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will remembering my goals better actually help me reach them I think quite the opposite. What makes you reach goals is never forgetting them to begin with. I

by mahmud 16y ago

will remembering my goals better actually help me reach them I think quite the opposite. What makes you reach goals is never forgetting them to begin with. I can't speak for others, but I have very few goals, and they haunt me, awake or asleep. The rest of the "self dev" stuff I off-load to my fiancee :-P

stretchwithme 16y ago
I think what really would be helpful is breaking down goals into concrete tasks, which only a human can do or push you to do. I think technology can facilitate mentors as they ask the questions one needs to answer if one is to translate goals into the actions required to achieve them.
- derefr 16y ago
  > breaking down goals into concrete tasks, which only a human can do or push you to do. If it's a goal a lot of people have, and which follows a general formula, then once someone has written it down, the software can store it in a central database and let everyone else make use of it. Imagine entering "write book" into your to-do list app, hitting TAB, and watching it expand into "write proposal chapter, find writing group, show chapter to group, modify chapter using feedback, write outline for draft, [...], submit to publisher." Then, if you immediately know how to "write proposal chapter," you can just stick with that and check it off when it's done—but if you're unsure, you can select that sub-task and hit TAB again, and it will expand into "select writing tool, find environment suitable to writing, schedule writing time, create new document"—and then there would be a placeholder step with a question in it, "what are you writing: {prose fiction, technical guide, biography, etc.}" You'd select, say, prose fiction, and it would replace the placeholder with more steps: "think of name and other physical details for main protagonist, think of conflict, write first paragraph introducing both character and conflict, [...]" And there's already a collection of such lists available online to get your database off the ground: the eHow/Wikihow/etc. type sites. You could also parse the StackExchange-driven sites for answers that look like ordered lists.

by mahmud 16y ago

stretchwithme 16y ago

I think what really would be helpful is breaking down goals into concrete tasks, which only a human can do or push you to do. I think technology can facilitate mentors as they ask the questions one needs to answer if one is to translate goals into the actions required to achieve them.

derefr 16y ago
> breaking down goals into concrete tasks, which only a human can do or push you to do. If it's a goal a lot of people have, and which follows a general formula, then once someone has written it down, the software can store it in a central database and let everyone else make use of it. Imagine entering "write book" into your to-do list app, hitting TAB, and watching it expand into "write proposal chapter, find writing group, show chapter to group, modify chapter using feedback, write outline for draft, [...], submit to publisher." Then, if you immediately know how to "write proposal chapter," you can just stick with that and check it off when it's done—but if you're unsure, you can select that sub-task and hit TAB again, and it will expand into "select writing tool, find environment suitable to writing, schedule writing time, create new document"—and then there would be a placeholder step with a question in it, "what are you writing: {prose fiction, technical guide, biography, etc.}" You'd select, say, prose fiction, and it would replace the placeholder with more steps: "think of name and other physical details for main protagonist, think of conflict, write first paragraph introducing both character and conflict, [...]" And there's already a collection of such lists available online to get your database off the ground: the eHow/Wikihow/etc. type sites. You could also parse the StackExchange-driven sites for answers that look like ordered lists.