I have seen a lot of people struggling to achieve their goals. I already assume that you are serious enough to set some goals for yourself but now you are struggling to achieve them. Although many factors play a role in this, one simple strategy that has worked for me comes from Pearson's law.
What is Pearson's Law?
What it essentially means is that, when you track and measure your goals you have a higher chance of achieving those goals but when you not only Track & Measure your goals but also report or write it down as to how much you have completed, you have a very higher chance of achieving your goals and that too faster.
Take an example
I know most of you reading this are UPSC aspirants. So I would be taking an academic example here. The example would hold true for any goal that you have set for yourself.
Now let's say you set a Goal that "I have to complete Modern History from Spectrum in next 20 days" (If you want to know how to set smart goals do comment in the section below)
Goal " Complete Modern History from Spectrum in 20 days"
Now what we do is deploy a metric to measure and track our performance.
Level 1 tracking - Measure on day 1 how much have you completed and then measure directly on day 20th whether you were able to complete the spectrum or not. It has a low chance of completion.
Level 2 tracking - Waking up every day and tracking and measuring how much have you completed till that day. Let's say the book has 600 pages, so to complete it in 20 days you would have to complete 30 pages in a day. So you track every day that whether I was able to complete those 20 pages set for the day or not. This tracking has a higher chance of goal completion.
Now what Pearson's Law suggests is to go a level deeper and measure and report the performance.
Level 3 Tracking (Person's Law) - You get up every day & you track and measure whether you were able to complete the 20 pages set for the day or not and then you write it down in a tracking register with a pen as to how much were you able to compete that day. So let's say today I was able to do only 15 pages. So I would take a pen and paper and my tracking register and then write down, that on 7th November I completed 15 pages.
Why does it work?
It works because it adds an extra layer of accountability to you. Imagine you taking a new year resolution to lose weight by 5 kgs in 3 months. What would happen if you don't track it measure it and write down your progress every day. You are much likely to give up and you would most probably forget that you took such a resolution in no time.
Accountability is important and that is why people take guidance/coaching. What coaching does is hold you accountable. If you have a test on Sunday you have to study or else you are not on track with your preparation. What tests do is, help you measure your preparation. If you are scoring bad you know you are not on track to clearing UPSC. So accountability, tracking, and measuring your performance, and also writing it down are very important for succeeding.
If you are struggling with accountability, try to make an accountability partner. It can be your friend or enemy anyone would do. Tell them If I don't complete these 20 pages of modern history today then you can write on my Facebook wall that I am stupid and I would accept that in front of my friends. This was just an example, you can set your own punishment for not completing the task. I hope you get my point.
When you want to achieve any goal, quantify each and everything related to that goal. You might have seen many times we set goals and not track them and then we end up giving up on it. I was also a victim of this, but then I decided to improve and quantify everything that I want to achieve. I set my daily 6 goals and write them down in a notebook and then I set my hours to complete them and after completion, I write them down again as to how much I was able to complete in that limited time frame.
Before adopting this you need to be very clear about your goals.
Be clear Track it Measure it Report it and see the change for yourself!
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Do not hesitate to ask doubts and reach out to us in case you need any help. Have a wonderful day and make your mission to make someone else life better. I will see you in our next blog.
Authored by: Bhishm Tahiliani
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