Em's Goals

[darkemeralds]

That there is my new goal tracker. I'm trying out Joe's Goals. It's a way to get a bit more directional about what's important: you list things you'd like to be doing more of (or less of), assign them weights, and put a checkmark in a box for each time you do one of them.

I'm tracking writing, podfic-making, blog posting, riding my bike, keeping to my calorie limits, taking my vitamins, and a few other things.

No clue if this kind of tool will be a long-term benefit, but it's fun, easy, and free, and I think it has some real potential for helping me create a deliberate life.

Comments

[decemberleaf]

"...create a deliberate life": great way of putting it. That's just what you do--and why I keep following your journal with such interest. It's also right on target for what I'm wanting to think about this morning~!

[darkemeralds]

Oh, excellent! I hope it has helped form your thoughts.

[decemberleaf]

Yep! As usual.

[panisdead]

Hmm, I might check that one out. The check-box system appeals to me. I have friends who like Mindbloom, but I find that one a little too touchy-feely-gamey for my needs.

[darkemeralds]

Oooh! I hadn't seen Mindbloom. Thanks for pointing it out.

At a cursory glance, Mindbloom seems to have in-built values, reflected in its graphics, its music, and the very fact that it's a game. One of those values seems to be "youth," which isn't a value I can share.

The six "main areas of life" I have to choose from instantly start confining my thoughts, because I don't define the main areas of my life that way. I don't even know what "Lifestyle" is. When I selected "finances," the pictures I could choose from were almost all about wealth and acquisitions, and I didn't see any showing comfort and security. I could tailor it, but I'd have to tailor my own thoughts more.

It looks like a clever piece of game design, and I imagine that it appeals to people who are playing their lives as a game, but it does seem a bit finite and restricted for my own purposes.

I've begun to realize that I can set "goals" till the cows come home, and not a one of them will have any meaning or value until I know what my daily reality is. As the saying goes, "If you want to know what your priorities are, look at what you're doing." Then you can change them.

[llaras]

I'm doing Mindbloom and I totally agree with what you have mentioned here. Also, they've added new ways to get points by watching ads or buying products from other companies, which has irritated me to no end. What's the point of earning seeds if you can just buy them? It seems to contradict the whole purpose of the thing.

[darkemeralds]

Well, that's discouraging. Not surprising--clearly, the designer was setting out to build a money-making product--but a definite strike against it as a data-gathering tool for me.

Can I ask how you use it? Just for the fun of the game, or as a planning tool, or--? Just curious.

[llaras]

I started it as an experiment, to see if it would actually be of benefit. I currently have one leaf on each of four branches. One is creativity, to do 20 minutes on any creative project. I've been pretty easy on myself with this and consider 20 minutes daydreaming about stories I'd like to write or even just research for stories to fulfill this.

My health leaf is to do 20 minutes of low-impact exercise. My relationships one is to work at maintaining and bettering relationships. So, an email to my aunt or a card to a friend, or an IM session with someone that is more than just "Hey, let's talk about the latest tv show or whatever". It also means updating my address book and trying to stay on top of birthdays and things.

Lastly, I started a new leaf recently, I think under the lifestyle branch. It just says: Laugh! Because goodness knows I need it right now.

Okay, so that all said? Sometimes I click that I did things when I haven't. Because I don't care if I cheat the game now that I have no respect for it and because I hate the level I'm on and the next level takes so many freaking points to reach. I've started to have thoughts about just stopping altogether and figure out something better for myself. We'll see.

I do like the tree idea, which is what drew me to the game in the first place, I just wish it were a little bit less corporate and a little more organic.

[darkemeralds]

Your description really sounds like the sort of thing I'm trying to do, and I can see where the game nature of it--the levels and self-competition--would go a bit against the grain with me.

I'm trying to track what I actually do do (including physical things that just happen, like hot flashes or headaches), to get a picture of what my life is really made of.

Then, from the more goal-oriented direction, I'm trying to motivate myself to do a few things more often, or more consistently (or less).

So there's tracking everything I eat, for instance (data), and there's also staying under a certain calorie count (goal). There's what tv shows I watch (data) and docking myself two points for every one I spend an hour of my life on.

I don't have it all clear in my mind yet, but I've experienced a sort of mental revolution just in the past few weeks with the idea of "the quantified self"--actually logging my life as a dataset, so that I can make specific, targeted improvements that are meaningful to me and don't waste a bunch of time and energy.

I especially like your relationship and laughter leaves: I need more of both in my own life and haven't figured out how to quantify them yet.

FWIW Joe's Goals, while not nearly as pretty as Mindbloom, might be more what you're looking for. I'm really liking it.

[llaras]

My mom gave me a health journal that has places to track daily pain, weight, exercise, food, meds, etc. It's pretty neat, but a lot of info to keep on top of when you're not used to it. It even has a weather section. I think I'm going to try using it, but just one or two sections at first, so I don't get frustrated.

I'd really like to eventually tailor something for my own use. Maybe during break I'll have the time and energy to put into a plan.

Thanks for the link! I checked it out and it does look like a good tool. I bookmarked it for a later, more thorough perusal.

[darkemeralds]

Good luck!

I'm not sure about chronic pain, but I've found that focusing on other physical discomforts--hot flashes and headaches in particular--enough to log them has helped remove some of the scary mystery from them. I hope you have good results with the journal.

(Weather is certainly a big component, I find.)

[erda]

This looks interesting. A lot of times these tools don't quite work for me, but I'm going to check it out. I like the little smiley faces.

[darkemeralds]

I know just what you mean. I get all enthusiastic and sign up for ten things, and then none of them really help me make meaningful changes.

I like Joe's Goals because it's super simple and provides a bit of a prod for me to do what I believe is important, and thereby waste less time.

I decided to give "watching TV" a value of negative 2 points; not that I intend to stop watching all shows, just that I want to be more discriminating about what I watch. Knowing it's going to cost me 2 points has suddenly liberated me entirely from four or five shows that I watch out of some weird sense of obligation. It's fantastic!

Also, free. Free is good.