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

Daily stuff, I use breeze.pm, which is a bit like Trello except has swimlanes. For current stuff I have a board separated into three swimlanes - client work, my work and personal. These are separated in columns - this week, today, doing, blocked and done. I'll add to and move between columns as necessary.

I keep pretty high level (like I don't want a million tiny tasks), but everything that's listed has to be accomplished within a few hours or a working day at most.

Anything there over a week, or not getting done is moved to a 'longer term' board, which is more of a brain dump of ideas and things I'd like to get moving on at some point. Basically I want my to do list to be current and not a bucket list.

I keep the 'stuff in play' Breeze list pinned next to a Google Calendar window. GCal has dates of everywhere I need to be and dates of everything I need done in different colours.

I think I could still be more efficient, but this works pretty well for the time being.

For 'reach' goals, I've separated the year into 4 quarters of 12 weeks with a week off between each one. It's easier not to lose motivation over 12 weeks. I have a BitBar plugin that shows me days gone and days left in the quarter. Before each quarter I'll write down what I want to achieve and then how I intend to do it. After 12 weeks I'll review and revise. Most of these can be tracked with something like HabitBull - "I want to lose 5kg this quarter, I'll visit the gym 3 times a week". Then just tick as you go. If you don't hit it, figure out why and what to change next 12 weeks.

Also org mode here, in combination with the guile based mcron for some notification and scripting stuff.

I also still strongly believe in the power of notepads and moleskin. Some things are too sensitive to be digitized.

Large whiteboard with a 100 day mind map of goals. Daily journal structured to write out what I'm doing towards each goal that day, then daily 1 min video check in repeating those goals along with a general assessment of how I'm feeling/things I'm thinking about. Has been transformative to do things this way.

Without goals, how do you decide what you do and don’t need to get done?

On paper. Physically writing stimulates neurology. This then gets embedded into the subconscious.

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And some tidbits on goalsetting which I'd have liked 15 years ago...

Goals are - SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-oriented, Time-bound) - written in present tense. - stated in the positive. - attached to an identity, or 'self-image'. - expansive.

"I will own 30 apartments" (future tense) -> "I own 30 apartments." (present tense) -> "I am the owner of 30 apartments." (identity) -> "I am the owner of 30 or more apartments." (expansive)

"I will quit smoking by July 31." (future tense) -> "I quit smoking by July 31." ('quit' is negative)-> "I am free from cigarettes by July 31."

More important than the outcome, is how you see yourself. If you couldn't imagine yourself as a person achieving the goal, then it won't occur.

Who do you have to become, to achieve the goal?

Never leave the scene of plan without taking action. After setting a goal, at least 1 crumb-sized action must be taken immediately. Who could you message, call, email...?