3 Apps for Achieving Your Goals
As the new year approaches, we are looking back on our lives, contemplating how to improve and setting goals for 2015. Sadly, this often proves unhelpful. Statistics say that 25% of New Year's resolutions will be deserted before the end of January and the majority of people will give up on their goals before July.
Because I want to beat the odds, I plan to leverage three apps. These apps work together to set aside time for completing goals, acomplish key tasks, and record/review progress throughout the year.
Allocate time with a calendar app
We all have 24 hours each day, but we don't always utilize that time well. A calendar app is a time-tested tool for organizing our lives around accomplishing our goals. My calendar for 2015 looks a lot like the "Ideal Week" I talked about in November.
I personally use Fantastical by Flexbits for my calendar app on Mac and iOS, but there are several good options available. You can find my review of Fantastical here.
Accomplish tasks with a to-do app
Yearly goals tend to be big, and I've found the best way to accomplish big things is to break them down into manageable chunks. This is where a to-do app comes in. To-do app's are designed for organizing the minutia of what needs to get done.
Regarding to-do apps, I prefer Omnifocus for Mac and iOS. It is widely known as the most powerful to-do app available for the Apple ecosystem. If you're interested in more info, I've written a review of Omnifocus here.
Record/review progress with a goal-tracking app.
Michael Hyatt said, "The secret to accomplishing what matters most to you is committing your goals to writing." I'd like to take that a bit further, and say the secrect to accomplishing what matters most to you is committig your goals to writing and tracking your progress. A goal-tracking app is a great place for doing both.
Because this is new territory for me, I can't wholeheartedly endorse a specific app. With that said, I'm currently testing Strides. My initial reaction to Strides is positive because of two main things.
- Strides doesn't lump all goals into one category. Instead, it provides four types of goals to track: target, habit, avereage and milestone. Watch the video below for a more detailed
- Strides turns your progress into charts. These charts make it clear when changes need to be made to achieve your goals.
If we want to complete our goals in 2015, we must have a plan. We must set aside time, acomplish key tasks, and record/review our progress throughout the year. I'll be leveraging Fantastical, Omnifocus and Strides to make that happen.
Now that you've seen my plan, I'd love to hear yours. What're your goals, and what steps are you taking to accomplish them? Are there any key apps that you will be using to achieve your goals in 2015?