everybody’s different, and what you’re seeing in posts is someone else’s best versions and best days,” Rathkopf says. “They have those not-so-perfect days, too.”

This article was written by Lisa Milbrand and originally published on REAL SIMPLE. Lisa Milbrand has more than 20 years of experience as a lifestyle writer and editor, writing thousands of articles on topics that help people live better and healthier lives for Real Simple, Parents, and dozens of other top publications.

The post 8 Expert-Backed Habits for a More Productive Morning first appeared on GoalsOnTrack Blog.

But today we’re going to be diving into how journaling can help us become better versions of ourselves. Specifically, we’re going to highlight the powerful practice that is future self journaling.

What is future self journaling?

Although there are many ways to journal towards an improved, happier version of you, in this article we’re diving into the future self journaling practice invented and popularized by Dr. Nicole LePera (a.k.a. The Holistic Psychologist).

This particular way of journaling takes only 5-8 minutes a day and helps you become conscious of certain patterns in your thoughts and behaviors, and actively work towards shifting them.

At slowself.co we talk quite a bit about how the person we are becoming is rooted in our daily habits. Our ability to evolve into a better version of ourselves depends on our ability to alter these habits. Future self journaling helps you pinpoint a thought pattern or behavior you want to change, and work toward shifting it with grace and compassion over the course of a month (or however long you decide).

While the main focus of the practice is to grow in the direction of who you want to become, it is also a wonderful way to incorporate positive affirmations and gratitude into your days, as you will see.

How to start future self journaling?

Step 1: Choosing which behavior to work on

The first step is deciding on a behavior you want to change or develop. On a fresh page in your journal, answer the questions below (Dr. LePera titles this page ‘Self-Awareness’):

1. What behavior or pattern do I want to change?
   Choose one behavior that you want to actively work on changing or developing. If you’re struggling to figure this out, try to think about which behavior would make the biggest impact in your life if you managed to change or cultivate it.
   
2. Which affirmations will help me achieve this?
   Write down any affirmations you come up with that will help inspire you as you work on the behavior you’ve chosen.
   
3. How can I practice this new behavior in my daily life?
   This last question is really important, because it forces you to think about what changing your behavior will look like concretely. The more specific you are here, the easier it will be to actually make these changes every day.

You now have a clear idea of the behavior you will be working on for the next 30 days (or until you see changes). This little brainstorm has to be completed only once, for each new behavior you want to work on.

Step 2: Journaling towards your future self

Once the preparatory step is done, we can move onto the journaling practice itself. It’s fairly straightforward – we simply write down the following 6 things every day for the next 30 days:

1. My daily affirmation
   e.g. My actions represent the person I am becoming.
   
2. Today I will focus on shifting my pattern of...
   e.g. … prioritizing actions that gratify my present self over actions that serve my future self.
   
3. I am grateful for…
   e.g. … the possibility to create my own schedule, my significant other, and access to free yoga on YouTube.
   
4. The person I’m becoming will experience more…
   e.g. … self-growth, resilience and alignment.
   
5. I have an opportunity to be my future self today when I…
   e.g. meditate, prepare a healthy meal and take action on my goals.
   
6. When I think about who I’m becoming I feel…
   …confident and motivated to take action.

Yes, this may sound repetitive, and that is exactly the point. This type of journaling uses neuroplasticity, meaning it leverages the ability of our brain’s neural pathways to change through constant repetition. By being mindful and intentional about shifting a certain behavioral pattern each and every day, we slowly remodel our brain to develop this new way of behaving.

While your answer to the second question will remain similar throughout the 30 days, it is normal for your answers to the other questions to be slightly different every day. For your daily affirmation, you might tap into the affirmations you listed in the previous step, or write down whatever comes up on that particular day.

Because the questions are always the same and relatively easy to answer, future self journaling is a very short practice that can easily be incorporated into your day. As you go through the questions each day, you will eventually know them by heart, making it even easier.

A few tips…

Tip #1
While you can do future self journaling at any given time of the day, I have found it to be a wonderful way to start the morning with intention. Creating consciousness around the behavior you want to change or develop as part of your morning routine allows it to guide you throughout the day.

Tip #2
Feel free to add more questions to the list that you feel are useful! Personally, I’ve found the addition of “3 traits my future self will have are…” very effective, inspired by YouTuber Jenn Im.

Tip #3
Since future self journaling is most impactful when done every day, turning it into a habit is important. An effective way to do this is by stacking it onto an existing habit you have. For example, I like to do future self journaling right after meditation in the morning. Interestingly, I have found that a daily commitment to this practice makes it easier to stay consistent with other elements of my ideal morning routine (win-win!).

Once the 30 days are over or once you’ve successfully managed to change or develop your chosen behavior, you can start the process all over again focusing on the next behavior.

In this way, a couple of minutes a day can help you consciously take steps toward becoming future you, one habit at a time.

This article was written by Chloe Linn, and originally published on slowself.co.

The post How to Start Future Self Journaling first appeared on GoalsOnTrack Blog.

I think this is an interesting question because, on the one hand, a deadline can motivate action. By knowing you need to accomplish something in a particular period of time, you’re less likely to procrastinate on it.

However, a deadline can also be deflating if it turns out your goals’ natural timeframe isn’t in line with your projections. While you can often accelerate progress by working a bit harder, many goals have a natural timeline they will be achieved at. If you set your deadline much faster than that mark, you may end up frustrated when it looks like you can’t reach it.

When Do Deadlines Work Well?

In my mind, deadlines work well for your goals in the following conditions:

1. You can be confident your deadline and the natural timeframe for the goal are consistent.
2. You have a fair bit of flexibility with how much effort you can put into the goal.

With the first point, setting a goal which has a timeframe that is much longer than your deadline will inevitably lead to frustration. For instance, if your goal is to lose 30 lbs in a month, not only is this unlikely to be achieved but you might have to risk your health to accomplish it. Similarly, if you want to build a six-figure online business in six months, you’ll also probably be disappointed, no matter how hard you work.

The second point, however, is important too. Deadlines work because they can motivate action. But if constraints mean you really can’t invest more time and energy towards a goal, there isn’t much point.

For example, if you’re trying to learn Japanese and you can only invest three hours per week, a deadline doesn’t make much sense to me. Unless you are prepared to increase the investment or work harder when you’re behind on your goal, a deadline is just there to taunt you.

What Goals Shouldn’t Have Deadlines?

Conversely, I think goals shouldn’t have hard deadlines when:

1. You don’t know what the natural timeframe is for the goal.
2. Your investment into the project is relatively fixed.

If you have no idea what is a reasonable deadline to set for a goal, I’m not sure it makes much sense to set one. Unless, of course, you can be prepared to ramp up the investment of time and effort by a large amount, in the case that you’re not meeting your target.

Set a Period of Focus, Instead of a Deadline

A good alternative, I’ve found, to setting goals with deadlines is to set a period of focus instead. This allows you to constrain your time, so you don’t have a project that extends into infinity. But instead of setting a firm standard you need to reach by the end of the project, you just see how far you can go.

The MIT Challenge, had a traditional deadline: pass all the exams and do the programming projects in one year. When I was learning Chinese, in contrast, I had a period of focus: learn Chinese over three months and see how much progress I can make.

Starting with a period of focus can be useful when you’re not sure what the natural timeframe is for a certain goal. Then, as you’re working on the goal, and have a better sense of where you might end up, you can set a more traditional deadline to motivate action. Halfway through my Chinese learning experiment, I decided to write the HSK 4, since I felt it was reachable with the time I had left.

This article was written by Scott Young, a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, podcast host, computer programmer and an avid reader. Learn more about Young at https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/about/.

The post Should You Set Deadlines for Your Goals? first appeared on GoalsOnTrack Blog.