Why and How to set **GOALS** & **FOCUS**

Discussions
#1

When I first started my software company 20+ years ago, I was very focused. I’d pick one thing and work on it for a few months ( new features, sales, marketing, etc.).

In the last decade I got less focused.

Lately I’ve been getting more focused. For example, I got our blog up and running (took about 3 months). So that’s ALL I did for that time. Now I’m updating the UX for our flagship product. Then I’ll probably go back to the blog again for a could of months.

I’m looking for tips and benefits.

  1. Pick an Outcome
    Should be a SMART goal.

  2. All activity for a period of time should impact on that Goal.

  3. Avoids distraction.

  4. Makes it easier to measure impact (compared to pursuing several Outcomes at once.
    A big push in one metric (say, newsletter signups, or new Visitors or conversions from Visitor to User) is much easier to track. This is especially important for smaller companies.

Any suggestions of good blogs or podcasts?

I just listened to a good episide from the Drift folks: The power of Focus (Setting Goals for your startup)

#2

What works for me is splitting the day into time slots… 4 hours of this then a prize… lol 2 hours of this and then I am done… It is incredible how much more I can do when I get into that mode in 6 hours than I can do in 12 in a scattered mode…

I find that I can do this for like a project or something… but I keep drifting out of it… got to work on discipline… lol

#3

Yep, I think that’s called TimeBoxing.
It’s sort making use of the reverse of Parkinson’s Law: Work expands to fill time. So you constrain time to get more concentrated effort, rather than spending our on forums. like. this. :wink: