Never Miss a Goal Again: The ABC System Explained
As clinical as prime Suarez...
Productivity advice for the week:
ABC Goal System
I am a big believer in goals.
I am a big believer in habits.
I am a big believer in sticking to these habits to achieve said goals.
But all this only works perfectly in a utopian state, a position we sadly do not entertain.
Personally, I have struggled with perfectionism; if I don’t do exactly what I set out to do, it gets to my head. Even today, as I am writing this newsletter, I arrived twenty minutes later than I usually do to the cafe where I write, and I felt a weird stress.
So, inspired by Sahil Bloom, here is a goal system I am really excited about.
ABC Goals
A goal: In a perfect case scenario, everything goes to plan.
B Goal: Partly hit; you hit over half of your goal.
C Goal: Complete the minimum; you do something, the bare minimum.
The detail is in the language here.
As long as you do something, you’re hitting your goal.
We can trick our brain very easily with persuasive semantics.
It is far easier to say exercise" if you know all you have to do is two minutes of jumping jacks instead of a 10k.
The option is there, but with this system, nothing is an option.
Let me paint you an example.
My goal for the day might be to read for thirty minutes.
But I am stressed; I am tired and cognitively fatigued.
A goal read for a focused 30 minutes.
B Goal: Read for 15 minutes.
C Goal—Read a page.
I can feasibly hit the C goal, no matter how I feel.
But at least I have done something.
While it may seem counterintuitive, consistency is easier than inconsistency.
Doing the thing, even if it’s a small amount, will make it easier to stick to the habit/action.
Organisational advice for the week:
Dynamic Systems
A bit more philosophical than something tangible.
When reading and writing about productivity/organisation, it can be easy to get stuck or set on a dream system.
But if “productivity” had been “solved,” people wouldn’t be writing about it.
It’s malleable; what works for one may not work for another.
We are all different. Psychologically, geographically, culturally, and financially.
The amount of times I have heard people in sunny countries say to “get sunlight in your eyes in the morning”… They clearly don’t know British weather.
What works for the dad looking after his three kids, the 23-year-old businesswoman, and the 45-year-old shift worker is going to be different.
And that’s fine.
Systems and productivity should be dynamic.
Take what you like from one thing and add it to another.
Keep changing them, evolving them to your personal taste.
Experiment.
Last week one reader (and friend) spoke to me about the topic of notifications on phones.
To my delight, he had turned notifications off for everything apart from emails.
Which he said he didn’t have an issue receiving and didn’t feel the impulse to constantly check.
I am in a different boat, but that’s fine, because what works for him is different from what works for me.
Evolve with your systems; don’t get glued down.
Word of the week:
Opulence = Great wealth or luxury
Quote of the week:
“Listening to someone is one of the greatest things you can do for someone.” - James Norbury, author of Big Panda and Tiny Dragon