5 levels of setting (and acheiving) goals
So, here’s an example of the process under the “Category” Product Management:
Goal: Enhance awareness and customer base of a new product.
Milestone: Roll out the new advertisement campaign.
Target: Contact 100,000 people by 3rd quarter.
Task: Draft e-mail to set up a meeting with marketing team.
I’m working on doing this kind of thing with my goals. I’ve only recently (as in, last week) started writing down my goals (in the past/present/already-happened tense, no less) and found that it really does help to motivate. Knowing that certain things have to be accomplished in order to make those goals a reality is a good way to kick yourself in the ass (since I’m not actually that flexible).
To add to the above example, here’s one of mine:
Category: Continuos Learning
Goal: I can hold first-year level conversations in French with Val.
I haven’t broken it down into Milestones with Targets and Tasks yet, but as soon as AirSet supports hierarchical lists, I’m all over it (they’ve promised that it’s coming soon… hopefully in enough time to help me achieve my goals). That particular goal is a good nominee for the breakdown, because it is very abstract when you’re looking at where to start. My girlfriend (Val) is a French teacher, and I figure I can learn in a year what her students do (especially since I’m more motivated than a lot of them). I’ll probably need her help to create Milestones like “Finished Chapter 1″ or something.
Another, perhaps superior, example is:
Category: Fanatical Pupil
Goal: I have self-published Between Blue Lines and one other new book of poetry
The beginnings of Between Blue Lines can be found over at Fanatical Pupil… it’s a good example of the needed kick in the proverbial ass. You can see (at least at the time of this post) that my last posted poem was on April 25th. That’s over a month ago… So, in order to get that book and another completed by next year, I’m going to have to start writing some damn poetry. (Don’t worry, I have goals for this blog and my other one, so writing here is not wasting time that could be spent achieving my goals… or rather, the time spent here is, in fact, time spent achieving my goals)
Anyway, to break that down into Milestones, Targets and Tasks, it would look something like this (probably):
- Milestone: Writing (first drafts) are finished
- Target: I have 100 poems ready to go
- Task: Write a poem (until I’ve got 100)
That seems like how it would work for me. Comments and suggestions are welcome, of course. And any other goal-setting advice…
