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I set goals on a quarterly basis—below is my report card since 2014.
My goals are divided into two types: binary and recurring. Binary goals are accomplished by doing the thing, i.e. usually a one-time deal. Recurring goals are actually habits and accomplished by doing 80% of the things, i.e. activities.
On average, I complete 59% of my goals (overall). This doesn’t seem good.
- On average, I complete 85-90% of the total underlying recurring activities. This seems good.
- On average, I complete 62% of my binary goals, and 56% of my recurring goals. This also doesn’t seem good.
Reasons for failure include: lack of habit triggers/systems, lack of passion or motivation for a particular goal, or it was a crap goal to begin with, i.e. not SMART.
Over the last 4-5 years my # of goals (per quarter) has increased from 22 to 61 (almost 3x increase); so maybe I’m setting too many goals, thereby undermining focus.

How I track goals

Below is a chart with 4 colorful lines. In descending granularity I track:

Goals (overall): Blue. Success rate for all goals, both recurring & binary.
Goals (recurring): Red. Success rate for just the recurring goals, i.e. habits.
Goals (binary): Yellow. Success rate for binary goals, i.e one-time things.
Activity: Green. The completion rate of all the underlying recurring activities, e.g. for Q3-2018 it was 1,035 total activities (of which I completed 845).

Goals that are actually habits

We’ve all heard the saying: If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Perhaps I took that too literally, but a few years back I was getting frustrated with not knowing whether or not I was doing stuff. I’d defiantly declare, “I’m going to floss!” and then a few months would go by and I wouldn’t know if I was actually flossing, if I remembered at all.

So I made this nerdy chart to track stuff. It started with only 6 things in 2014, now its up to 32 things and a little out of control. But suffice to say, this is how I measure whether or not I do things I say I’m going to do. Recall that “success” is defined as doing 80% of the thing. These are recurring goals.

These 32 habits are comprised of 1,035 individual activities. Over the course of Q3-18, I did 845 of the 1,035 activities, or 81.6%. This is where I get the green line in the first chart.

Recall “success” is doing 80% of the activities. By this definition, of the 32 habits, I completed 19 of them, or 59.3%. This is where I get the red line in first chart.

Why I fail

I’ve learned that failure in the recurring category is usually due to 3 flaws:

Lack of a systematic trigger: I failed to incorporate the habit into my conscious life. Some people set reminders. Others use calendar triggers. Another strategy is linking or stacking habits on other ingrained habits (James Clear really excels here). This is hugely important because humans aren’t computers and generally suck at repeatability.
Example: “I will lift weights for 45min 2x/week” - I didn’t have a trigger. No calendar, nothing.
I committed to a goal I wasn’t passionate about: each goal should have a reason, a WHY. Humans are deeply emotional creatures, so unless there is an underlying passion or motivation to do something, we’ll likely run out of steam pretty quick. The solution requires extra work: after reflecting on the WHY, the best goal-setters write it down so each goal has a clear purpose and emotional foundation. Sometimes I don’t do this extra work.
Example: “I will meditate 4x/week”. I’ve heard meditation is generally a good thing, but I didn’t think deeply enough about the WHY or visualize the personal benefits (or write it down).
My goal/habit was poorly defined: this is a failure in goal-setting 101, but basically it happens when I didn’t run the habit through the SMART filter and the goal/habit is ambiguous. I rushed and set a crap goal.
Example: “I will reflect on the week 2x/month. WTF does that even mean? Poorly defined.

My goal sheet

Below is my Q3-2018 goal sheet. It is comprised of both binary and recurring goals. It is the one-stop-shop for what I aim to accomplish in a given quarter. Last quarter I had 61 goals. I completed 33 of the 61 goals, or 54%. This is where I get the blue line in the first chart.

Looking for patterns

I really want to understand why I fail at certain goals. If I can unlock this, the impact over a lifetime could be massive. Before hypothesizing too much, I ran correlations on the data sets for the # and % of goals completed each quarter:

a: Goals (overall)
b: Goals (recurring)
c: Goals (binary)
d: Activity

The highest correlation (91%) is between b: Goals (recurring) and d: Activity. This is logical because activity completion is a component of recurring goals, i.e. if I did 100% of the activities, I would accomplish 100% of the recurring goals. The next highest correlation (86%) is between a: Goals (overall) and b: Goals (recurring) which tells me that nailing recurring goals/habits really is the cornerstone of a strong quarter overall.

Notice that there is a striking negative correlation between c: Goals (binary) and d: Activity. This means the better I do at one, the worst I do at the other. This might suggest a “crowding out” effect as activities per quarter has increased 500% from 201 (Q4-2014) to 1,035 (Q3-2018)—too many activities is putting binary goals at risk.

How did I do in Q3-2018

Goals (overall): 33 of 61 completed—or 54%.
- Goals (binary): 14 of 29 completed—or 48%.
- Goals (recurring): 19 of 32 completed—or 59%.
  - Activity: 845 of 1,035 completed—or 82%.

What I learned

Less is more: I’ve recently been sucking at binary goals and perhaps need to set fewer, higher-quality goals. Having 29 binary goals in a single quarter seems like too much. Less is more.
Avoid the 3 flaws: While I’m competent at completing the activities, I need to ensure the recurring goals I set avoid the 3 flaws identified above.
Refocus on balance: Perhaps I need to step back and re-evaluate the whole system. Life is about growth, happiness, and balance. Maybe I should abstract the whole system to focus on happiness & overall balance vs. goal-attainment in isolation.

More feedback needed: I’d love to get your thoughts and suggestions. If any of this is interesting to you, or you’d like to receive copies of the goal templates, send me a note:

luke (@) dbtventures.com

The science of goals