Ask HN: How do you organize/track your personal goals?

Google calendar

I personally use trello for keeping track of the things going on in my life. I don't necessarily use it to set goals for myself but whenever I want to do or learn something I make a list for that topic on my board. Then I start adding content (in the form of cards) to the list, to flesh out what it is exactly I want to achieve or how I might get there.

I sort lists by priority, so things that are the most important are on the left of the board. This really helps keep me focused on only a few topics at a time. Usually 4-5 lists are actively worked on.

I also have one list completely to the left of the board for things that need sort term attention. For example a paper I need to finish by next week or if I want to, for example buy a new pair of headphones, I make a card for that on that first list.

Then finally I have two general lists that are usually somewhere in the middle of the order about "Blog posts and Articles" I need to read and another one titled "Books" (list of books I am interested in reading). I keep both of these lists fairly short so nothing ends up forgotten in a forest of cards.

I found that keeping track of everything really helped me get more stuff done. But it also helped me to discover new things I want to do.

Eh I once heard someone make a distinction that I like between 'what you enjoy' and 'what makes you happy'.

A somewhat boring example is it's unlikely you enjoy doing your university exams, however your state of happiness after completing your degree will be higher than if you had instead done something more enjoyable with your time (e.g. play video games).

I like to keep it simple, I have 5-10 goals in google docs. I revisit my goals and progress about monthly and log where I am and how I see my future progress.

I've tried and failed to use and stick to many productivity systems over the years. It almost seems like an obsession at this point to find technological means for improving throughput.

I was able to take certain ideas from GTD but I've never found myself able to stick to a particular system. They all introduce too much friction and I end up discarding them in favor of just using mind, memory, and physical reminders.

What starts to go missing when I ramp up productivity is the meaning behind what I'm doing. It's too easy for me to announce, 'doing things this way is stupid', putting the whole thing down, and then go back to relaxing.

The big problems in life don't really respond to any amount of productivity improvements. You can't GTD your way to having more meaningful personal relationships. And you can't GTD your way to more deliberate practice, you just do it, day after day.

I'm not quite at the point where I'm willing to write off productivity hacking as profoundly missing the point of life. But tracking and organization is what you do to things that need to be done that you can't bother to make enough of a priority to where they can be focused on with 100% of your attention and creative energy. And if you are focusing on things with 100% of your attention and creative energy, then tracking just gets in the way.

That all said, I am actually actively working on a productivity system. It's a console and text-based system where I add things just by typing `add ` into a terminal. Triage is accomplished by using `sort ` and going through item after item with one strike of a key. Using Ruby metaprogramming superpowers, I'm slowly hacking away at the friction behind creating little software tools that all interoperate with each other.

What triggered this was when I got the idea to move all my personal scripts off of Github and onto Dropbox. I don't need version tracking, I need syncing and durability. This seemingly little change made all the difference in my interest in recreational coding. Being able to just pop open a console in any machine that I've set up and start running commands without having to pull git repos feels amazing. I can literally stop typing, letting the text editor autosave, then get up, go home, and get on one of my personal machines and pick right back up where I left off.

The grand idea is to profoundly reduce the amount of friction involved in integrating software into my life. I'll be able to `add idea vacation` then `sort` it into a category, then `plan` it, the end result being a flat list of action items that I can accomplish X number of every day.

Is it overkill? Absolutely. But the dream of absolute perfection is the only vision compelling enough to get me to even think about productivity improvements anymore. There's no lower fruit left for me to pick that actually moves the needle on anything.