January has flown by and we have already started the second month of the year.
At the start of the year, many people would have set their new year resolutions or goals for the year. How is that going? Are you making great progress or do you need some serious recalibration already?
A few weeks back I wrote an article about how people need to come up with systems that guide them to achieve their goals – Goals need systems.
Today I will share the importance of reviewing your progress regularly.
Setting goals and coming up with systems that help guide you to achieve the goals is an important starting point. Once you get going, the next important step is to set up frequent checkpoints at which you can review whether your systems are working and how much progress you are making towards achieving your goals.
These checkpoints allow you to inspect and adapt your systems depending on how well you are tracking towards your goals. If you find a system is not working for you, then you can adjust it early or create a new one that could serve you better. If you find a system is working very well, then you know you need to keep it in place and remain consistent.
Without reviewing your progress towards your goals frequently, you may as well be flying blind. By the time you realise that you won’t be able to achieve your goals it will be too late. Nobody wants their plane to crash, so let’s not fly blind.
How does reviewing your goals work in practice?
- Decide on how frequently you want to review your progress towards your goals. I work on a monthly frequency, it gives me enough time to properly evaluate the impact of new systems. However, the frequency of review is really up to you. Do what works for you.
- Once you have decided on how frequently you want to review your progress, set reminders for yourself so you don’t skip the reviews. I have a monthly “Review year goals progress” event in my Google Calendar and that ensures I don’t forget about them.
- On the review day, go through each of your goals, reflect how much progress you are making on each goal and most importantly check if the systems you have in place are working well.
- Make adjustments where you are falling short.
- Celebrate where things are on track and aim to keep these consistent going forward.
That’s all. This progress review shouldn’t take you too long. You can do it over a relaxed breakfast or lunch sitting.
One addition I would suggest if possible is that you do your progress review with someone else who serves as an accountability buddy for you. This will help you receive further feedback and is a nice hack to keep you committed as someone else knows how your goals are tracking.
In closing, goals need systems, and those goals and systems need frequent reviews to track how you are progressing. I’m sure we’ve all heard the famous saying – You can’t improve what you don’t measure.
All the best with tracking your progress.