Goals

What is a goal? #

A goal is an ambition to achieve, build or complete something over an extended timeframe.

Examples of goals can include:

Purchase a new house
Plan an important vacation
Finding a new job
Riding 500km on your bike in a month
Learning a new skill
Losing weight
Changing attitudes
Writing a book

Typically, a goal has a lifespan that runs over multiple weeks or months and a target timeframe.

A goal will have a ‘scheduled start’ and a ‘scheduled finish’. If the goal context is set by some other party, then a goal can have a ‘required by’ finish date.

A goal will have an associated ‘action plan’ where the steps required to complete the goal are defined, and/or the behaviour changes required to meet the goal are set. The action plan may include sub goals.

Ideally, a goal should be measurable (the target/finish line) and be linked to resource or time constraints. To support this, with Good Day a goal may have metrics that can be used to track progress, including:

‘Lag’ metrics that define a finish line for the goal. An example of a ‘lag’ metric could be the target weight for a goal associated with losing weight or completing all the subordinate tasks associated with a goal
‘Lead’ metrics can be used to track progress towards the finish line.

Goal attributes #

With Good Day a goal has the following attributes:

Goal title: a short narrative title to describe the goal
Goal description: a fuller more detailed explanation of the goal, its purpose and motivations
Start: when the goal is to be started, with either a relative or specific date.
Scheduled finish: when the goal is due to be completed, with either a relative or specific date.
Required by: if the goal has been set by a third party, the date by which the other party expects the goal to be completed.
State: the current status, either: ‘open’ (default0, ‘In progress’, ‘on hold’, ‘completed’, ‘cancelled’, ‘expired’, ‘delegated’ or ‘dormant’.
Goal type: sets the dependent nature of the goal. A ‘long term’ goal will have subordinate ‘stepping stone’ goals as part of its action plan.
Parent goal: if the goal has been set as a ‘stepping stone’ goal type, then this is the parent goal.
Priority: the relative priority of the goal compared to other goals.
Folder: a folder used to group associated goals.
Category: a category used to define the type of goal (e.g. work, home, health etc)
Size: a value used ot indicate the relative scale/size of the goal.
Display order: a number used to order the display of goals in an action plan
Tags: free form text tags that can be used to group goals for filtering/searching
Exclude from planning: if set to true, then the goal will be excluded from any planning accountability

When adding a new goal, the key attributes to set are: title, start, scheduled finish and goal type.

Goal versus task? #

In a personal planning context, a goal is a broad, overarching outcome you want to achieve, while a task is a specific action or step that helps you reach that goal.

Key Differences:

Scope: A goal is a big-picture objective, while a task is a concrete, actionable step.
Timeframe: Goals usually take longer to accomplish, whereas tasks are completed in a shorter timeframe.
Measurability: Goals often require multiple steps to measure progress, while tasks are more straightforward and can usually be checked off once completed.

Goals give direction, while tasks break down the goal into manageable actions.