ForumsGetting Things Done®Goals: How do you use them?


Goals: How do you use them?
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benny

Posted: Sep 18, 2009
Score: 0 Reference
No prob - I love this sort of stuff and can get really too engrossed in tweaking my system rather than getting things done. I'm always looking at things with a critical eye to streamline it so I'm always looking to tweak my system if I can improve it - I think using Goals in this way might be worth a shot. I haven't been too terribly active on the forums so I'd love to start being a bit more vocal.
michaelkuban

Posted: Jan 04, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
It seems to have been awhile since anyone has jumped in here. I have lightly used goals in todo but with the new year I need to get a handle on this. Minor food for thought, I have played with planning, goals, tools etc for so many years it got boring, then life became disjointed and well, crap....Point is that no matter what you do you NEED TO DO IT and not stop. sorry that is my steam blowing off.
michaelkuban

Posted: Jan 04, 2010
Score: 1 Reference
now for thinking how to do this - the three levels of goals are quite nice and the fact that they somehwat link is good, THOUGH I CANNOT LOCATE THE CHAIN VIEW SO IF YOU HAVE HELP THERE..... the other issue I have is that WHAT WE REALLY NEED is ability to view all things underneath a the goal levels, if I create a Lifetime goal then a Long term goal then a short term goal and then create projects and tasks underneath, when I do a view of the top layer goal I want to see all tasks in the chain. Does that make sense?

I use Lifetime Goals as my key areas of focus
Spiritual, Family, Professional, Personal, Friends (1 to 7 max)

Then I use Long Term goals for areas of focus with in the above, example, for Family.....
- as a Husband
- for my Wife
- for my kids
- my stewardship
- as a brother
etc.

Then use Short Term goal to create areas of focus in the my roles
example, -my Stewardship.....
- Take car of my home
- take care of finances
- take car of cars

Then I use projects, ticklers and actions (note projects=multiple actions to complete, ticklers=regular actions dated, actions=one off individual actions (which is what will also be under projects)
example, - take care of my car.....
- Wash my car(TICKLER on repeated weekly basis)
- Get new stereo (PROJECT with multipl ations)
- Get new winshield wipers (ACTION, though some may make this a project, ie. go to store, take old off...too much for me)


anyways long note, and I am still working this out but this is the path I am taking it.

Opinions?



Example
Lifetime Goal (1 - 5 key areas of focusi = Family
Long Term Goal = Wife
Short Term Goal =
Linden

Posted: Jan 05, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
Hey Michael,

I enjoy using the goals screen, but still need to get it sorted out a bit more smoothly. Your proposed goal setup looks great to me -- I'm going to use it for inspiration!

The chain view is merged with the goals screen that you access on the left sidebar. Just before the notes icon for each goal is a little chain link icon. If you click that, a bar is revealed under the goal, which shows a little chain-link for each day in the past 30 days that a task related to that goal was completed.

For your short-term goals, the chain link will appear for each day a task was completed that was associated with that short-term goal. For long-term and lifetime goals, the chain link will appear for tasks directly associated with the goal AND for any tasks associated with goals that contribute to that goal.

So, from your example tasks, "Wash my car" contributes to the "Take care of my car" short-term goal. When you check it off, you'll get a chain link added on that day for the "Take care of my car" goal, your "My stewardship" goal, and your "Family" goal.

All the best for 2010!
Torsten Glorius

Posted: Jan 08, 2010
Score: 1 Reference
I Just started to use goals and was loking for a concept to add this feature with very low effort and only for Tasks where I need additional motivation.

Here is my Concept:

- Lifetime Goals are real "Lifetime"-Visons, something like: Stay Healthy even when growing old
- Long Term Goals are more concrete: e.g. Loose XXkg
- Short Term Goals are more acticvities then goals: e.g. At least one 10km Run a week.

I'm only adding goals to Todo's which match to this Visions, not using them for the 'normal daily activities' I'm adding to my folders.

Please excuse my bad english, I'm German.

Kind Regards and a Happy New Year!

Torsten
rafavruiz

Posted: Jan 26, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
Hi,

I've just 3 days using Toodledo, and part of the objectives that I think something great.
Story as I use it myself:

LifeLong: For me long term goals.
For example: a firm level, would "be leaders in our industry"

Long-Term: These are the major goals that will lead me to that goal.
For example: "Achieving 100% customer satisfaction. Goal linked to the goal set out above.

Short-Term: These are the objectives that must be met to achieve the great objectives that would do that to achieve the ultimate goal.
For example: "Creating quality protocol services to customers." Objective linked to achieving customer satisfaction ...


So what follows is to create projects that will lead me to fulfill each of these objectives. For what I have created a folder called Projects in which I scored each of the projects I have to do to meet the target.
For example: "Make customer survey to learn their current level of satisfaction." That leads me directly to the objective framework of creating a quality protocol.

And under this project, I'm adding the subtasks, it will be every action that we must meet to get the project.
For example: "Create a list of questions to ask customers" ...

Well, this is my system. At least the last 3 days. And in principle I like a lot, and I can almost say it's the most comfortable I've had since productivity is my obsession.
It is so comfortable I program, but it is also true that I have 3 days and I have not even done with it. Everything arrived.

I hope that this system can serve any.

Greetings.

Rafa.
Proximo

Posted: Feb 01, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
@rafavruiz,

Great information.

Thanks for sharing.
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