New Strategy for Goals and Habit Change?

[Justin L]

Hello all,

The other day, I was brainstorming a way to keep myself on track with forming new habits and breaking habits that are bringing me down as a person. I eventually landed on an idea of a points system. For me, it helps to really see my progress from week to week or month to month.

So here's the idea: You write down goals that you want to set yourself on a daily basis. Examples can be "Workout", "No Videogames", or even "Meditate." And what you do is you give each goal a point value based on how important it is that you complete that goal. For me, a good point range is anywhere from 1-3 or 1-5 depending on the goals.

Then, you add columns labeled "Daily", "Weekly", "Monthly", or even "Yearly" if you want. And when you start completing the goals, begin adding up your points under, the daily, weekly, and monthly columns, and then try to get as many points as you can per day. You could even set expectations for yourself on how many points you want to get per day, week, or month. I think this could be a great motivation factor and a way to visualize your progress.

Thank you for your time reading this!
Kind regards,
Justin

 

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[BizyDad]

Hello all,

The other day, I was brainstorming a way to keep myself on track with forming new habits and breaking habits that are bringing me down as a person. I eventually landed on an idea of a points system. For me, it helps to really see my progress from week to week or month to month.

So here's the idea: You write down goals that you want to set yourself on a daily basis. Examples can be "Workout", "No Videogames", or even "Meditate." And what you do is you give each goal a point value based on how important it is that you complete that goal. For me, a good point range is anywhere from 1-3 or 1-5 depending on the goals.

Then, you add columns labeled "Daily", "Weekly", "Monthly", or even "Yearly" if you want. And when you start completing the goals, begin adding up your points under, the daily, weekly, and monthly columns, and then try to get as many points as you can per day. You could even set expectations for yourself on how many points you want to get per day, week, or month. I think this could be a great motivation factor and a way to visualize your progress.

Thank you for your time reading this!
Kind regards,
Justin

One suggestion. Place all your goals in a positive frame.

For example, you listed no video games. So every week you don't play video games you're going to be reminding yourself that you didn't play video games. You'll never move past the thought of video games.

What do you want to do with that time instead? Maybe more exercise? Maybe more family time? List those as your goal and forget about video games entirely if that's what you want to do.

 

[p0stscript]

If it works for you Justin, and it helps you form habits and move towards achieving your goals, then go for it.

this could be a great motivation factor and a way to visualize your progress.

Sounds like it could be helpful to others as well, do you have a outline of how the planner/goal setter would look like?

 

[Justin L]

If it works for you Justin, and it helps you form habits and move towards achieving your goals, then go for it.

Sounds like it could be helpful to others as well, do you have a outline of how the planner/goal setter would look like?

This is what mine is currently looking like, I am definitely going to make a few changes, but that's the general concept.

 

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[Justin L]

One suggestion. Place all your goals in a positive frame.

For example, you listed no video games. So every week you don't play video games you're going to be reminding yourself that you didn't play video games. You'll never move past the thought of video games.

What do you want to do with that time instead? Maybe more exercise? Maybe more family time? List those as your goal and forget about video games entirely if that's what you want to do.

Great Idea, thanks for the feedback!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Hello all,

The other day, I was brainstorming a way to keep myself on track with forming new habits and breaking habits that are bringing me down as a person. I eventually landed on an idea of a points system. For me, it helps to really see my progress from week to week or month to month.

So here's the idea: You write down goals that you want to set yourself on a daily basis. Examples can be "Workout", "No Videogames", or even "Meditate." And what you do is you give each goal a point value based on how important it is that you complete that goal. For me, a good point range is anywhere from 1-3 or 1-5 depending on the goals.

Then, you add columns labeled "Daily", "Weekly", "Monthly", or even "Yearly" if you want. And when you start completing the goals, begin adding up your points under, the daily, weekly, and monthly columns, and then try to get as many points as you can per day. You could even set expectations for yourself on how many points you want to get per day, week, or month. I think this could be a great motivation factor and a way to visualize your progress.

Thank you for your time reading this!
Kind regards,
Justin

LOL, I just posted this:

EXECUTION - The New 1/5/10 Daily Planner from MJ (w/gamification)

As I mentioned on the INSIDE, I created a new 1/5/10 Daily Planner that I started using and after 2 weeks of using, I love it even more than my old system. (Meaning it is more effective). This new version incorporates 1/5/10 planning with a bit of gamification using a point system. I added the...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Not exactly like your system, but similar.