I will describe one well-known and simple technique by which you can achieve your goals. Just this. I cannot guarantee that it will be quick or cheap or effective, but I can guarantee one thing - the goal will be achieved.

The technique is well known and it is called planning .

If you say - “I know, I tried these planning methods - they do not help, they do not give any guarantees, and in general they are useless” - I won’t be surprised at all. My answer is:
"You just do not know how to cook them"
')

Recipe

Do not warm the pan to the required temperature - - instead of a juicy steak you will get a rubber sole. The recipe for cooking steaks.

As in any other recipe - if you miss something, the result is not guaranteed. Now that you have cooked a dish many times and understand what's what and why in this recipe, then you can try to carefully retreat from the rules, without prejudice to the result.

First we need a goal

Progress is not a matter of speed, it is a matter of direction. Aphorism. Author unknown.

We need a good goal. At a minimum, it must meet SMART criteria. I know that I have already mentioned it many times, but I consider it appropriate to repeat it. There are several options for decoding, I will give one that, in my opinion, is more appropriate. I will analyze the example of “goal” in the context of developing reports for users of the operational accounting system - “understand what reports are needed by which users”.

• Specific - concreteness. “Identifying needs” is not specific. Who needs? What kind? How are we going to do this? “To identify the needs of users in the necessary reports for work through a five-minute conversation with each” is better.
• Measurable - measurability. There should be a clear criterion that allows you to understand whether we have reached the goal or not. It is pertinent to add to the previous example: “arrange the collected information in the form of a list for each user”. Another example: if we set a goal, for example, to “optimize the process” of something, then in order for it (goal) to become measurable, we can add “..., reducing the time spent on it from 10 to 5 minutes ".
• Agreed - consistency. The goal, in most cases affects the interests of other people - this must be taken into account. To our example: “To conduct a poll at lunchtime, when each of them can allocate these 5 minutes”
• Realistic - realistic. The goal must be real. In our example: if there are 50 users, it’s impossible to do it in one day; if users are scattered throughout the country and we don’t even know them personally, it’s generally unrealistic.
• Timed - the presence of a clear time. In our example, “make it within one day (i.e., by 6:00 pm today)” is fine.

I’ll add some comments from myself.

• The formulation should be in terms of goal, not task. “Cooking dinner for a spouse” or “introducing guglodok for leadership” is not a goal. “To bring joy to your loved one” and “To save time and paper during weekly meetings” is closer.
• The principle of "what I want (what is needed) in fact." Also, on an example: “To buy a car” is not a goal, but most likely a means. “To ensure comfortable movement for yourself within the city” is already closer (maybe then you should think about a taxi?).
• Personal goals - must be sincere (goals for work, in some cases, we are lowered from above). “Get a higher education” - do you really want this? Or not: YOU want this? (or your parents, your employer). Here it is better to think too much and understand if you are not deceiving yourself. If the sincere desire of what you want to achieve will not, you can not even begin.
  

Trying to get the goal statement to meet all the criteria is optional. The goal can be designated briefly and succinctly, and then explained.

It makes no sense to go further until your goal is not good enough. Modify it, coordinate it (if it is lowered from above), strive to make it as clear and correct as possible! It is always possible. If you are too lazy at this stage, then to achieve - maybe you will achieve something, but it risks something with a high probability of being “not what you wanted at the very beginning.”

Now we need a plan

“Well,” said the principal, The plan is sensible and fun. <...> Sent to district, And it praised <...>. Wonderful plan. Agniya Barto

There are many different techniques, techniques and nuances. You can do this in any usual way - with a simple task list, network planning, using the Gantt chart, task tree, mind maps - as you wish. Make the plan the way you used to do it, evaluate, at least approximately, the complexity of each task (stage) and ask yourself (and if there is an opportunity - someone else - a manager, colleague, friend):

• Is every task good in itself? The task, in fact, is a sub-goal. She may have a wording that is not targeted, but otherwise it should be no worse than a goal - to comply with SMART and the comments that I described for the goal (except, I repeat, the wording).
• Can you say for sure that by completing all these tasks, you will definitely achieve the goal? To write a bunch of tasks is not a problem, but we are not doing this for the sake of, but to achieve the goal. Try to prove that the implementation of the plan will lead to the desired result. It is easier to carry out this check with the help of others — for it is tempting to simply convince yourself that this is a good plan.
• End justifies the means? That time and the resources that we plan to spend on achieving the goal - will pay for itself? Is it worth it?
• Will there be enough resources (time) to meet the deadline? How well did you rate the complexity of each task? What might be abnormal situations that could lead to a deadline (“suddenly”, for example, a session may come and the creation of a super startup will have to be moved a couple of months)?

Work on the plan and do not proceed further until it passes all the checks. Sometimes you want to rather finish up with all this (deadlines are burning, enthusiasm is bursting) and quickly take concrete actions. Do not fall for this provocation of your mind or subconscious.
Without a good plan, most likely, spend to achieve the same result as with a good plan, at times more resources (time, money).

Perform tasks and observe the process

Vasil Ivanovich and says: - <...> But there is one nuance. Joke. Full publication is impossible, due to the presence of profanity in it.

Most of the work on this technique - we have already done the recipe. For the most part, but not all. To ensure that the goal is achieved, it is imperative to continuously monitor (track) progress towards the goal and take corrective actions. I think it’s possible not to talk separately about the need to do the tasks themselves.

The first thing to do is to determine the frequency of monitoring . It can be a day, two days, a week, a month - it will greatly depend on what purpose you have. In order not to spend a lot of time thinking, determine the frequency based on the general term: if the planned deadline for achieving the goal is two to three months, take a week, if one or two weeks, monitor each day.
The essence of monitoring is to perform a simple set of actions:

• look at what tasks are completed, what results are achieved
• compare the actual results achieved with the planned
• draw conclusions
• take the necessary action

In theory, three standard sets of situations and actions are possible during monitoring:

• Everything goes according to plan. No action required.
• Not everything goes according to plan. Review and adjust the plan (for example, rearrange priorities, change deadlines, etc.).
• In general, everything is not going according to plan. Go back to the very beginning and revise the goal. Perhaps this is the best solution in this situation. Yes, the plan will have to be made again.

In practice, naturally, there can be many more situations. Just think which of the three standard options is closer to the current situation and follow the steps that this option provides.

I would like to add that ignoring this particular stage is, in my opinion, the main reason that for many this simple technique does not work.


At work, many people find it easier to work as the manual requires (although no one bothers to let their leader read this article), but working on personal goals is another matter. Although the point about personal goals has already been, I’ll dwell on this in more detail.
Let me give you a concrete example: you decided and set a goal for yourself - to buy an apartment . The goal is very ambitious (given the "availability" of the mortgage) and you understand its seriousness. You made a plan (for a quarter or a year or even several years), in which you set the task of raising your salary to a certain level. You understand that for this you need to expand your knowledge, gain skills, experience, achieve significant results at work, then come up and rightfully ask you to raise your salary (well, or find another job). Your time for the upcoming month is scheduled in terms of almost every minute. With enthusiasm, you proceed to the implementation of their plans. But after a week or two, you realize that everything is going a little differently than you planned. Moreover - in general not so: you are engaged in free time with everything, but only not by increasing your qualifications and all the other things that you had in your plan. You understand this, but the more - the more difficult it becomes to force yourself to follow your plan. What happens, you ask yourself? And exactly what is mentioned in the very point on personal goals is happening: “to buy an apartment” is not a sincere goal. You “would like to have an apartment,” not “you actually want to buy an apartment.” “If you really want something, the whole universe will help you,” and there will never even be a problem in forcing yourself. Think about the phrase: "I can not force myself to do what I really want to do."

Perhaps this is the third option - you should throw out your plan, return to the goals, think and honestly answer the question to yourself - what do I really want?

This example clearly shows how failure to understand the importance or essence of monitoring and actions associated with it leads to the fact that goals are not achieved, plans are not fulfilled, and people are disappointed in planning itself as an effective method. (thanks to J_K for the idea of ​​this addition to the article)

And yes, remember: "if you do not have personal goals and plans, then you are a puppet in the plans of other people . "

In this, in general, it was possible to finish. But, again, as in other recipes, there is a small addition that will bring a certain “zest” and help you, all other conditions being the same, to achieve more.

Evaluation.

<...> the guy is really smart, if he is in a few seconds can understand the recursive algorithm <...> The dangers of learning in Java. Joel Spolsky

I will explain with an example. Suddenly, a thought will occur to you, or it may have come earlier and you just remember about it, that you want to learn to always achieve your goals. Suddenly you decide that you really want to achieve it. Try to apply this very technique.
Simple wording may be as follows:
Learn to reach your goals using an existing recipe in one year.
The "highlight" is to include in its plan, to achieve this goal, one simple task: assessing the results of applying the method to other goals / objectives. In theory, this is called the “feedback principle”:

• you apply the technique, you get the result,
• See - and how this technique helped / prevented this result,
• draw conclusions
• when you apply the technique the next time, you do it taking into account the experience already available (conclusions).

If there are no examples, then evaluation is an extremely useful thing in order to at least sum up all the work, and as a maximum - to learn and learn lessons for the future. Feedback is widely used in a large number of different techniques. For example, your oven uses feedback to maintain a given temperature: analyzing data from a thermocouple — temperature, adds or reduces power, then analyzes again, adds or decreases again, and so on. Even if primitive mechanisms use feedback, it seems to me that we ourselves do not use this principle - just a sin.
The beauty of the technique as a whole is that it can be applied separately to each task (sub-goals). And also to subtasks (sub-targets). And …. Well, you understand. There is one danger. When resorting to recursion, the first thing you should think about is the existence of a condition for getting out of it.

That's all - “the dish is ready”. If you are interested in the recipe, you may want to try it in action.

I can add only one thing:

I wish you success! "To each! And each! ”

In preparing the article were used: shots from the video Jamie Oliver - Perfect Steak , a lot of ideas, statements and quotes, both well-known and not so, but certainly smart people, modest personal experience, google docs for pdf version.

I supplement the article, I will make a new pdf version when all the changes are finished.

upd. 22 Nov 2011. PDF version with all revisions