The
WEEKLY
Achievement
TRACKER
Step-by-Step Instructions to Create Your Progress-Monitoring System
Presented by
Michael Hyatt & Company
Congratulations on designing your Best Year Ever! That’s an important step. Now it’s
time to turn your goals into reality by acting on your aspirations. That’s why you need a
progress-tracking system. It will motivate you to continually act on your goals like
nothing else.
Regularly reviewing your goals, celebrating your wins, and adjusting your strategy will
keep you fired up and focused. It’s the key to taking incremental action all year long.
Come December, all that incremental progress really can add up to your best year ever!
But if you don’t track your progress, the likelihood of achieving your most important
goals is drastically reduced.
Fortunately, you can create your own progress-monitoring system in a matter of
min-utes. It just needs to include three key components.
1. Clear, Actionable Goals: Luckily, you already have these! That’s why we invest so
much effort into making your goals SMARTER during the 5 Days to Your Best Year Ever
course. A SMARTER goal lends itself to decisive action.
2. A Place to Track Progress: This can be any tool you prefer.
• A paper planner with a page for each goal
• A chart on your wall
• A folder on your desktop with a Word or Pages document for each goal
• A spreadsheet with tabs for each goal
We’re agnostic about the tool. The best one is whatever one you’ll actually use! The
point is to have a single, designated place to track your wins and losses, reconnect with
your motivations, determine next steps, and remember the rewards that await you upon
completion of your goal. In the remainder of this document, we’ll show you how to
im-plement this system using one of our favorite technologies—Evernote. It’s free, easy to
use, and available on any device. Plus, we’ve provided a handy template file and
screencast on the Weekly Achievement Tracker bonus page to give you a huge head
start. However, you can adapt this same system to whichever tool best suits you.
3. A Regular Review Time: What gets scheduled gets done. That means you need
dedicated time on your calendar to review your goals and decide on your next steps
each week. Wherever you manage your schedule, block an hourlong weekly
appoint-ment for goal review. Then stick to that consistently. Treat it with the same respect you
would any other commitment—maybe even more. Remember, this is a commitment to
yourself and to your highest priorities. So hold that time sacred.
That’s all it takes! Those three simple components are all you need to create a
high-powered progress-monitoring system.
Now let’s review the seven simple steps you can take to implement this system using
Evernote.
Step 1: Download the Evernote template file.
▶ To make this easy, download the free Evernote goals template on the Weekly Achieve-ment Tracker bonus page. Once you have downloaded the file, just double-click on it to open it in Evernote. Now move the note into the notebook you are using for your goals. You will have to do this for each goal detail note you want to create.
Step 2: Install the template file.
▶ Double click the file to install file.
▶ Click NO on the pop-up message about creating a synchronized notebook.
Step 3: Create you goal summary list.
▶ Enter “00. 2018 Goals” in the Evernote note Title field. The double zeros will keep this summary right at the top once you’ve created individual notes with the rest of your goals.
▶ Now type one goal per line. (Make sure it’s SMARTER. I explain how in 5 Days to Your
Best Year Ever.)
▶ Tag this note with two tags: “2018” and “goals.”
▶ Insert a To-do box (⇧⌘T on the Mac or Ctrl-Shift-C on Windows) before each goal.
▶ Arrange them into an order that makes sense for you.
Step 4: Create your individual goal trackers.
▶ We’ve given you two goal templates: Habit Goals and Achievement Goals
▶ Let’s Start with an Achievement Goal.
•
Replace the Achievement Goal Template label with the goalnumber 01, write the name of your goal and the deadline to complete it.
•
Indicate the quarter in which you’ll focus on the goal. Note, I suggest no more than three goals per quarter.•
List your key motivations.•
Note the reward for completing the goal.•
Choose an Activation Trigger (and automate if you can).•
List a couple of next actions.•
As the year goes on, you’ll use the Progress Reports section to keep track of key measurements or major milestones.▶ Now let’s do a Habit Goal.
•
Again, replace the template label with the goal number ( 02. in this case).•
Write your habit goal followed by how often you’ll complete it, at what time, and for how long.•
You’ve got spaces for Quarter, Key Motivations, Reward, Activation Trigger, and Next Actions, but instead of the Progress Reports, you have a Streak Tracker. This is setup to track a daily goal for an entire quarter.•
You can customize this to match the duration and frequency of your habit goals.▶ Sort the Goal Detail Notes in numerical order by selecting View > Sort by: Title. (This is why you included the number in the Title field.)
Step 5: Link the notes together.
▶ Right-click on each goal note.
▶ Select Copy Note Link.
▶ Go to your summary note.
▶ Highlight that specific goal.
▶ Select Format > Link > Add.
▶ Paste the link into the blank field of the dialog box. Click OK.
Step 6: Create a shortcut to all your notes (goals).
▶ Place your cursor in Evernote’s search field, in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Type tag:2018 tag:goals. (Don’t include the period at the end.)
▶ Now select Edit > Find > Save Search.
▶ Type 2018 Goals in the dialog box. Click on the OK button.
▶ This is the tricky part: Make sure your cursor is still in the search field, and the end of the text string you typed earlier (directly after the word, “goals”).
▶ Now click once with your mouse. This should display all your saved searches.
▶ Use your mouse to highlight 2018 Goals. Now click and drag it to the Shortcuts sidebar on the left of the screen. Position the shortcut where you want it to appear and then release the mouse button.
Step 7: Schedule your reviews.
I suggest you review your Goal Summary daily and that you review and update your individual goal notes weekly. I do mine in my Weekly Review. The key to achieving your goals is to review your goal list on a regular basis. All you have to do is click on the Shortcut you drug onto Shortcuts Sidebar.
Now it’s your turn!
We’ve provided you with a simple tracking system to help you build key habits and achieve big goals. Now it’s your turn to put this system into motion! Whether you use Evernote, as we’ve shown here, or adapt this system to another tool, just make sure you include the three key components:
1. Clear, Actionable Goals 2. A Place to Track Progress 3. A Regular Review Time
We look forward to celebrating your wins with you this year!