We are delighted to announce an update to our Goals section. It now reflects the recommended hierarchy of the MakeTimeFlow way to do goals, to review them, reflect and update them. If you are not using the full MakeTimeFlow way yet (that is if you are just using the web app or the desktop app only for goals), now you can have your goals emailed to you daily (more below about how that should help you). ## (Better) Goals, Your Flourishing, KPIs and Habits ![[Flow Goals View.png]] You will now see that Goals has assumed it's proper place as tier 1 in the flow menu (here in the desktop app). This is because Goals are central to our work to help you move toward Deep Success - achieving great things and living a rich and meaningful life while doing it. If you are able to define your goals, ensure that they are enriched by domains that we know from the emerging science of human flourishing, then you are far more likely to be able to manage your time and attention in a way that will truly move you forward toward flourishing. ### Why should you spend the time defining your goals (and looking at them) Doing the work to define your goals, lets you know where you are going and why. This can be really hard to do well, which is why I built these AI coaches who know about our MakeTimeFlow goals system and cognitive high performance and human flourishing, and you can use a few sentences or phrases to describe your dreams and have it help you draft really compelling goals. I've been using them since I built the first one. Defining them is helpful, but there is also the suggestion from psychology that if you look at them daily, you are more likely than others to achieve them. I'll have to find the references for this eventually but my rule of thumb for why this matters goes something like: "Those who define their goals are 70% more likely to achieve them than those who don't. Those who look at their goals at 95% more likely than those who don't define or look at them". ### Why are they better goals? The usual way people work on goals are to create a list of impressive, but very hard things. They are inspired when they first make it, then it quickly becomes another mountain to slog up, a chain around your neck that you don't believe you can succeed at. While a list is a start, you can make it so much better. That is why we want you (and the AI coach can help you) to create a compelling narrative from your future self - of how you became the kind of person who was able to succeed at doing these hard things, how you did it, and why it matters. And they help describe expected obstacles and the ways you were able to overcome them. This is what we mean by creating *success stories* that use the best research in using the benefits of visualization (motivation), but overcome the harms (self satisfied, don't work hard enough in the beginning), and so incorporate the work of [Gabrielle Oettingen](https://www.woopmylife.org/en/science) by guiding you to use mental contrasting with implementation intentions. In a nutshell - tell a compelling story of what you want to achieve and what it will mean for you - your success story, taking what you *wish* for and defining the best *outcomes* for you. Then also identify the expected *obstacles* you might encounter and create a great *plan* that is believable (by you) and gets you to your goals, and can help you overcome your obstacles. For your obstacles framing them as "If _this happens_ then _I will_" is super helpful. The AI coach is designed to help you with all of this. And by writing them as compelling stories for yourself (rather than a list), they are much more inspiring, help you to say no more easily to things not related to your core goals, and easier to read (and re-read). ### Why only 5 year, quarterly and weekly goals? There are so many possible time horizons you could chose. While zooming forward in time is important, you only have so much bandwidth to create and maintain these goals. We chose what we think is most impactful for humans based on actionable time horizons - 20 years is too far - think about this, but these are vague directions and big aspirations (worth knowing) - use these to inform your - 5 year vision - what are the skills, resources and connections you should be cultivating to let you launch into your next phase well (consider these mostly directional, make them as precise as you can, but realize there is lots of ground to cover and learn from in order to fulfill your greatest potential) - 2 year, and 1 year plans - these are helpful to consider, but the 12 week year book makes a compelling case that by setting these goals, most people leave the hardest things until to late in the year, instead create your - 12 week year (aka quarterly goals) - can you get your biggest year long goals done in a 12 week year? See what is possible, tackle what is riskiest sooner rather than later. - Months are periods but often just seem arbitrary. I use them for smart bets, but most of the time, almost everyone is living - Weekly - this is your most actionable success story. Align it with your 12 week year, and the directions from your 5 year vision! ### How does my flourishing relate to my goals Exploring (and re-exploring) your flourishing map should help you to be able to see if there are ways you can move forward in some of the core drivers of human flourishing. Use this exercise to help inform some of the dimensions of your 12 week year and 5 year goals. ### KPIs? Key performance indicators - usually 1-3 things from your most important domains that are worth tracking to ensure you are making progress. You define the measure, where you are starting from and where you want to get to to claim success! See [[Habits and KPIs]] for more. ### Habits Habits are usually smaller/shorter agile personal experiments in productivity or personal improvement or another flourishing domain. Trying and measuring them daily for 1-2 weeks can help you to know if you should continue them. Then go into maintenance mode - by including it in your 12 week plan - and realize the maximum benefits of these small often atomic changes. See [[Habits and KPIs]] for more. ### Zen? A more serene way to review (or amend) your goals. The Begin Well ritual will guide you through this on a daily basis, but come here anytime you need to reconnect with your best goals. --- ## Email me my goals - why? If you are all in in the MakeTimeFlow Way - using our desktop app and the rituals, then you don't need to enable this. But some people are just starting out, or have other ways they manage their time and attention in aligned ways, or might not be able to install the desktop app. For those, they can still get the benefits of being able to set (and refine) and review their goals on a daily basis, by enabling [[Goal Emails]]. See that page for more information about it.