Joe’s Goals
Do you use technology to get things done? I know I sound like somebody from the cast of Happy Days asking this, but what I mean is, do you use it to organize your time, set goals, try to avoid procrastination, etc.? Today we have calendars, reminders, virtual notepads, SMS reminders and software bundles like Outlook, desktop widgets, etc. It’s extremely surprising that we still can’t manage to get anything done in a day’s time. Personally, the whole Outlook thing scares me more and more every time I think about it. It’s simply overwhelming and even if you have an easy day ahead of you, Outlook ensures you don’t escape the stress and the pressures. You know what I mean, right?
Well, recently I stumbled upon this very cool looking and also useful Web site that has taken an entirely new approach to the issue of organization of our time and goals. The site is called Joe’s Goals and it useful for all of us “Average Joes” struggling to reach our own goals. It makes things as simple as they should be for everyone. You just have to sign up on the site and you’re ready to go. But first, let me explain a little more about Joe’s Goals.
Remember when you were a kid and your parents told you those ridiculous stories about how Santa Claus has a book in which he writes the names of good and bad kids? This is based on the same concept, except this is actually useful and not just a fable. The idea is to have a group of goals, both positive and negative. For every positive goal that you accomplish, you get a green checkmark and one point. For every negative thing you manage to accomplish, you get a red X and minus one point. Take a look at the screen below to get a better understanding.
As is obvious, eating out and skipping class are the negative goals. As you can see, on Sunday, this person managed to do all the negative things and get a daily score of -4. But, on Wednesday, he was able to accomplish all the positive goals and he got a +4.
Adding a goal is a just couple of mouse clicks away. You can add as many goals as you want. While you are adding a new goal, you can set the various properties for it right then and there. For instance, you can drift away from the default and give weights to a particular goal based on the importance of a particular goal. If working out is your top priority, you can give it a weight age of three, which means that if you manage to accomplish your workout goal, you will get three points and if you don’t, you will be hit with a negative three. You can also customize certain goals that only need to be accomplished on specific days of the week. Another cool option is to be able to share your goals with someone else. This is very effective if you are working with someone on a common project. It’s a good way to keep an account of things for finger pointing sessions later on, isn’t it?!
To summarize what you have been doing with your goals, you can generate a 30, 60 or 90 day report with a single click. The report will pop up a graphic representation of your accomplishments (or the lack thereof). What else? Well, if you want, Joe will also let you know by e-mail if you haven’t been tracking your goals for a specific period of time, which you can set according to your comfort level. I bet he must have been a school teacher before this. It’s also a good idea to add an equal amount of negative things along with the positive goals so that the balance gives you a true picture of what you have really done. Obviously, since it’s online, you can access it from anywhere you want to, provided you have online access. All in all, it’s the most simple online application that I have laid my hands on, but the good thing is, it works! It makes you feel guilty and you wind up getting the job done instead of backing out on it. After all, no one wants red X marks against their names, now do they?!
Click here to get started and go on and meet all of your goals!
~ Yogesh Bakshi