From the avoidable to the inevitable. About Goals and IT Again

Introduction

About methods of achievement of the set goals more than once it was already mentioned on Habré, and more than once it was mentioned in other information publications. People who purposefully move forward are looking for ways to do this more effectively. A small but interesting market was born on this mail, which has been actively developing for the past 3-4 years, in particular in the field of IT projects.

Not so long ago, I began to study this area and look for interesting implementations of systems and applications in the field of goal-setting and goal-attainment. I started looking for a system, but was not sure what it was. For example, when at the age of 19 I received a grant for opening a company, I didn’t work on any system, I had a pen and a notebook where I wrote down everything I needed to do that day. But now I understand that a pen and notebook is also a system, from this I concluded that there is still a system, it is needed, it needs to be studied and used to the maximum efficiently. But what should be the system?

Pen and notebook

The easiest, fastest and most convenient option, but like everything in our world, this is relative. Why? It is very easy to forget at home, to take a whole bag with you, so putting only these two things there is inappropriate. A pen may stop writing, a notebook may be blown away. But these are all secondary reasons; they are not directly related to the effective and inevitable achievement of goals. The most nasty minus of this tool, and just the result of achieving goals depends on it - not all people can write and organize in an organized and systematic way, for someone it just doesn’t work out all the time.

For example, for 2 years I systematically wrote in a notebook, I accumulated about 8 of them, and already at this stage I could not figure out where and what I wrote, I spent a lot of time looking for the right information. But this is not the worst, I repeat once again, the main thing in this matter is the systematic work with a notebook, and somehow I allowed myself to forget about a notebook for a week, and for two years now I can’t return to this habit, I have already bought beautiful notebooks, but it didn’t help either.

Cloud notes and todo lists

Cloud notebook with division into categories, search and filters. I started an account on Evernote, but could not use it for more than 2 weeks. There was little progress with doit.im, but also no more than six months, the problem with synchronization with calendars on Android was mostly annoying, maybe now I don’t know, but then my time zone was not taken into account, and this was a problem.

Yes, cloud systems allow you to store data in a more structured way than paper media, but more and more people say that they are tired of screens, a screen on a computer, a mobile screen, I want to touch something soft, rustling, having some peculiar smell, not heating up, not humming and not blinding with a bright light in the evenings. That is why people are divided into two camps, those who prefer electronic options, and some paper.

Despite the convenience, the problem of systematic contact remains, which also does not lead to the inevitable achievement of goals.

But in general, what does this mean - the inevitable achievement of goals?

To begin with, before the goal, there is some kind of dream, and on the way to this very dream, we need to get some results, the very goals. Of course, it’s not a fact that we need this particular goal, but we won’t know until we try, especially since each goal promises a certain reward.

And once we have set a goal for ourselves, then we need to achieve it, otherwise the body gets used to the fact that you do not achieve your goals, and with each new goal, it will be more difficult to take it seriously.

And now we will answer the question, what is the inevitable achievement of goals? First of all, this is a state where there is no turning back, bridges are destroyed, everything that is left behind does not matter, only what is ahead is important. This is a state when not only you are tied to a goal, but also your environment. This is a condition where a defeat has a price, a price that causes discomfort inside. This is only part of the conditions, but from all of the above, I think you understand that writing in notebooks, of course, you are approaching the goal, but the price of not achieving the goal is small, you are the only one who knows about the goal, which means that there are great chances to go astray.

Any development and change is stress for the body, so when you set a goal for yourself, you have two options, either you will do it or you won’t, but under stress 80% of people do not achieve their goals. The question arises, how to make achieving the goal inevitable?

And now the kitchen is about the inevitability

The first and most important thing is the systematic nature of doing something every day to move forward. But how will he make himself do it? There are several ways, the first is publicity , the second is a guarantee. About the first way, I think you understand, you just need to tell everyone around you that you want to do something, the second - now it’s fashionable to call “the price of a word" (hereinafter referred to as the CA), you give something as a guarantee to someone (whom you trust) Before whom you would be ashamed not to do what you said, and you will get it back if you have results. And the more valuable a thing is for you, the more efficiently you will move, understanding what your defeat is worth.

There are times when even publicity and the price of a word do not force you to leave your comfort zone and start doing something on purpose. There is one reason for this - this goal does not light you, does not motivate you, which means it is either a society or an environment. In any case, despite this, during the week you need to fix for yourself that you are not doing anything for this purpose, then to make a conclusion - you need to change the goal, or formulate it correctly.

This short instruction will help make the goal inevitable, and get rid of false and imposed goals, but without a special tool it will be difficult to control all the processes yourself, which means you need to automate some processes. And as we talk in the next paragraph.

Achievement systems market

I would like to give an example of a modern trend that was born not so long ago, while also forming a consumer market, which to this day, is not even particularly divided. It is still small, and not as rapidly developing as other markets, but the appearance of a new product on it is accepted with warmth and joy. People really want to achieve their goals! And they believe that there is a system that will help them, and this is actually the case.

In the meantime, there are very few such systems, and people use social networks, see what the Vkontakte site produces if you enter “90 days” in the search bar, you will see more than 300 groups dedicated to achieving goals within 90 days, various programs and various directions. Popular media have repeatedly written about systems; there are examples of very interesting foreign counterparts. But the problem of all services at the moment is the lack of all three ingredients at the same time - publicity (1), price of a word (2), systematicity (3).

Another problem is services that simply build beautiful graphs based on your data that supposedly clearly show your progress and development in different areas. As long as you fill in all the data, time will pass and the energy will go to make the goal itself.

What can i use now?

While I was analyzing the market, I found 4 products that are worth paying attention to. My most shocking imagination is Aherk (Goal-oriented self-blackmailing service), the bottom line is that you give Aherk your incriminating photo. The service will automatically post it on Facebook if you do not achieve your goals. At the same time, it’s not you, but your FB friends who decide whether you really achieved the goal or not.

I honestly did not dare to try, but the service definitely has two ingredients - publicity and the price of the word. Regarding systematic nature, this process is not automated, but I think if you want your friends to believe that you are doing something, you will write every day what you did to achieve this goal. In general, all the ingredients are in order, and they put the pepper on top. Unfortunately, from the point of view of the business model, as I understand it, the project makes money on advertising, and no other sources feed the development.

I think everyone has heard about SmartProgress, the project is developing successfully, it has publicity, there is a word price, but in principle you do not need daily reports, although you need to check this information, maybe you can correct me in the comments, since I’ve been two years already did not go into his office.

Next, I want to talk about the The Game project, which was first launched in 2012, its essence is to set 10 goals for 2 months, make a payment of 3,000 rubles, and set tasks for the day every day until 12:00 (one main and if necessary), and until 00:00 write in the tape what you did that day. I participated in this project twice, the first time I reached 4 out of 10 goals, and the second time I left at 2 or 3 weeks, like many participants who did not like the version 3 model. I participated in this project, because there are all three ingredients, publicity, the price of the word (though it is not returned), and systematic, because if you do not write more than 2 times a week, you fly out of the project. The main condition is to write reports, no matter if you did something or not. One of the minuses of the system, the project is launched 1-2 times a year and works for 2 months. That is, if you want to become a member right now, wait half a year until the project is launched again.

I wanted to fix this error, because the service is cool, efficient, and deserves attention, but for the past 3 years I have not gone beyond the scope of one-time games. I wanted to play when I want, not wait. I wanted to set not 10 goals, and not write off them for 60 days in a row, and therefore I took the liberty of creating a prototype of a group goals achievement system in which all this is possible, essentially creating a constructor of what the game does twice a year .

My idea in the form of a ready-made prototype, in 30 days, went to page 2 of popular projects on the crowdfunding site vcstart.com, raising more than $ 1200. Unfortunately, I didn’t have, and there is no team to release the release, and of course the resources. Therefore, I decided to write at the end of this article a small appeal to the Khabrasociety, because I saw examples of how some interesting ideas got support here, at least in the form of useful advice.

Thanks for attention.