You already know that if you care to accomplish anything, be it in the short term or long term, setting goals is critical.
Now, the thing about goals is that setting them is easy, and losing sight of them is even easier. There have been times when I have set goals and ended up not achieving them. And I know I am not the only one. We all have experienced this situation, haven’t we?
I think keeping track of goals and our progress towards them is what most of us fail to do. We hardly look back at them after setting them. Plus, there is no dearth of distractions around us. All this ensures that by the time our deadline is near, we’ve not really done anything substantial to achieve them.
When it comes to goals it gets a bit tricky, because most of it depends on how self-motivated and self-driven you are. The tools can only give you a slight push. But, sometimes, all you need is a nudge to get going. These online goal tracking tools might just help you along the way.
1. 43Things is a community of people who have set similar goals and want to achieve them. Users can set goals, track them, share them with others, talk about their goals and more. The tool is all about making a list of goals and having the world motivate you to get them done. You could also set reminders for your goals and browse goals shared by other people.
2. Stickk aims to help you stick to your resolutions and commitments. Here’s how it works: you set a target for yourself and a timeframe in which you want to achieve it. The unique part is that you put something on stake (like money), designate a person to monitor your progress towards the goal (called a referee) and garner supporters who will applaud as you take steps to reach your destination. Overall, an interesting concept to help people achieve their goals.
3. Achievr is a web-based solution for setting and tracking goals that uses the S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time Bound) criteria to help you set goals in the right manner. You can use your Facebook or Google account to sign in and get started immediately by adding goals and the respective deadlines.
4. WeekPlan lets you set goals for the week (or even long term goals) and create a task list for each day of the week that will help you achieve that goal. Inspired by the famous book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, this tool intends to help you remember your long term goal each day by doing something towards achieving it. You can also enter your mission statement and past achievements to stay motivated.
5. Get Goaling wants you to create specific action plans for your goals and track them by the amount of action you’ve taken and the due date. If you were able to successfully take an action, that step is a “hit”. If not, it’s a “miss”. It offers various goal tracking options and also lets you share your goals with friends.
6. Don’t Break The Chain is an innovative goal accomplishing tool that uses the productivity technique described by the famous stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld (as documented in this Lifehacker article). You end up marking specific days on your calendar for doing something towards achieving your goal, forming a visual chain through the days to help you keep going. Seinfeld mentions that this concept encourages you to work more because you don’t want to “break that chain”.
7. GoalBot helps you learn how to set and achieve your goals the right way. It helps you create detailed plans, browse for goals that most people want to achieve and see the steps you might want to take in order to achieve them. It also helps you find local groups of people that might have similar goals, with the idea that you could benefit by connecting with them.
8. 42goals is a simple tool for setting and tracking daily goals. It already has some predefined common goals like “quitting smoking”, “exercising” and several others to help you get started with the tracking immediately. The user interface is clean and easy to navigate.
Conclusion
Goals are a great thing to have, but it’s important to keep tabs on them. If you don’t, then they’ll fall by the wayside. A goal that’s tracked is a goal worth having. Hopefully the above tools will help you track them more efficiently and effectively.
Have you used any of these tools in the past? How did they work for you? Do you use any other ways to track your progress towards your goals? Share them in the comments.
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