We have scheduled the period to this Saturday, Jan 28th, between 8:00pm ~ 12:00pm.

The app is now available in the App Store as a free download. To download the app, simply go to this page, or search for “goalsontrack” in Apps Store on your iPhone.

This version of iPhone app requires an active account at GoalsOnTrack.com. However, it can work offline after you first activate your account in the app. We will post more detailed tutorials or screen-casts to explain how to get most out of it later.

For now, if you are a registered GoalsOnTrack user, please download it and give it a try.

As a lot of you pointed out, sometimes the site speed or page loading time is very slow. We are already working on this problem and so that’s why it wasn’t included in the survey. We’re moving to a much faster new hosting environment. Within next two weeks or so, hopefully we will be able to solve the performance problem once and for all.

Now here is the list of lucky survey winners. Congratulations!

• Paul Caspersen
• Micael Herkommer
• Tricia Patterson
• Mariko Nagano
• Nicki Goff

A $20 amazon gift card has been delivered to the email address left in your survey answers. Make sure to check your email.

As always, we welcome your feedback, suggestions, ideas or anything you wish us to know.

Thank you!

Harry

If you are beta tester, but haven’t sent back the feedback to us, please make sure to tell us your test results before Thursday this week. Otherwise, we may not have enough time to implement or make the changes requested from your feedback. However, we will keep your requests on file and hopefully be able to implement them in future updates.

Again, thanks for your continued support and feedback.

From my own experience, any type of “goal setting” works best if we set it up in a way so that we can work on it every day and see the progress all the time. Here I want to share a simple method to track weight loss goals with GoalsOnTrack.

Suppose your goal is to lose 30 lb.

1. Create a main goal “Lose 30 lbs by July”

2. Create 7 sub goals under this main goal for each month, such as “Lose 4 lbs in Jan”, “Lose 4 lbs in Feb”, etc., and then set its main goal contribution percentage, like 15%. You can start with only Jan, or Feb now and add the rest later. As long as these percentages are in, the progress will be tracked correctly.

3. Under each sub goal, create some recurring tasks that you think you will need to do to reach your monthly goal. For example, work out for 30 minutes, drink 8 cups of water, etc. You may also add those tasks for things that you shouldn’t do, such as “no ice cream after dinner”, or the kinds of food you don’t want to eat.

4. When you set the Progress metric field for the sub goal, don’t use any numbers, such as “4 lbs”, because then it will try to track by the actual lbs completed by each task, which in this method, it’s hard to determine how much difference a single small task really contributes to the weight loss. You can simply enter some textual result, such as “My weight is reduced by 4 lbs or so”. This way, whenever you complete a task, however small, the progress will show on both sub goals and the main goal.

The main point of tracking it this way is to focus more on the things we do and eat, rather than our weight. In actuality, if we truly stick to an exercise program or a certain diet, it’s hard NOT to lose weight.

You may also want to setup a few habits that you think will help you on this goal and track them under the habits tool.

Remember the key point is to make it something you do daily, and see your progress all the time.

1. Be specific

Write down goals in specific detail so you can clearly see what you plan to attain and how to achieve it. State exactly what you want and how you plan to get the results you seek, such as who can help and what training you may require.

• a. What? What do you want to accomplish (short & long term)?
• b. Where? Identify locations & venues you will do the activities at.
• c. When? Establish time frames for short & long term goals. What is your target date?
• d. Who? Who can help you reach your goals? Do you seek mentorship, expert advice, or wings to help you in field?

2. Measureable

Establish metrics to track your progress. Keep a documented record of your successful steps toward your goals.

• How many? Do you have a goal of approaching a certain amount of women per day/night/week/month/year?
• How long? Do you have a goal of spending a specific amount of time meeting women?

3. Tracking

Tracking your successes can help encourage you to keep going and give you solid feedback on our efforts and whether something is working or not. The best strategy for sticking to goals is to keep track of your progress on a daily basis by writing it down every day. This very act of writing down activities/steps taken has been shown to improve results and to encourage consistency. It allows you to learn more about your habits, stay accountable to yourself, and keep track of any progress or slips.

A good record includes the following:

• Type of activities.
• How long you spent performing those activities.
• Intensity of the effort. Did you push your own boundaries or did you play it safe?
• Comments about any difficulties to help you in problem solving for the future.

4. Practicality

Are the goals reasonable and achievable in the time allotted?

5. Staying on track

Maintaining progress is one of the hardest challenges when trying to make changes to your life, whether it be changing a habit, fitness, or improving your communication skills. Getting started can be difficult, but staying committed is even harder. The key to successfully navigating obstacles to maintain your progress is to acknowledge slips will happen despite your best efforts to plan for them. The key is to build consistencies and a regular schedule and to get back on that horse as soon as you get thrown off. There are several things you can do to help stay on target:

• Keep it meaningful! Continue to remind yourself of the personal benefits you’ll get when you achieve your goals. Setting and keeping meaningful goals that are realistic and attainable will increase the likeliness of success. You are much more likely to strive towards a goal you care about and feel close to accomplishing.
• Reward yourself! Rewards increase the likelihood that you will do it again. When you reach a metric give yourself a reward. Create rewards for both short-term and long-term goals.
• The earlier you catch slips the better. If caught early a slip does NOT have to signal an inevitable downward spiral. Again, slips are inevitable and accepting that and moving on when they happen is the best course of action. The most important thing to do when slips occur is to not let it turn into a string of slips or affect your new habits and collapse your changes in behavior you’ve been working towards.
• Have a plan for dealing with slip ups.

P.S. More incredibly useful articles and goal setting resources are on the way. If you haven’t tried GoalsOnTrack software (http://www.goalsontrack.com), I would highly recommend you to do so. You’ll be amazed at how much progress you could make with your goals, dreams, and things you really want to accomplish.

To get our app onto your iPhone outside of Apple Store, we will need some information (UDID) about your phone. The easiest way is to simply use this app to send that info to us.

Click on the below link and install and then run the app.

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=285691333&mt=8

The only thing this app does is to create an email filled with your phone device id. Please enter for the To address “harry.che@goalsontrack.com” and send it to me.

After I get your info, I’ll create a special version so that you can test it on your phone.

Btw, testing or installing that app will NOT harm your phone in anyway whatsoever. Also your phone id is confidential and we’ll never disclose to anyone for any purpose.

Currently we are only able to accept beta testers from GoalsOnTrack existing users.

-Harry

Here are a few sample screenshots from the app. Let us know if you have any comments or feedback.

Also if you’re interested beta testing this app, please let us know by sending us a short message via the Send Message form on the home page.

There’s no better feeling than checking something off your to-do list. Done! Finished! Mission accomplished! Yet it’s so easy to let a whole day or week go by without knocking one task off your list. How does that happen? Well, your to-do list can be a tool that guides you through your work, or it can be a big fat pillar of undone time bombs taunting you and your unproductive inadequacy. It all depends on how you write it.

Think of your to-do list as an instruction set your Boss self gives your Assistant self. Like a computer program, if the instructions are clear, specific, and easily executed, you’re golden. If not, you’ll get undesirable results, like fear, procrastination and self-loathing. Today I’ve got some tips on how to write a to-do list that makes getting your stuff done dead simple.

You are the boss of you

At any point during your work day you are in one of two modes: thinking mode (that’s you with the Boss hat on) and action mode (that’s you with the Personal Assistant hat on.) When a project or task comes up, the steps you’ve got to take start to form in your mind. Now you’re in thinking/Boss mode - the guy/gal who gives the orders. Your to-do list is a collection of those orders, which your Assistant personality will later pick up and do.

So when you’re wearing your Boss hat, it’s up to you to write down the instructions in such a way that your Assistant self can just do them without having to think. GTDer Michael Buffington called this “writing tasks that you can follow as if you’re a robot.”

How to order yourself around

So how do you make your to-do’s doable? When it’s time to add something to your list, stop and think it through, using the following guidelines.

Break it down.

The best way to make yourself avoid a task like the plague is to make it a vague monstrosity. The Getting Things Done productivity system defines projects differently from tasks: projects have multiple sub-actions. That’s an important distinction - internalize it, because your to-do list is not your project list. Don’t add multi-action tasks to it, like “Clean out the office.” Break it down to smaller, easier-to-tackle subtasks like “Purge filing cabinet,” “Shred old paperwork” or “Box up unneeded books for library drive.” Because Assistant you is going to run for the hills when Boss you says “Clean out the office.”

Work through projects using next actions.

If you’ve got a multi-action task - that is, a project - only keep its next sequential action on your to-do list. When the task is complete, refer back to your project list (again, separate from to-do’s) and add its next action to your to-do list. At any given moment, your to-do list should only contain the next logical action for all your working projects. That’s it - just one bite-sized step in each undertaking.

Use specific, active verbs.

When you’re telling yourself to do something, make it an order. An item like “Acme account checkup” doesn’t tell you what has to be done. Make your to-do’s specific actions, like “Phone Rob at Acme re: Q2 sales.” Notice I didn’t use the word “Contact,” I said “Phone.” Contact could mean phone, email, or IM, but if you’re taking out all the thinking and leaving in only action, your verbs will be as specific as possible. Literally imagine yourself instructing a personal assistant on her first day on the job what you need done.

Keep your list short.

Just like no one wants to look at an email inbox with 2,386 messages in it, no one wants to have an endless to-do list. It’s overwhelming and depressing, like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. I keep my to-do list under 20 items. (This morning it’s only 17 tasks long, and I’d call myself a busy person.) Does that sound like too little? Remember, your to-do list isn’t a dumping ground for project details, or “Someday I’d like to” items. These are tasks you’re committed to getting done in the very near future - like the next 2 weeks. Keep your projects and someday/maybe items elsewhere. Your to-do list should be short, to the point commitments which involve no more deciding whether or not you’re really serious about doing it.

Keep it moving.

While my to-do list is only 20 items or so, it’s 20 items that change every single day. Every day 2-5 tasks get checked off, and 2-5 tasks get added. Remember, your to-do list is a working document, not some showy “look how organized I am!” thing that quietly gathers dust because you’re off doing real work which isn’t written down anywhere.

Prioritize.

While your to-do list might have 20 items on it, the reality is you’re only going to get a couple done per day (assuming you’re not writing down things like “get up, shower, make coffee, go to work…”). So make sure those tasks are at the very top of your list. How you do this will depend on what tool or software you use to track your to-do’s, but do make sure you can see what you need to get done next at a glance.

Purge.
Just like you should be able to see what tasks are top priority on your to-do list, you should be able to see what items have been on your list the longest as well. Chances are you’ve got some mental blockage around the tasks that have been sitting around forever, and they’ve got to be re-worded or broken down further. Or perhaps they don’t need to get done after all. Deleting an item from your to-do list is even better than checking it off, because you’ve saved yourself the effort.

Log your done items.

Like any good assistant, you want to show the Boss exactly much you’ve gotten done. Make sure you stow your done items somewhere so you can revel in your own productivity. Also, your “done” list is a great indicator of whether or not your to-do list is working: if more than 2 days goes by without a new done item? It’s time to revamp your to-do list and get back to best practices.

Practice makes perfect

This probably sounds like a lot of hand-waving for simply writing something down on a list, but 90% of doing anything is the planning, and that’s true for even the most trivial tasks. Like any good habit, practice makes perfect. The more you practice the art of creating effective to-do’s, the faster and easier it will come to you, and the more you’ll be crossing items off your list.