Goal Settings vs. Sticking to a Routine
Love this approach by the Buffer guys.
The gist is, instead of trying to reach a goal, no matter what, stick to the process (that eventually makes you reach the goal).
Goals reduce your current happiness.
SOLUTION: Commit to a process, not a goal.
When you focus on the practice instead of the performance, you can enjoy the present moment and improve at the same time.
Also nice is the idea to build feedback loops. I set something like this up already, but I’m improving it before I feel confident to share it. At the moment this includes really just feedback for myself on finished projects, customer satisfaction, etc., but it’s not very personal yet.
Each Friday, I spend 15 minutes filling out a small spreadsheet with the most critical metrics for my business. For example, in one column I calculate the conversion rate (the percentage of website visitors that join my free email newsletter each week). I rarely think about this number, but checking that column each week provides a feedback loop that tells me if I’m doing things right. When that number drops, I know that I need to send high quality traffic to my site.