So I has some goals for this year, and had them stores in Evernote.
However, when I moved from task management in Evernote to OF, my ‘2016’ Goals did not fit anywhere appropriate, because my ‘Project’ tab is set up in ‘Areas’ of my life, not in a ‘timeline’, eg, Business, Personal, taxes, family and so on. So my goals for this year fit into their respective areas or in my someday folder, which works ok. Just curious what other are doing in this department. I also use the deffered setting to start at the time I wish to start, eg, I’ll start making higher repayments on my mortgage later in the year.
The other thing is visualisation and focus on our goals, ‘in our mind’ outside of OF. And I know we use OF more for our ‘ground level’ day to day tasks.
I have, for now at least, just let go of new years resolutions & goals for 2016 & just aim to get them done when I get them done, as soon as I can, with no huge emphasis on the WHEN.
All that being said, it’s an area I would love to hear other opinions on.
I use MindNode as a way of mindmapping and organizing thoughts and ideas about such things, as well as Ulysses for writing through outcomes or longer-term intentions. I agree: OF is for the actions, somewhere else is for the thinking about stuff (that may or may not become an action).
If you search the forums here, you’ll see others cleverly using apps like Curio, EagleFiler, Trello, OmniOutliner, nvALT, DevonThink, and more. It’s a matter of what kind of content you collect/develop and how you want it presented that should drive how you think about your knowledge management system.
The main bullet point, though, is that, at least to me, there’s a strong division between knowledge management and action management, and each deserves a system that best supports that.
Actually I’m a big proponent of the idea that big / longterm goals are only achieved through everyday steps.
So, in addition to the folders you mentioned I have a folder ‘Routine’. The projects are my longterm goals from ‘Learn and be wise’ to ‘Enjoy being healthy’ and ‘Get financially independent’.
The routine stuff I plan to do with friends and family also goes into specific projects there, including a recurring event for ‘drive the glass bottles to the recycling center’ in the project ‘Walk the Talk’.
It is paramount that I do a thorough, regular review every month: Do I have enough projects / actions - and the right ones?
At the same time I review my folder ‘Ideas’ (probably corresponding to your ‘whenever’) to see whether I’m ready for some of that stuff that’s been on hold for a while, simmering - or whether to throw it out or move it elsewhere. My unspecific knowledge management happens there as well - webclippings on an exciting new gadget / idea go there, for example, to cool down.
Obviously, my individual projects in the folders ‘Personal’, ‘Business’, ‘Major Project #n’ then only contain specific one-time stuff. Those I review every Friday afternoon.
Two more remarks, if I may:
I like ‘Ideas’ better than ‘whenever’, it’s more actionable and fits some of the subfolders better, e.g. ‘Ideas for gifts’ with projects for every significant other.
I also have a folder ‘when needed’ for checklist projects for e.g. travel prep, recipes for cooking, inspecting the bike, hibernating the summer house etc. They are always ‘on hold’, unless needed. When I want to cook a certain recipe, I activate it and have all necessary ingredients in my nested context ‘Errands: Groceries’, for example. The project / top node auto-completes when every child is done and auto-repeats after a minute. I take this as a reminder to shortly think about any necessary improvements to the checklist like adding or changing an item and then I set the project on hold again.
Totally agree with @C.Martini’s perspective - my main point was to make sure that unactionable things don’t land in OF. If you have defined long term goals with actions against them, that’s awesome, but if not, and you’re thinking/writing through what longer term goals could look like and why you have them, then that’s probably left to a system outside of action management.
I have my projects set up in such a way that they can reflect parts of the larger goals in life. Whether you use the “Land and Sea” options used by Kourosh Dini or adopt a 50/30/10 K perspective, OF is absolutely the ideal option.
When I review my long time and/or short term goals all I have to do is look at my 50-10k goals and land and sea (short term) projects. These contain links to all my projects that I have entered to fullfill those goals.
Further along the listing I have my long term goal lista and they show me dull progress
Don’t be fooled by the apparent issues with OF, be flexible and look at other people’s solutions, and it will work lut for you as well.
