Tracking Personal Accountability

It gets really painful to review ourselves, say over the last one year and see that there were so many things that could have been done but were missed out for no reason at all. I am not talking about any huge goals like buying a house or a change of job. It's about very simple and basic things that could have been easily done but we either took it easy or thought it could be done on any day...particularly those simple things that made our lives so enjoyable and joyous....

It could be reading, exercise, developing a habit or even getting in touch with friends. The thought crosses our mind but then gets drowned in the cacophony of so many other internal dialogues. Eventually, it never gets done. And we look back and regret that. The consequence of not doing it may range from negligible to slightly regretful to even painful. 

One such activity (from a really long list) for me was reading books. I was wondering why I missed out and then realized that over the years I have started to look at reading as an activity rather than a habit. I still remember those days when I used to compete with friends in reading maximum number of books. Time & years have really stolen this excellent habit and here I am setting goals for that! A lousy way to lose a good habit, isn't it?


This is just one example. I have many more in my life and so would anyone... Somebody quoted that if we did everything that we are capable of doing, then we will produce amazing results. I was wondering how to get back those good old simple habits...and start some new ones and sustain the initial momentum without losing focus...The best option looked like to start doing it on a regular basis till it becomes a habit again.

And I came across Joe's Goals, a free online tool. that could add some fun and method to doing exactly that.


Here, we can set up such simple activities that we want to do on a regular basis..and one can back there and give +ve marks for having done that or -ve marks for not doing it.


So I promptly set up a set of goals - typically things that I want to start doing, things that I want to continue doing and things that I want to stop doing. Now, scoring +marks & -ve marks makes real sense and what more, I am my own evaluator. All I have to do is to work it on a regular basis. Ten positive things (Start or Continue what is already being done) and five negative things (to stop / never to be repeated - like getting up late etc) and I am ready to score daily.

It gets even more cool that I can tag each of these under categories like Health, Exercise, Habit, Productivity etc. and review them. I can also run reports for a period and I get my score. 

I have decided to put up a graph on this blog (another cool feature) so I can track my progress as an average score over a period. Talking about commitment, huh?

Simple, powerful and amazing! 

Video review here