6 Reasons to Track Your Progress, and 3 To Forget About It

Rod says on August 26th, 2008 at 9:57 am

I started a Diary of sorts over 12 years ago when I was young and got nailed once for taking a 65 minute lunch at a place that watched you like a hawk. Since then I have kept a journal/diary for each day for work and personal life. I find it very rewarding and also sometimes just having a notebook along keeps me from being bored while I wait for someone. Or if that idea hits I have a place to write it down for later. Lately I have been transcribing the information into a Tiddlywiki so that I can make it more searchable.

Like you said though. I do not keep track of my finances. I let my bank do that automatically for me. I don’t keep track of my workout schedule I have a fancy little heart monitor watch for that. I just write down the numbers once a week. I do keep track of what I did and what was said and when I got to work and when I get off a project. Helps for all the billing back later.

kate says on August 26th, 2008 at 11:03 am

I love Joe’s Goals to do my tracking. Last thing I do at night after I exercise is to log in, update the tracker, and it’s so easy but so needed for me. I need to visually see check marks, etc. — they are my visual reward or punishment.

Tracy Crowe says on August 26th, 2008 at 11:09 am

I sometimes am skeptical about whether tracking my progress is really worth it. To develop a new habit, I think you would track your progress for at least 21 days because that’s how long it is supposed to take to create a new habit. Like you mentioned, the logistics of keeping track of things can be difficult. My experience has been that it’s as much as I can do to remember to do the new habit, so I forget to record it when I do it. It’s like it’s just too much to keep track of. But I know it’s important to keep track of your progress so I keep trying to do it anyway.

Shanel Yang says on August 26th, 2008 at 11:14 am

“Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.” – Peter Drucker

The whole point of keeping track of goals is to achieve them as efficiently as possible, adjusting for errors along the way, etc. Sure, you can achieve some goals without tracking them all that closely, but it will take you a whole lot longer. Why put yourself through the agony — disappointment, frustration, discouragement — when it’s so much easier to tackle one goal at a time with all your gusto till you can cross it off your list for a while? It’s oh so much easier for me to do it this way. : )

Carsten says on August 26th, 2008 at 11:25 am

I do track a lot of things on a regular, sometimes daily basis. Because I try to workout hard, I keep track of repetitions and weights. And because I want to eat right, I keep track of my nutrition in a very detailed way. And I use a tracking tool for my finances too, because I really want more reports than my bank account offers.

I like charts, and I visualize most of the collected data to myself via Google Docs or the finance tool. That really helps me to stay on track and focus on my goals. Looking at a chart gives so much more information than just keeping it in my (lousy) brain. ;-)

eoh_nl says on August 26th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

This post fits perfectly with the “back2basic” series of Dustin Wax. Everything should be in a “trusted system” so you can plan, do and evaluate it in there. That way your head is clean to think. And when it is “archived” in this system you can look back. And have an impressive “knowledge base”, because yes, we have a lousy brain.

Andre Kibbe says on August 26th, 2008 at 12:37 pm

I conduct minute-by-minute time audits over the course of one week every three months. During that one-week period, I log the time each time I switch a task, than enter the results in a spreadsheet. It’s always an eye-opening, and I invariably find improvement opportunities for getting more value out the time I spend during the day.

I wouldn’t want to do this continuously, though. It’s a real discipline to keep logging each activity throughout the whole day. It’s easy to get lazy about it when the afternoon rolls around, so it’s important to fully commit to logging the entire day. A one-week commitment every three months, in my experience, gives me enough data act on.

Before logging any activity or tracking any goal, clarify the purpose(s) for doing it. Don’t just track things for the sake of tracking them.

Michael@ Awareness * Connection says on August 26th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

I like the balance you’re getting at here, or at least that your post has me thinking about. Even as far as GTD stuff I’m not going to write EVERYTHING down. I’m not going to write down for a next action, “Screw mayonnaise lid back on”, but if my day is pretty full, let’s stick with the kitchen example, I may well write down things like, “pack Hannah’s lunch for camp”, “frost birthday cake”, “prep stir fry veggies” etc. so I don’t miss anything, and just for that little making progress buzz that comes from checking things off. So the central question seems When is it worthwhile to write things down? And also, How does that threshold change based on circumstances such as my stress level, how much I’ve got to do, how anxious I might be feeling about some pressure or another, etc.

Very nice issue for a post. Thanks Bram.

Alan says on August 26th, 2008 at 5:24 pm

For me, I think you missed a couple of things. One reason to track is to provide a positive reinforcement to help alter behavior. The flip side is that if you are tracking it and can’t get it to improve, that is helping to reinforce the negative.
The unanswered question for me it how to avoid the second, negative effect, any ideas?

Tabs at Levnow says on August 27th, 2008 at 12:27 am

I love the keeping track of my progress because it is the only way I can remember what I have done and the only way I can know I am accomplishing whatever I set my mind to. Before I started doing this diligently, I would have weeks where I felt like I had done nothing. I am a huge fan of keeping track. Cheers,

-Tabs

Paul Baarn says on August 27th, 2008 at 4:27 am

Another reason not to track your progress might be if the road to your goal is very long and winding. You’re progress in the beginning may be small, zero or even negative. And tracking that may diminish your motivation and remind you of how looong you have to go.
Instead of tracking your progress you could track your effort. I’m traying to raise my fitness and stamina, and while I don’t need a six-pack, I do want a more toned body. Progress is very slow and the changes from day to day won’t be visible. But I track my effort in my workout schedule. Not how many crunches I did, but just the fact that I worked out. I know my goal will take care of itself, and in the mean time I enjoy the process. (In a way I changed my goal to working out 4 times a week and not worry about the speed of improvement)

Michele says on August 27th, 2008 at 1:41 pm

Keeping a food diary has been one of the best and simplest way of maintaining my weight for me. It’s really easy to “forget” how much you’ve already had today, and knowing I have to record portions sizes later causes me to be more conscious while serving myself. Lastly, it makes me think twice about eating junk food – do I really want to put it in writing that I ate THAT?

EMotivate says on August 27th, 2008 at 6:04 pm

I was actually thinking about this not too long ago, when reading another blog post about keeping track of something or another. The thought occured to me that if I truly did track everything I was supposed to track…I wouldn’t hav time to actually DO much.

Hey, its important to keep track to some extent. But I am not convinced that nickel and diming yourself is really going to prove much. If you truly dont know where your money is going…ok. But for many of us, we KNOW where the money is going (we just dont like to admit it).

A much simpler system usually works just as well. A friend used envelopes. He had a food envelope, a gas envelope, etc. He didn’t track it any more than that and it really did the trick for him.

John says on August 27th, 2008 at 6:48 pm

One more great reason to track your progress is that doing so will give you a leg up when tackling similar tasks in the future. The ability to accurately estimate your workload can ease the stress of trying to get too much done. Thanks for the tips!

Rod says on December 29th, 2008 at 9:05 am

80% of the benefit will come from 20% of the tracking.

“Whatever is measured improves, usually at the expense of what is not measured.” -somebody

“When is it worthwhile to write things down?” When one dollar’s worth of measurement brings you more than one dollar’s worth of improvement. (or one minute)

Rod says on December 29th, 2008 at 9:36 am

The value that comes from tracking (or, from having any information) will be created in that moment when you make a decision, on the basis of that information, to do something that is different from what you would have done otherwise.

So, when deciding what to track or whether to track, ask thia question: After I get this information, what decision am I going to make? Am I likely to do anything differently?

Rod says on December 29th, 2008 at 9:41 am

“Has careful tracking helped you achieve a goal?”

Oh no!!! Now we have to track the tracking!!!

harry che says on January 7th, 2009 at 2:29 pm

Thanks, that’s a great post!

I use a nice web app specifically designed for tracking goals progress and todo list, and time tracking, etc, it is called GoalsOnTrack.com. It’s also free at http://www.goalsontrack.com.