goals

OK, a confession: Like almost everything I've done to create and build my productivity practice, I'm doing goals wrong unconventionally :-) Almost every time management book and blog I've read recommends having written goals, reviewed regularly. For example, Zenhabits' Top 20 Motivation Hacks - An Overview lists (among others):

• #17: Post a picture of your goal someplace visible -- near your desk or on your refrigerator, for example.
• #16: Get a workout partner or goal buddy.
• #5: Visualize your goal clearly, on a daily basis, for at least 5-10 minutes.
• #4: Keep a daily journal of your goal.

And The Ten Part Mental Fitness Program has extensive goal-setting tips. These are great ideas.

We've all been there: Overwhelmed with the day-to-day aspects of life - incoming stuff that's relatively easy to handle - we focus on it, excluding the "big things." After a while it feels like the trivial many have sunk the vital few (from the Pareto principle - see Koch's book The 80/20 Principle for an in-depth discussion).