[Nevermark]

Every day I work on my main project, I clear my desk completely, take out a small notepad and write my overriding goal, and my next step goal, and then make a list of tasks for that next step goal.

Then I work.

Writing the major goal every day is important to not let sub-goals overshadow it. Writing the immediate goal every day is important because together the two goals create a very clear direction of action with a clear next step.

I have my screen mounted on the wall, and have side end-tables for pens, papers and notes I need, etc. so my desk is absolutely clear.

My desk is a half circle, but not that deep, because that optimizes the usefulness of the surface for work (not storage).

[teekert]

I have gone into doing this form time to time. And they were good times, thanks for reminding me, I'll start doing this again. I'm now 44 and always wanted to be fully digital and modern, but nothing beats the notepad and pen for me still, for certain small tasks at least.

[kleinishere]

This kind of daily goal setting reminds me a lot of this podcast, if of interest. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/invest-like-the-best-w...

[ignoramous]

Jack Dorsey suggests a similar technique for goal setting and resolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn9lTpD-yKc&t=2528

[swah]

Are you recommending the podcast or this particular episode? :)

[kleinishere]

This particular episode.

[KurSix]

Rewriting the main goal every morning is a nice way to prevent "local optimization," where you get very efficient at doing things that don't actually move the project forward

[colelyman]

Could you elaborate as to what the difference is between your overriding goal and your next step goal?

[Nevermark]

My recently achieved overriding goal took 32 years to accomplish! i worked on it as a side project all that time and it took me places i never expected. Very happy.

I recommend being less ambitious! Or be smarter than me!

Now my major goal is to complete the first tools in that area. it’s still challenging but I think the first version will have only taken 12 months. There is just a lot of newly settled stuff that I am getting fluent in.

12 months seems like a good length of time for a major goal.

Immediate goals are the closest challenging milestone. I.e. a necessary task that requires non-trivial design and/or implementation.

I think both major and immediate goals should be stretch goals with actual impact at different scales. 6-18 months and 2 to 8 weeks are typical ranges. But as my first paragraph notes, the major goal is the big thing that needs to be done, so however long that takes. It is inspiring to aim for significance, and it pushes me to not waste time on all scales of life.

And then I replot my path to the immediate goal. Usually takes under a minute. Mundane steps and questions to settle.

I recreate a the whole plan every morning like that. The repetition embeds the plan and goals into my conscious and subconscious minds.

And also keeps everything fluid.

Every morning, any new perspective can alter anything in the plan, including the goals if need be. Altering the immediate goal, or a better definition of the major goal.

[rokkamokka]

Does that mean you sat down every work day for 32 years and wrote the same thing on the top of your notepad? I appreciate the consistency but it looks like you could've gotten it inscribed on a plaque at that point :)

[Nevermark]

Ha! No I didn’t write that goal down every day. Partly because it was a side project, and partly because it was engraved - on my brain!

I did write the goal down a lot, on working notes, and put it on my fridge, my whiteboard, my pin board, along with next steps and lists of tasks for each.

It was too hard to work on one next step, because there was so much I didn’t know, and it was impossible to know which step was going to cave in first.

That’s when I learned to clear my desk, whenever work hit a wall, and rewrite the goals and steps. To completely reset my mind so I could move forward in a clear alternate direction without pause.

Later I noticed doing that reset every morning helped even more.

I thought a lot about Don Quixote as time went by. I dreamt an impossible dream. Under a star. And then, one day, I got in!

[deaux]

I know this is bad form (a convoluted way of replying "this") but I'd love to hear the answer to this one!

[yard2010]

Can you please write more about it? What was the goal? Also I love the Angela Merkel method - thinking what you can do in a day or a week is fruitless as the productivity might vary. Thinking in years is too long. Think about what you can achieve in 100 days.

[Nevermark]

> Thinking in years is too long. Think about what you can achieve in 100 days.

You are right that 100 days can mean a lot.

But if you are always thinking "What is the most important thing I could ever do, if I just did one thing?", sooner or later you may find something where time isn't an organizational issue, because your North Star has become so clear.

I don't try to guess how long anything will take in any serious way. I set targets, but those are to push myself, visualize success, not schedule anything.

[brador]

“Don’t weigh yourself every day, do weigh yourself every week.”

[OJFord]

I would assume the former is the 'actual' goal - implement the feature, fix the bug, etc.; the next step goal is the current burrow of rabbit hole, the refactoring, dependency upgrade, patch to third-party lib, unexpected other ticket, etc. that you had to do on the way.