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5 Ways to Track Your Progress (And Why it's so Important) - RescueTime
Write in a diary
... for 5 minutes a day.
At the end of each day, take a few minutes to write about what you worked on. Make sure to note both your “small wins” and any setbacks.
At the end of the month, flip back through your notes and see how far you’ve come. It’s amazing the clarity you get from seeing the progress you made over a longer period
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Key Ideas
Completion bias
It's where your brain specifically seeks the hit of dopamine you get from crossing off small tasks and ignores working on larger, more complex ones.
Small wins and motivation
Out of all the things that can boost our mood and motivation, the single most important is making progress on meaningful work.
Just like we love crossing small tasks off our to-do list, being able to see that we’re even one step closer to a big goal is a huge motivator. The problem is that these “small wins” are hard to measure.
Why we feel busier than ever
... but feel like nothing gets done:
- Our days are filled with meaningless, busy-work (like answering emails).
- We’ve lost the ability to set meaningful, effective goals.
- We don’t set in place methods for tracking progress.
- We’ve lost the ability to handle uncertainty.
Tracking progress is a powerful tool
It keeps you motivated and productive.
You become more purposeful about the work you do. And that can create the kind of meaning that so many of us search for in our daily work. You also have more insight into the value you’re creating.
Break out large tasks
... into smaller pieces and visualize them.
When you’re facing a large project, your first step should be to break it out into smaller goals. Then, break those goals down into smaller tasks. The more chances you have to feel like you “finished” part of it, the more motivation you’ll get from your progress.
Set daily quotas
... and start every day at zero.
Rather than simply looking at your overall progress on a project, set smaller daily quotas.
If your goal is especially complex, a quota can be easier to hit than a goal.
Track your metrics on a calendar
Pick a metric (or two) that makes sense for you and then track how many days you hit it.
Your calendar becomes a large, visual reminder of your progress (and also brings in the power of streaks).
Write in a diary
... for 5 minutes a day.
At the end of each day, take a few minutes to write about what you worked on. Make sure to note both your “small wins” and any setbacks.
At the end of the month, flip back through your notes and see how far you’ve come. It’s amazing the clarity you get from seeing the progress you made over a longer period
James Clear
“If you want to summarize the habits of successful people into one phrase, it’s this: successful people start before they feel ready.”
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Key Ideas
Learning how to prioritize...
...means getting more out of the limited time you have each day. It’s one of the cornerstones of productivity and once you know how to properly prioritize, it can help with everything fro...
Master lists
Capture everything on a Master List and then break it down by monthly, weekly, and daily goals.
- Start by making a master list—a document, app, or piece of paper where every current and future task will be stored.
- Once you have all your tasks together, break them down into monthly, weekly, and daily goals.
- When setting your priorities, try not to get too “task oriented” - you want to make sure you’re prioritizing the more effective work.
Eisenhower Matrix
The matrix is a simple four-quadrant box that answers that helps you separate “urgent” tasks from “important” ones:
- Urgent and Important: Do these tasks as soon as possible
- Important, but not urgent: Decide when you’ll do these and schedule it
- Urgent, but not important: Delegate these tasks to someone else
- Neither urgent nor important: Drop these from your schedule as soon as possible.
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Key Ideas
Flow is the state of mind
... where we are so immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity that we lose sense of space and time.
It is thought to be t...
Why it’s hard to achieve flow in your workplace
- The processes, policies, and busy work gets in the way.
- Most jobs don’t have a clear goal.
- Feedback can be inadequate.
- The pace of work has increased, and it’s hard for people to spend time thinking deeply.
- Your skills aren’t well matched to the challenges you are allowed to pursue.
- There’s a lack of control over interruptions or when and how you work.
- The job doesn’t push you out of your comfort zone.
Take more risks
... to push your mind beyond its comfort zone. Flow happens when we get a bit out of our comfort zone. Too much, and you get anxious; Too little and you get bored.
You need to know your physical or emotional limitations and consciously push past them.
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Key Ideas
The weekly review
It’s dedicated time to think about the past week, reflect on what went well and what didn’t, and plan for the week ahead.
It’s a chance to get aligned with your goals and ensure ...
The 3 parts of a weekly review
- Get Clear: process all your loose-ends.
- Get Current: make sure all your items are up to date.
- Get Creative: come up with new ideas to improve how you live and work.
Benefits of weekly reviews
- You gain an objective view of the week: a weekly review forces you to practice intention by taking time to pause and reflect as you consider what you did versus what you planned to do.
- You become proactive in planning: a weekly review isn’t only a retrospective, but a prospective too. It lets you run through the upcoming Monday to Friday proactively.
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