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I'm trying a new approach for 2017: personal goals, made public [1]. A public GitHub repo where my goals are recorded as issues and accomplishments are closed

I'm trying a new approach for 2017: personal goals, made public [1]. A public GitHub repo where my goals are recorded as issues and accomplishments are closed tickets. I've created milestones for each year (e.g. 2016, 2017) to track my progress. I've backdated some of my 2016 acheivements to get a feel for how it will work. I hope that writing down my aspirations for the year ahead will help me fulfil them. [1] https://github.com/slashdotdash/personal-goals https://github.com/slashdotdash/personal-goals

nwellinghoff 10y ago
I hope you do and document goal #18. 1000 recurring revenue product.
tachion 10y ago
I applaud making goals and reaching them, but when I see 'Learn ELM' (or, in fact, 'Learn X') that was marked as completed after 2 days it makes me wonder if it shouldn't be, in reality something like 'Play with X'. I've been doing some things from that list for quite a while, some of them even for years and I still am not sure if I'd dare to say that I've 'Learned X'.
- slashdotdash 10y ago
  That was a 2016 goal that I backdated (I had the goal months ago, but only just recorded it, and immediately marked as 'done'). To get a feel for how it will work going forward to 2017. Perhaps I should make the goals more concrete than "learn". As an example: build a form to do X in Elm and deploy to production. Agree that learning is an ongoing, and never ending goal.
- darfs 10y ago
  I dont think it's hard to learn a language. Perl for example. But its hard to master it. I think there is a big difference.
sowbug 10y ago
I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but you should watch this TED talk about publishing goals: https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yo... The TLDR is "people who talk about their ambitions may be less likely to achieve them." As with many TED talks, the message is thought-provoking but not guaranteed to be based on solid science. In any case, best of luck. I hope you achieve your goals -- but please don't interpret this encouragement as false social reality.
- maroonblazer 10y ago
  I've found that using one of Sivers' alternate approaches - "I'm going to do x and please kick my ass if I don't" - works remarkably well. Of course you need to choose people who actually will kick your ass, otherwise you start figuring out who amongst your network will let you slide and tell only them, defeating the purpose of the exercise.
  - codeisawesome 10y ago
    "kick my ass" can also be translated to a major monetary penalty - Steve Kamb tells us about his friend who bet $500 to his friends if he didn't lose weight
    - powermeat 10y ago
      stickk .com
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- slashdotdash 10y ago
  Thanks for sharing the Ted talk, will take a look.
- dreeves 10y ago
  Sivers later clarified that it's only true for "identity goals" where telling people about the goal is part of what the goal is. Like "I want to be a runner." By saying so you're making it sort of more true in that you're identifying as at least a wannabe runner. I believe that for specific, discipline-oriented goals -- like "I want to run 3 times a week" -- you're well advised to shout it from the rooftops, as common sense would dictate. Sivers's clarification, along with his original TED talk: http://sivers.org/zipit2 http://sivers.org/zipit2
ipnon 10y ago
There is evidence that making your goals public actually makes you less likely to accomplish them because the act of being praised is in itself a reward.
- slashdotdash 10y ago
  Interesting to hear that. I didn't look into the evidence about public goal setting and its affect on achieving them. I'll need to reflect on the approach and report back.
  - pgbovine 10y ago
    #meta -- don't report back :) keep those to yourself. make a post at the end of the year to reflect on what you ended up doing, not what you plan to do.
agumonkey 10y ago
Ha! using github PR as a todolist, fun. ps: as a deep nerd, my system is 4 notepad.exe (yes notepad.exe) opened with a bunch of markdown lists... the shame.
amelius 10y ago
> Build a product that has a monthly recurring revenue of $1,000 (USD) Don't we all want this? :) Anyway, good luck! It would be interesting to see how far you get, so please post to HN about your experience.
- erikig 10y ago
  You'd be surprised by how many don't want to.

nwellinghoff 10y ago

I hope you do and document goal #18. 1000 recurring revenue product.

tachion 10y ago

I applaud making goals and reaching them, but when I see 'Learn ELM' (or, in fact, 'Learn X') that was marked as completed after 2 days it makes me wonder if it shouldn't be, in reality something like 'Play with X'. I've been doing some things from that list for quite a while, some of them even for years and I still am not sure if I'd dare to say that I've 'Learned X'.

slashdotdash 10y ago
That was a 2016 goal that I backdated (I had the goal months ago, but only just recorded it, and immediately marked as 'done'). To get a feel for how it will work going forward to 2017. Perhaps I should make the goals more concrete than "learn". As an example: build a form to do X in Elm and deploy to production. Agree that learning is an ongoing, and never ending goal.
darfs 10y ago
I dont think it's hard to learn a language. Perl for example. But its hard to master it. I think there is a big difference.

sowbug 10y ago

I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but you should watch this TED talk about publishing goals: https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yo... The TLDR is "people who talk about their ambitions may be less likely to achieve them." As with many TED talks, the message is thought-provoking but not guaranteed to be based on solid science. In any case, best of luck. I hope you achieve your goals -- but please don't interpret this encouragement as false social reality.

maroonblazer 10y ago
I've found that using one of Sivers' alternate approaches - "I'm going to do x and please kick my ass if I don't" - works remarkably well. Of course you need to choose people who actually will kick your ass, otherwise you start figuring out who amongst your network will let you slide and tell only them, defeating the purpose of the exercise.
- codeisawesome 10y ago
  "kick my ass" can also be translated to a major monetary penalty - Steve Kamb tells us about his friend who bet $500 to his friends if he didn't lose weight
  - powermeat 10y ago
    stickk .com
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
slashdotdash 10y ago
Thanks for sharing the Ted talk, will take a look.
dreeves 10y ago
Sivers later clarified that it's only true for "identity goals" where telling people about the goal is part of what the goal is. Like "I want to be a runner." By saying so you're making it sort of more true in that you're identifying as at least a wannabe runner. I believe that for specific, discipline-oriented goals -- like "I want to run 3 times a week" -- you're well advised to shout it from the rooftops, as common sense would dictate. Sivers's clarification, along with his original TED talk: http://sivers.org/zipit2 http://sivers.org/zipit2

ipnon 10y ago

There is evidence that making your goals public actually makes you less likely to accomplish them because the act of being praised is in itself a reward.

slashdotdash 10y ago
Interesting to hear that. I didn't look into the evidence about public goal setting and its affect on achieving them. I'll need to reflect on the approach and report back.
- pgbovine 10y ago
  #meta -- don't report back :) keep those to yourself. make a post at the end of the year to reflect on what you ended up doing, not what you plan to do.

agumonkey 10y ago

Ha! using github PR as a todolist, fun. ps: as a deep nerd, my system is 4 notepad.exe (yes notepad.exe) opened with a bunch of markdown lists... the shame.

amelius 10y ago

> Build a product that has a monthly recurring revenue of $1,000 (USD) Don't we all want this? :) Anyway, good luck! It would be interesting to see how far you get, so please post to HN about your experience.

erikig 10y ago
You'd be surprised by how many don't want to.