Goals

[Katya]

Yayfulness's comment in "Life Lessons" made me wonder how other people view goals. Do you set formal goals for yourself? Do you set informal goals? Do you track your progress somehow? Do you have rewards if you meet your goals? Punishments if you fail to meet them?

[Katya]

I've never been terribly formal about goal setting. (I think part of this is my own stubbornness and disinclination to manipulation; I could never get excited about other people setting goals for me, and I'm not inclined to set them for myself.)

I do, however, track my progress in a number of areas, including exercise, eating less sugar (my algorithm for this is ridiculously complex), going to bed on time, practicing my Russian, reading Wikipedia articles in a particular subject area, and going through the math lessons on Khan Academy. I'm also trying to lose a little weight this year, but I'm going very gentle on that one because I think that if I do anything too drastic, it'll backfire.

(For me, the difference between setting a goal and tracking my progress in an area is that a goal has a firm ending date and accompanying rewards or punishments, while tracking progress is open ended and entirely positive in nature.)

[Digit]

I think Stickk would be effective as money cuts straight to the core for most people, myself included, if not for the fact that unfortunately, you could always lie to your "referee," which of course I would if, for example, $500 were on the line

[bobtheenchantedone]

I've been thinking a lot about goals lately, because I have a lot of areas I need to improve in, plus also I read through my old questions on the Board (prompted by that other thread) and discovered one asking for help coming up with good rewards that would motivate me.

I have two problems. One is that big goals that involve money are pretty much impossible, since my business operates on a shoestring and I love spending money on materials. (Not to mention I still owe money to contractors.) Two is that pretty much any other reward I set for myself I end up undermining because I feel I have exceptional circumstances. One of my current goals is to exercise every day, with the attached reward of getting to play some computer games if I do. The problem is that computer games are one of the few sure-fire ways to lighten my mood if I'm depressed, and when I'm depressed I'm not going to exercise, but I'll let myself play anyway in an attempt to make me happy enough to be at all useful.

[Portia]

As my frontal lobes have developed (I totally believe that received wisdom about brain maturation not arriving til 25), I've found I'm more able to make medium- and long-term plans, diet and exercise, read a lot of books, etc. I had a goal to reach 100 books on Goodreads by a certain date, and I did, I tracked my weight loss and now am a size which I think is ideal for my height and body type, and I am more scholastically motivated. Dating goals, on the other hand, have crashed and burned (almost by definition: it involves another person. Though I do wonder if by my very nature this will be harder to fulfill. My conflict-seeking, independent, needy nature.). I feel like making negative dating goals; i.e., "do not get seriously involved, do not waste time with XYZ, do not get engaged" are easier! Haha.

[Whistler]

this discussion also comes at a good time for me because I got really sick and I am really falling behind on that free computer programming class we also discussed. I was struggling with it anyway, but I want to still work on it, even if I can't match the pace they're setting. But I feel like... online courses are nice BECAUSE you can set your own pace, and maybe I should have taken an online class elsewhere where I could uphold my ideals... but the timed nature of the class was also something I would hope would motivate me.

I always set myself really big goals and pretty much never fulfill them... and when this happens I try to make myself smaller goals (like... just practice organ today). I'm annoyed too, because I feel like I was finally getting into a productive schedule and getting sick threw it all off.

[krebscout]

I've never been much of a formal goal-setter though I certainly have things I work toward. But being a mom of younglings on top of being really lazy nullifies any personal progress until I'm dragged, kicking and screaming, by the inevitable evolution of getting older with more responsibilities. I feel simultaneously lazy and really motivated. Does that make any sense? Anyway, two thoughts:

First, I usually try to "work toward things" by changing the way I feel about them. I don't have a firm exercise goal, because I know I'm not going to exercise unless I like exercise, and I have, amazingly, taught myself to like it for the most part. Unfortunately, when I have a gig, exercise time gets pushed to the back burner, and I do genuinely miss it. I've also actively worked at changing my relationship with food, and next on my list is some basic modicum of home orderliness.

Second, I was listening to Chris Oatley's Artcast (a good podcast, if anyone cares) and he recommended setting project-based goals for yourself. For example, he said that setting the goal to draw for twenty minutes in your sketchbook every day is going to depress you because you're not going to do it perfectly and there's no finished product to be proud of. But setting the goal to produce a personal project, like a short webcomic series you've been wanting to make or a re-illustration of your favorite book as a kid, has a clear finish, is satisfying, and adds to your portfolio. And I have one of those personal projects simmering in the back of my mind, but it will take a lot of time, so it may have to wait until my children are both old enough to wipe their own bottoms.

[Digit]

this discussion also comes at a good time for me because I got really sick and I am really falling behind on that free computer programming class we also discussed. I was struggling with it anyway, but I want to still work on it, even if I can't match the pace they're setting. But I feel like... online courses are nice BECAUSE you can set your own pace, and maybe I should have taken an online class elsewhere where I could uphold my ideals... but the timed nature of the class was also something I would hope would motivate me.

I always set myself really big goals and pretty much never fulfill them... and when this happens I try to make myself smaller goals (like... just practice organ today). I'm annoyed too, because I feel like I was finally getting into a productive schedule and getting sick threw it all off.

Is that that python class at MIT? Is that pretty good? I ended up not jumping in when it started.

[Whistler]

As a newcomer to programming, I find the class frustrating. They don't tell you all the information relevant to completing problems in a effort to appear sophisticated ("this is what a real college class is like!"); it ends up seeming like they just don't understand how much a novice doesn't know. I struggled with a problem for a while before my husband pointed out that brackets in documentation indicate an optional value, not that you should but brackets in your code. Little things like that have made me not impressed with their information scaffolding. The explanations are also very technical... I guess I'm glad they didn't want to "dumb it down," but I feel like it could be better.

Their teaching is also often oblique... for a given set of problems, you have to figure out what the answer is, and additionally, why they would bother asking (because they are trying to teach things, they just... don't bother saying what for some reason?). If you're really curious I could provide some kind of technical examples. Having my husband tutor me through the problems is really helpful though.