MJ's New Goal Setting/Achievement App

[MJ DeMarco]

The fall cannot get here any sooner! Very excited about the launch

The service is pretty much finished, been using for about 6 weeks now and it definitely has made me more focused, organized, and productive. What isn't finished, is all the nuances around it, onboarding, emails, help pages, etc. That's what is keeping us behind schedule.

 

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[DMass]

I’m looking forward to seeing this!

 

[andyhaus44]

The service is pretty much finished, been using for about 6 weeks now and it definitely has made me more focused, organized, and productive. What isn't finished, is all the nuances around it, onboarding, emails, help pages, etc. That's what is keeping us behind schedule.

thank you for the update, MJ!

 

[StompingAcorns]

I can't wait!! Looking forward to using your app, MJ.

 

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[heavy_industry]

I can't wait to test it!

It is going to be awesome!

 

[Outdoorlife2005]

I'm looking forward to this as well

 

[gilli]

I have a question about the app. I noticed that there is no Sunday in daily sumo. Was this done on purpose so that there is a rest period on Sunday or will it still be retrofitted? Thank you very much!

 

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[mikecarlooch]

@MJ DeMarco I have a question about your goal setting system

Under the dream chain, where you are creating 10 year goals, it then tells you to type in a 2-6 year goal in terms of things you can control (the actions you take).

If the 10 year goal you have set for yourself is so much further away from where you are right now and don't know what will be the vehicle that is capable of taking you to that major goal, how do you even begin to know what the 2-6 year actions are that have to be taken to achieve the 10 year goal?

 

[andyhaus44]

Hey MJ,
GoalSumo.com is great! Really liking the app so far!
The most important task, primary task and secondary tasks should only be focused on your top 1-3 goals and not general to-dos (like grocery shopping, getting the oil changed, etc.), correct?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Hey MJ,
GoalSumo.com is great! Really liking the app so far!
The most important task, primary task and secondary tasks should only be focused on your top 1-3 goals and not general to-dos (like grocery shopping, getting the oil changed, etc.), correct?

Glad you are enjoying, thus far, we quiet launched in a sort of quasi-beta to work out some of the kinks and bugs.

Any of your Tasks can be chained to a goal, but it is NOT a requirement, and NOT necessary. Any task can be unchained, but optimally, your Power Task should be chained to a Weekly Goal.

Chained tasks to goals earn bonus points, if you have scoring enabled. A chained power task looks like this:




Note: While we are live, there might be some issues as we are keeping a close eye on things and modifying as we go before we go "official".

 

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[andyhaus44]

Had a SUCS event today with GoalSumo.com.

I emailed Dear from GoalSumo.com this morning and within a few hours, he emailed me back!

Expected it to take at least a couple of weeks before hearing back, but to get a response that fast is Superior Unexpected Customer Service

 

[savefox]

I think an app would be more convenient

 

[andyhaus44]

I think an app would be more convenient

they are expecting a mobile app to be available by mid 2023

 

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[ZackerySprague]

The GoalSumo SAAS is absolutely amazing, I have found myself being more productive in a few hours that I have used it. I subbed immediately, plus the functionality to get a paper format is a blessing.

I love how they explain how to break down your goals, plus MJ's backstory on the page. Such a good mine, would definitely recommend to others to use!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

The GoalSumo SAAS is absolutely amazing, I have found myself being more productive in a few hours that I have used it. I subbed immediately, plus the functionality to get a paper format is a blessing.

I love how they explain how to break down your goals, plus MJ's backstory on the page. Such a good mine, would definitely recommend to others to use!

Thank you, so happy to hear this. My productivity has improved since using it too, and I've used a variety of systems. This "self use" was very important to me.

Question, did you subscribe? We saw your trial, but didn't see a subscription from you, so I just want to make sure there weren't any bugs in the process.

 

[ZackerySprague]

Thank you, so happy to hear this. My productivity has improved since using it too, and I've used a variety of systems. This "self use" was very important to me.

Question, did you subscribe? We saw your trial, but didn't see a subscription from you, so I just want to make sure there weren't any bugs in the process.

Oops, sorry. I thought I did last night, I forgot to complete that task. I did just now. The process was smooth.

The SAAS is very well developed for the beta stage. I have submitted some features request such as looking at monthly goals on the left hand side to help the user determine what task is next to do for the DailySumo section of the UI

Another cool feature, yet not sure if its feasible, is to drag and drop tasks into the daily sumo list.

I've always had to write down the tasks on my list, but these tasks were not as important they were minor things such as Take out trash etc.

With the "Print DailySumo" list it actually fill's in the monthly and yearly goals on the side. Very nice to have.

 

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[Cameraman]

@MJ DeMarco I've just been looking at the GoalSumo webpage. It's a great single-page site but noticed a couple of things you might want to check:

• The 1/5/10 Planasy link appears to be broken, returning a 404 error.
• You may want to make the link for the "Great Rat Race Escape " open to a new window. At the moment it takes the reader directly to Amazon, increasing the risk of losing them before they sign up.

I hope this helps.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

@MJ DeMarco I've just been looking at the GoalSumo webpage. It's a great single-page site but noticed a couple of things you might want to check:

• The 1/5/10 Planasy link appears to be broken, returning a 404 error.
• You may want to make the link for the "Great Rat Race Escape " open to a new window. At the moment it takes the reader directly to Amazon, increasing the risk of losing them before they sign up.

I hope this helps.

Thanks on both!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

@MJ DeMarco I have a question about your goal setting system

Under the dream chain, where you are creating 10 year goals, it then tells you to type in a 2-6 year goal in terms of things you can control (the actions you take).

If the 10 year goal you have set for yourself is so much further away from where you are right now and don't know what will be the vehicle that is capable of taking you to that major goal, how do you even begin to know what the 2-6 year actions are that have to be taken to achieve the 10 year goal?

The system closely resembles the 1/5/10 system. However we're using more flexible time frames.

The dream chain is 6-10 years followed by 2-6 years. The best metric to use is halfway to the dream goal.

So if you want to start a $10M company as a "dream goal" -- in 2-6 years you should aim for a company that does around $100K/mo which is about a $5M company.

The farther the goal, the less "actionable" it will be. The actionable, meter-moving stuff is for your daily tasks, weekly, and monthly goals.

 

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[andyhaus44]

@MJ DeMarco,

With regards to GoalSumo.com, I think your biggest competitor is Goals Wizard. GW has an excellent layout, features, widgets and design but does not have the depth that GoalSumo.com has.

As far as the Grading on the website goes, I am still at an 'F' with 53 points for the day.
How about this as a grading scale?
<30 F 30-39 D 40-49 C 50-79 B 80+ A

 

[Hadrian]

Hey Boss... my own Productivity/Task app will be out for Summer too... though mine will have a fantasy theme and a few mental health (Archetype) aspects as well as tools to help those with ADHD etc... You ready to Wrestle?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Hey Boss... my own Productivity/Task app will be out for Summer too... though mine will have a fantasy theme and a few mental health (Archetype) aspects as well as tools to help those with ADHD etc... You ready to Wrestle?

Sounds exciting, the fantasy thing sounds really cool and I can see that being a bit hit.

 

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[srodrigo]

Hey Boss... my own Productivity/Task app will be out for Summer too... though mine will have a fantasy theme and a few mental health (Archetype) aspects as well as tools to help those with ADHD etc... You ready to Wrestle?

That's a really cool idea. Is it it going to be a "game" where people get points and maybe even compete with each other? I've seen this approach before and I wonder whether it really works, but I think making things competitive can motivate people to go the extra mile.

 

[srodrigo]

@MJ DeMarco The app looks really cool! I haven't signed up and tested it properly yet because my next 3 weeks are side-tracked and I wouldn't be able to follow the first 1-3 weeks milestone, but I'll do as soon as life goes back to normal. You actually added the "gamification" idea, looking forward to having a look.

Just one piece of initial feedback that crossed my mind:
When you add goals and link them to the longer-term goals, you currently selected them from a dropdown. I understand this is an MVP, and this works well enough. I'm thinking that it'd be cool for a later version to add a "tree" similar to a mindmap where you can start from your 10 year goal, then a Plus button to create a branch, then similar idea for smaller goals. That way it's much easier to visualise the whole picture and the dependencies between tasks, as well as add and link the tasks correctly.
Maybe you already had something like this in mind, but worth mentioning in case.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

@MJ DeMarco The app looks really cool! I haven't signed up and tested it properly yet because my next 3 weeks are side-tracked and I wouldn't be able to follow the first 1-3 weeks milestone, but I'll do as soon as life goes back to normal. You actually added the "gamification" idea, looking forward to having a look.

Just one piece of initial feedback that crossed my mind:
When you add goals and link them to the longer-term goals, you currently selected them from a dropdown. I understand this is an MVP, and this works well enough. I'm thinking that it'd be cool for a later version to add a "tree" similar to a mindmap where you can start from your 10 year goal, then a Plus button to create a branch, then similar idea for smaller goals. That way it's much easier to visualise the whole picture and the dependencies between tasks, as well as add and link the tasks correctly.
Maybe you already had something like this in mind, but worth mentioning in case.

Thanks for the feedback!

We're in the process of revamping the Dream Chain process to make it a bit easier to implement and visualize.

 

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[MichelleWood]

I'd heard of GoalSumo somewhere else before, not sure where? I saw the ad on the forum and put the link on my desktop to remind me to check it out. I'm glad I did, as soon as I saw MJ was behind it, I knew it would be good so I signed up for the trial today. I've spent a couple hours adding my B.H.A.G. and breaking it down - it's huge and with many, many steps. So far I found the reverse engineering of the goal kinda made my head explode. I agree with @srodrigo it would be good to view the goal tree from either end, just to check I'm getting the steps in the right order.

 

[ZackerySprague]

@MJ DeMarco Not gonna lie, I am having trouble with writing out reverse dream goal chain for a few things I have on my dreamboard such as the cost of a dream home or the cost of the dream car. I understand the process of breaking it down, but I think I have a blockage on writing it actually out. I know my escape number as I posted it up on my Execution thread. So I have a few things, I know my Escape Number and a few items on the dream board. Do you have any other examples other than the business one on the main website? Maybe one for dating to haha!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Not gonna lie, I am having trouble with writing out reverse dream goal chain for a few things I have on my dreamboard such as the cost of a dream home or the cost of the dream car. I understand the process of breaking it down, but I think I have a blockage on writing it actually out.

Our top priority is to reconfigure this whole process, and to include default templates for certain standard types of dreams. That means you can select and use the template straight out of the box, or you can use it to brainstorm and customize for your own dream goal. This should take a lot of guesswork out of the process, minimally, nudge you in the right direction.

 

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[barrackus]

I am using Goalsumo since two days and I like it (like, possibly subscribe like it).

I, however have few questions:

1. I cannot figure out how to add task to the power task section. Dragging and dropping does not work.
2. I have trouble in formulating "numerical" dream goals. Most of them are lifestyle goals.
3. Do you think the product will go in the direction that will allow to replace other task / project management apps (like Todoist or Nozbe)? I would love it personally

Good job @MJ DeMarco (+ your partners on the team)

 

[MJ DeMarco]

1. I cannot figure out how to add task to the power task section. Dragging and dropping does not work.

A Power Task is the most important thing you can accomplish for the day.

You can only have ONE.

If your Power Task is a repeating daily habit, then technically, you cannot add any.