
Create systems that make it easy for you to succeed - artsandsci
https://qz.com/892247/dont-set-goals-for-yourself-instead-create-systems-that-make-it-easy-for-you-to-succeed/
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swanson
I'm not sure if it's exactly the same (I sometimes struggle with the nuance
between a system and a goal) -- but I like to think of systems as "rules".

If I want to get healthy, I don't set a goal to "go to the gym three times a
week" (classic 'feel bad when you fail' goal) or track how often I go to the
gym on a calendar and then monitor the count (I felt like that with
Beeminder).

But rather, I come up with a rule along the lines "If it is Monday, Wednesday,
or Friday and I drive past the gym on the way home, I will park and walk in to
the desk". For whatever reason, I don't feel bad if I break the rule every
once in a while. If it's Tuesday and I missed Monday gym time because of
$REASON -- I don't sweat it because the rule says don't do anything on
Tuesday. But the rule itself is pretty easy to follow -- I pick a gym on my
commute route and if I don't feel like working out, I can just walk to the
desk and then leave, all I'm out is 5 extra minutes.

You need to periodically review your rules to make sure they are still making
it easy to succeed.

Other "rules" I've done:

* If I bring lunch to work M-Th, then I can go out for lunch on Friday guilt-free

* I can watch as much TV/sports as I want, as long as I do it while on the treadmill

* If I floss at night, I can stay up an extra hour reading a book

These rules are super-sticky until something changes that makes it harder to
follow (e.g. if I don't have a book queued up on Kindle, it's harder to read;
a new work-project schedules lunch meetings at restaurants)

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megablast
> I will park and walk in to the desk

Um, how else do you get the desk without parking and walking? Can you drive
straight to your desk?

~~~
simplehuman
Segway

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dreeves
Here's what we (Beeminder) had to say about Systems vs Goals a year ago, also
prompted by Scott Adams's book:

[http://blog.beeminder.com/systems/](http://blog.beeminder.com/systems/)

I bet people who like this article would also like
[http://complice.co](http://complice.co) which is all about systematized goal
setting.

(And of course Beeminder, if you're a Quantified Self nerd into productivity
hacks and don't shudder in horror at the idea of using commitment devices on
yourself.)

~~~
chillacy
I just signed up to track my duolingo practice, but I'm curious what happens
once I complete duolingo? Is there a way to end the tracking once it's over?
At some point duolingo would get substituted for real-life immersion.

~~~
gargarplex
Once you complete Duolingo, treat yourself to a vacation in the country where
the language is spoken :D I did this and had a wonderful time! From there,
slowly immerse yourself in the culture.. for example, I am a part of some
Swedish Facebook groups for developers, have Swedish-speaking pals both irl
and online, etc. I was even offered a job to move to Sweden to lead a software
dev organization but I have my own projects to focus on

~~~
chillacy
I can't wait to try that! The software jobs aren't great where I'd go, but I
have enough savings for 3-6 months of studying abroad. It would be a great
thing to try in between jobs.

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pcmaffey
Daily actions without goals give no context for understanding progress.

The problem with goals however is that people assume the goal is the final
output. Really though, a goal is like a destination that starts your journey
in a particular direction. Goals are beginnings. The significant output is
what your learn from your journey.

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throwaway26960
What if you enjoy the daily actions? Or initially dislike them but get in the
habit of liking them? Why does there need to be progress towards some goal?
I've identified drawing as a healthy hobby, who cares if I get better,
although I'm sure I will because the human brain adapts quickly, gets bored
and needs a challenge. "Do this and you'll get that" \- doesn't that hinder
what you're doing because you're focusing on the "that" rather than the
"this"?

~~~
pcmaffey
Well I'm sure you started drawing with some goal in mind, even if it was "a
more enjoyable way to spend my time." Personally, I like the term "purpose"
more than "goal". The underlying WHY gives context and meaning to our daily
actions. You draw for a reason. Knowing that (putting your attention on it),
makes your habit even more rewarding.

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hammocks
Goals vs. systems is one of those classic debates. There is also a third way:
values.

For an excellent summary visualization and long-form discussion, check out
Venkatesh Rao's post [http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2014/09/03/how-to-fall-off-
the-wag...](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2014/09/03/how-to-fall-off-the-wagon/)

~~~
iamdave
I've had a lot of success actually combining goals with systems. As in, I had
the goal to quit smoking and to do that I borrowed a system from an addiction
therapist I listened to on the Joe Rogan podcast:

Identify what makes me want to smoke and when, and pay close attention to
those 'trigger' mechanisms. Start the day by counting how many cigarettes I
had in my box. Each time I had a 'trigger' to smoke, I would pull out a pocket
notebook, mark down a tally, and then tell myself "This cigarette can wait 30
minutes".

30 minutes later, if I had the same, or a different trigger to go outside and
smoke, repeat the process. At the end of the day I'd count how many tally
marks I had made with how many cigarettes are left in the box.

This gave me something I could visually track, it helped me pay attention to
my habit versus blindly indulging in every nic-fit that came across, and
within a month I had quit smoking.

This is just anecdote, but Goals vs. Systems might not be the best way of
looking at this conceit; perhaps Goals contextualized _within_ a system are
the keys?

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Jonovono
Interesting. So would you say you used willpower to quit smoking?

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iamdave
Hrm. Good question. I'd say when you sort of 'boil off' all the other stuff
yeah. I've tried just sheer willpower before and would always fall back, but
combined with taking stock of what made me _want_ to smoke and tracking the
progress I was making made the goal to quit smoking a little less hectic
because I was actively paying attention to my addiction and what fed into it.

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woliveirajr
In other words, don't set final goals _per se_ , but brake it down in small
steps that can be done in a daily basis.

That way you won't have to measure every day if you're getting closer to your
goal (like dealing with numeric goals), you'll be evaluating if you're keeping
yourself committed to things that will be part of your objective by the end of
the year.

It avoids the burden that comes when you don't achieve a intermediate goal,
and then give up of everything because it'll be hard to go back on track.

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EnFinlay
Create a goal, break it down into sub-goals, then ritualize behaviours that
will meet the sub-goals, making sure to never introduce too many new rituals
at once. Works pretty well for long term lifestyle goals. On the downside,
there isn't much for BHAGs.

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jimsojim
I've found that creating systems & not setting up a definite goal (stretch
goal) makes the whole act of doing a task or practicing a skill feel little
more on auto-pilot - which kills the drive for pushing it little harder.
Creating systems towards a set goal has been more sustainable and effective
for me

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rkunnamp
Are there any super successful people here? If yes, how did you set goals?
(since definition of success can vary from person to person, for the sake of
the question please consider the following definition- You are successful if
you really think so, or if you think that the society think so)

Goal setting never worked for me. [Edit] But If I were to set some, it would
be something like (Thinking.....) 1\. Eat, Sleep and Exercise well 2\.
Surround yourself with amazing people (both professionally and personally) 3\.
Find something you truly love doing, and something that has value in the
market 4\. Work your butt off 5\. Take time off & Forget the rest Let me check
, if writing it down helps

~~~
chillacy
Some of those habits your listed are hard to get going. How do you find
something you love doing which is valuable in the market? Do you pay for
coding camp classes or code every day? How will you ensure that you have the
fortitude to do that every day?

If you know nobody in a new city, how will you go out to surround yourself
with amazing people? Maybe go out to one social event a week, or always do
social stuff at work: these are the methods to achieving that state.

Those things you listed are habits that presumably you can maintain, but the
more interesting thing is how to create and change habits. That's the essence
of self improvement.

~~~
ioda
To be honest, I never succeeded with goals. Those things that happen naturally
, happens. Your comment made me self reflect, and I realised that , except
point 4, nothing happened at my will. Point 4 happened because I found
something that I enjoy doing. And finding something I love doing was a lot of
trial and error. All the other points are just wishes.

I was wondering whether actually people set goals, remind themselves everyday
etc, and go about to achieve the same. I think there is a lot of randomness in
getting into a system and an outcome as a result of it.

Apart from one or two mental notes with a bigger picture, I am not sure
whether the so called 'successful' people set those daily, weekly, monthly
goals etc. I am genuinely curious to know if it worked for some.

~~~
chillacy
Success is kind of subjective, maybe check out biographies? I know some people
are absolutely nuts about these systems of goal setting.

I get inspired to goal set maybe once a year when I'm unhappy and I try to use
the energy I have to establish a habit. The easiest way is singing up for a
class, the better way is to have a bunch of friends who also have similar
goals.

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bevan
The weakest link in most goal systems is ourselves. Changing behavior is
incredibly difficult because we get sidetracked, forget, and rationalize our
failures. A good system should not rely on our memory or willpower to keep our
goal top-of-mind.

So putting it up on Trello is a good idea, as is any other way to ensure your
system stays in focus, especially for the first 45-60 days. I built an app for
that purpose. It makes it easy to consistently do the small things that lead
to results (reviewing your goal; assessing your progress; tracking habits;
doing deep work; brainstorming), by reminding you via a browser extension.
Check out Focal Point (focal.pt).

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htaunay
I couldn't agree more. Breaking objectives/goals in small tasks, and then
transforming such small tasks in habits works very well for me.

I recommend habitica.com as a tool for such organization (btw, I have no
affiliation to the project).

In not only helps you organize your TODO's/long-term objectives, but it also
adds the element of gamification as an incentive. It also offers some data-
visualization tools that help you see a big-picture overview of your efforts,
e.g. maybe you didn't start going to the gym, but only because an unplanned
time-consuming problem came into your life, which you handled very well
without dropping the ball in other areas.

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Yhippa
I am slowly working on doing this when I realized that goals always seemed too
far away shortly after trying to achieve them. I have tried Habitica
([https://habitica.com](https://habitica.com)) and got really into it to
enforce habits but once a few of them slipped I just got bogged down at some
point and never went back. It's a real interesting system to help enforce
habits. Perhaps I need to just suck it up and try again.

~~~
chillacy
I tried Habitica but it wasn't doing it for me. I think a combination of it
being self-driven (I can just keep clicking a button to progress if I were
dishonest) and it lacking actual gameplay and being more of a stat boosting
game akin to a clicker game.

Compare this to Pokemon Go where I actually felt compelled to walk to grind
eggs since I had no good way to fake the GPS (though I did slowly drive one
night since it was too cold to walk). There was an instance of the game
actually forcing me to do something.

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L_226
I like [https://www.principles.com/](https://www.principles.com/) by Ray Dalio
(of Bridgewater) for a 5 step goal-fulfilment strategy:

> Have clear goals.

> Identify and don’t tolerate the problems that stand in the way of achieving
> your goals.

> Accurately diagnose these problems.

> Design plans that explicitly lay out tasks that will get you around your
> problems and on to your goals.

> Implement these plans—i.e., do these tasks.

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diminoten
This reminds me of what is probably a similar concept, the idea that
"successful" people don't have todo lists, they schedule time in their day to
solve problems.

A todo list could be seen as a set of "goals", whereas a time slot could be
seen as a system, which has no "success" criteria, just a period of time where
effort is exerted on a problem.

I am constantly trying and failing at this. I dunno what it is, but the little
demon in my brain loves to see a schedule, miss it intentionally, and then go,
"see? nothing bad happened!"

Pomodoro helps a bit, but it feels arbitrary, and often I forget that I'm
supposed to stop at 25 minutes (which I guess is good), so I'll be like 2
hours in on a project before realizing I was supposed to take a series of 5
minute breaks. The problem with this is it ruins the credibility of Pomodoro
for me, so next time I'm finding it hard to start a thing, I don't think of
Pomodoro.

I ramble about all of this because I want to highlight how real and permeating
this is, as a problem, and I doubt I'm alone in this.

~~~
kentosi
I'd first question who these successful people actually are, and by what
metrics they're considered successful.

Over the years I'm starting to realise more and more that what I thought was
success was actually prequalified by some sort of head-start or privilege:
Born into wealth, great connections, amazing generics, etc.

It's important to scope these out first I feel.

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teddyh
Since the author explicitly mentions his source, here is the idea explained by
the source itself:

[http://blog.dilbert.com/post/102964992706/goals-vs-
systems](http://blog.dilbert.com/post/102964992706/goals-vs-systems)

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rukuu001
The system my partner & I set up:

\- no exercise on a designated days? Donate $100 to Australia's One Nation
party (Australia's Trump-esque ratbags).

\- don't meet weekly work goals? I give away a watch; she gives away a pair of
shoes.

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imissmyjuno
I think I'll check in on the author come January 2018 :D

