The Goal Feature

Almost every person on Earth has probably made a todo list of some kind. But have you ever noticed that sometimes it just doesn't work? Well I noticed too.

It seems that to-do lists are too granular, not everything that you want to do needs to be placed on some list. Sometimes you have bigger plans. One could call these plans... Goals?

How Do Goals Differ From To-Do Lists?

Goals aren't something you create for a week or month, they are meant to be used for something that's going to take 3-6 months, so essentially, your long-term goals.

Let's take an example: you want to improve your sleep schedule. Well, how do you break that into smaller actionable steps? You'd probably put something like `Try drink milk before sleeping`, or `Meditate before sleeping`. But this doesn't exactly help you since you're experimenting, trying out different things. These smaller steps don't take your long-term into account. You're still thinking in the short term.

How Goals Work

Let's try it with a goal instead. You'd start by create goal with a title like

`Improve Sleep Quality.`

Add a description like

I wish to improve my sleep quality because better sleep means better mental health which will have positive effects on my productivity.

Add an end date like

3 months from now

and there you go. Now rather than adding to-do list items, you instead have something more akin to a science discovery journal. Whenever you get the time, you add your thoughts and ideas.

For example:

Day 1

I'm going to try drinking warm milk before bed for the next 3 days and see if it helps my sleep quality.

Day 4

So, I tried the warm milk idea and it didn't really make much difference on my sleep at all. I did some research and it seems eating or drinking 3 hours before bed isn't the best for your sleep. I'm going to try this and see if it works

Day 12

I did miss 1-2 days but not eating or drinking really helped, it seems like my heart rate dropped faster which led to me getting more deep sleep. This was definitely a good idea.

As you can see, it ends up being a lot better than to-do lists. You aren't overwhelming yourself with a bunch of actions but rather experimenting with what works for you. Skipping days is also fine, as long as you're conscious about your long-term growth and improving.

Generic Goals

You'll notice that we set quite a generic goal with any real end goal. Well, you can't just improve your sleep quality by 20% because each day is different. Not everything can or should be quantified into numbers.

Many times we set a quantitive goal and then feel disappointed for not reaching. What if your sleep improved but only by 15%? Well, traditionally you've failed to reach your expectation so you forget about what you achieved and instead focus on what you didn't. Long term goals are particularly prone to this because you can't plan for everything that's going to happen in 3 months time.

Using AI

We have an AI Chat that can be used to ask questions about yourself, your thoughts, ideas etc. This AI Chat can use your active goals as context, giving you insights and information that pushes you to achieve the goals you set for yourself. It's take into account the the things you've logged as well.

Well, pretty cool huh. And we specifically made it different to to-do lists since there are plenty of incredible products for those on the market. So, let us know if you have any ideas on how to improve the goals feature. It's free for all users :)