7 Ways to Track Your Goals and Why It Matters

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Reaching goals isn’t always easy. Knowing whether you’re on the way to long-term success when you don’t have an effective goal-tracking system is challenging. Life gets busy, and you may quickly slip back into bad habits, let go of your ideals and give up on your targets — unless you monitor how far you’ve come and celebrate milestones.

Here are seven ways you can start making the most of every goal you set.

1. Spreadsheet Tracking

Keeping a spreadsheet is one of the most logical ways to track progress and record events and targets. With a visual representation of your desires and progress, you’ll always know exactly how far along you are on the path to success.

It’s an ideal way to stay on top of your financial and career aims. You can create columns to integrate various targets into your habits and daily plans. Direct your financial decisions by recording savings, splurges, earnings and budgets on one sheet. Best of all, these notes are dated, and you can record daily interactions and how these affect the result.

• Create a set of parameters you’d like to monitor: Once you know what you’re looking at, you’ll learn to assess your progress more adaptively. 
• Add columns or metrics: It’s OK to expand your sheet as you discover more about your ambitions and what it takes to achieve them.

2. Goal-Tracking Apps

If technology’s your thing, using an app to measure progress and remind you to commit to your ideals is a smart way to know where you stand. Each app features unique ways to visualize your achievements, including charts, graphs and lists. Some even include fun games and animations to celebrate your milestones, which can motivate you to achieve more — just note how successful Duolingo is at motivating and tracking progress with pop-ups and progress bars.

Use apps to track weight loss, fitness levels and happiness. Set goals, create evaluation questions and decide on mini deadlines to help you stay on course and achieve your dreams. 

• Evaluate several apps: Don’t simply use the first app you see and hope for the best. Instead, try a few for tracking a minor goal, like drinking enough water daily, and see whether you like the layout and results. 
• Choose an option that excites you: The whole point of goal measurement is to help you feel motivated. A boring app won’t keep you interested, so find one that resonates with you.

3. Journaling 

Keeping a journal or log is ideal for monitoring daily goal-driven activities. Self-reflection helps you define success. By reflecting on previous entries, you can notice and celebrate every small step you take toward reaching your goals.

Journaling can help you manage personal development and reflect on future goals.

• Plan your future: One of the best ways to use journaling to achieve your goals is to plan. For example, you might write down your ideal career path and the steps you can take to achieve professional development. Another future goal of yours might be home ownership — it can take 14 years to save for a 20% down payment, and journaling could help you break down this lengthy goal into manageable steps. Use your journal to visualize what the next several years will look like.
• Document every step: Writing down how you feel about goal progress can help you take the right next steps. You might jot down your thoughts about a work project, or consider your feelings as you tour homes in your area. Processing your emotions and thoughts can be a great way to encourage yourself to push forward.

4. Visual Tracking

Remember that fundraising thermometer your local church or school used to count collections to build a new community hall? Visual representations, such as filling a bucket or building a wall with bricks, can be equally effective in helping you achieve your goals.

Visual tracking like this is excellent for tangible aims, like completing all the credits required for your college degree or saving a down payment for a new car. Each line you color or brick you stick into the wall helps you feel excited and rewarded as you near the finish line. 

• Choose a favorite image: Visualize using a picture you like that represents your goal, such as a palm tree with leaves representing each savings goal you need to hit for a vacation in Bali.
• Look at it frequently: Frequently interacting with the visualization will help you enjoy success — seeing really is achieving.

5. SMART Goals Framework

The SMART goals method — meaning specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound — is a popular goal-setting strategy.

Whether you want to achieve a fitness goal, make new friends, travel or get a better job, you can use this tracking method. Make sure your goal is:

• Specific: What do you want to do? Be exact in your phrasing — instead of saying you want to be happy, say you’d like to smile five times a week. 
• Measurable: How will you know you’ve achieved your goal? If you want to be able to run a mile in under 10 minutes, measure your current mile time, and then aim to slowly lower it over your next several runs — set a target every time you go out.
• Achievable: Avoid setting goals that are too intense or out of reach. For example, it may not be realistic to find a new job in just a week or two. Create a timeline that makes sense, and keep the goal itself reasonable.
• Relevant: Is this goal worthwhile? Try not to set goals that aren’t relevant to your interests or plans.
• Time-bound: Stick to an achievable time frame, and avoid leaving the end date for your goals open-ended.

6. Habit Stacking

Sometimes, you can stack goals and work toward achieving them at the same time. You can also combine your goals with activities you already do to make achieving them more fun. For example, if you want to read 15 pages of a book every day, try reading as you enjoy your morning coffee — it’ll quickly become part of your ritual.

7. An Accountability Partner

One of the most efficient systems for progress monitoring is having a friend to help you along the way. An accountability partner — whether your parent, spouse, sibling, co-worker or best friend — can give you the encouragement you need to keep pushing through.

Pick someone who can call you out on falling behind in a compassionate way. Meet with them in person or over the phone to boost your motivation and help you find solutions when you get stuck.

Why Goal Tracking Matters

In order to achieve success, you need to hold yourself accountable and be realistic. A goal-tracking system makes you more aware of your progress and can help you identify when you should try something new. Use an accountability method that works for you to get a sense of direction as you prioritize tasks, tick off what’s done and boost your motivation. Regularly checking your progress fosters self-discipline and breeds success.

Your Goals — Your Way

The accountability measure you choose depends on what method works best for you. In any case, it should be adaptable and reliable and help you achieve your goals. Try different trackers before settling on one for a big goal, and enjoy success on the road ahead.