Achieve Time Management & Goal Setting Software Help

Goals (Achieve Goal Organizer)

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The Goals view uses a grid to display goals for a particular result area or display goals grouped by all result areas. See Using Grids for help with the grid user interface. See Using Priorities for more information on how to prioritize goals.

You can use the Result Areas drop down button to select the specific Result Area for which to display goals or select the "All Result Areas" item to display a grouped view of all result areas. You can also use the Group By Dream checkbox to also group goals by dream.

You can view a detailed report for selected goals using the File | View Report... command.

When you are ready to plan your goal in more detail, you can open the goal row to reveal the Goal Information form. To open a row you can: double click on it, press Ctrl+Enter or invoke the File | Open | Open Selected Items... command from the file menu or standard toolbar.

Goal Information Form

The goal information form provides the following tabs: General, Benefits, Obstacles, Steps, Actions, Beliefs, Resources/Environment, Team, Rewards.

General Tab

Provides the following fields:

Title	Title of the goal. In general goal titles should be brief and to the point stating in present tense the target you will reach as if you had already accomplished it. For example, I weigh a healthy XX pounds or I exercise regularly 3 to 5 times a week.
Result Area	Result area associated with the goal
Priority	Priority of the goal (see Using Priorities)
Status	Status of the goal
Dream	Dream associated with the goal (if there is one)
Definition	More detailed definition of the goal
Purpose	Primary reason or purpose for setting this goal

In general, goals should follow the S.M.A.R.T acronym:

Specific - Be clear and specific in your target. Avoid general terms like "being a better boss" or "exercising more". Describe what you mean by "better" and "more" in terms of specific behaviors and actions.

Measurable - You should be able to tell when you have reached your target and whether or not you are making progress. If your goal is not measurable, it may be better defined as a dream instead of a goal.

Action-Oriented - Your goal should be based on actions that are under your control. Your goal should not focus on someone else's actions, thoughts, feelings or emotions. It should focus on your own actions and behaviors.

Realistic - Goals should represent realistic targets that you have a good chance of achieving.

Time-Specific - Goals should have timelines for reaching them. You should be able to set a deadline for reaching your goal.

If you are having trouble making your goal SMART, you may want to make it a dream instead and then think of specific, measurable changes in your behaviors and actions that will bring you closer and closer to realizing your dream. Your goals are then to complete these changes in a reasonable timeframe. You may also want to spread out multiple changes over time.

Benefits Tab

The benefits tab allows you to enter all the benefits that you will receive from achieving your goal. The more benefits you can think of the more motivated you will become.

Obstacles Tab

The obstacles tab provides the following fields:

Baseline	Describe your starting point before you begin making progress toward this goal
Limiting Factor	Identify the one major roadblock or obstacle that will limit you the most in achieving this goal and resolve to conquer it
Obstacles	List all the obstacles you will have to overcome or avoid in order to reach your goal

Steps Tab

The steps tab provides the following fields:

Deadline	Deadline for reaching this goal
Target Start Date	If you don't plan to start your goal right away, you can set a target start date instead
Actual Start Date	Date when you actually started your goal
Strategy	High level description of your strategy for achieving this goal
Steps	Individual steps that you need to complete in order to achieve this goal

See Goal Planning for more details of breaking goals into individual steps. You can use Projects to schedule and track your progress on each step toward your goal. Use the Actions | Create Project for Step command (Actions menu) to create a project for the selected step(s).

Actions Tab

The actions tab provides a place to capture all the regular actions that you are planning to take on a daily, weekly or monthly basis to help you achieve your goal. The difference between actions and steps is that steps represent outcomes that you want to bring about (create something, call someone, find something, prepare something) while actions represent periodic activities that you will use to form a habit, gain knowledge or develop a skill. Actions and steps should work together to help you achieve the goal.

Beliefs Tab

Capture all the reasons why you believe you can achieve this goal.

If any of your obstacles consist of limiting beliefs, you may want to consider adding the opposite belief (positive empowering belief) in your list and gather more and more evidence of why the belief is true.

Resources/Environment Tab

Capture all the resources that you have at your disposal to help you achieve this goal.

Determine all the environment/lifestyle changes that you will make to help you achieve this goal. For example, if your goal is to reach a target weight, a lifestyle/environment change may be to stop buying and keeping junk food and pastries in your house as temptation. Think of all the other changes you can make to your environment and lifestyle that will help you make progress toward your goal. Think about anything that could sabotage or block your progress that you might want to change or get rid off.

Team Tab

The team tab allows you to define your team for achieving this goal. Your team are all the people that can help you achieve this goal including mentors, partners, helpers and supporters (whether or not you've actually found someone to fill a particular role).

While preparing your team, think in terms of roles/functions (like an organization chart) rather than specific people. You can then fill each role with one or more people (and one person could fill several roles).

Rewards Tab

Capture rewards you will give yourself as you make progress toward this goal. You don't have to save all the rewards for the end of the goal. Think of intermediate milestones along the way. Even small rewards can be great motivators to help you make progress and stay on course.

Metrics Tab

This tab allows you to add/remove metrics associated with your goal. See Metrics topic for more information.