How To Track Goals With Evernote The Easy Way

Don’t lose sight of your objectives. Discover how you can track goals with Evernote to become more efficient.

If you don’t want to waste time and energy on your goals, you have to start tracking them.

Why is everyone talking about goals?

Have you noticed how many articles, books and blog posts about goal setting come up every day?

Why does it seem that having goals is so important?

Because it simply is!

Having goals differs people from animals.

While animals are fighting to survive every day, we, humans, have dreams we want to make come true with our heart and soul.

These dreams you have in your sleep and while you are awake are what I call GOALS.

Goals push us further even when logic points the other way.

You may think you don’t have goals, but I don’t believe it.

Why do you get up in the morning every day?

Whatever it is, that’s your immediate daily goal.

It makes no difference if you thought about:

• Taking the kids to school.
• Eating breakfast because you’re starving.
• Burning some calories at the gym.
• Going to work to make money to pay the bills.
• Meeting your friends and skip some classes together.

WHAT?!?

Crazy, isn’t it?

If it’s something that pushes you out of your comfort zone (your comfy bed, in this case), that’s a goal.

So as you can see, we all have goals! And that’s the reason why there’s so much hype about them.

How to become successful by tracking your goals with @evernote. #EvernoteCommunity #coach #mentor Click To Tweet

Not all goals are the same

If you take a look at my list above, you notice that not two goals are the same.

But before jumping to conclusions, let’s reflect on what makes goals so vital that you might want to track them.

First of all, you don’t have all the time in the world.

In your given 24 hours, you:

• sleep some
• eat some
• commute some
• relax some
• work some

Not even the coolest productivity genius is all work all the time.

Mainly because they know that taking breaks is incredible for their productivity too.

With the few hours you have left to invest in your goals, you have to be able to get the most out of them.

You probably have a lot more on your plate that you’d like too. Both professionally and personally speaking.

Again, I have to remind you that multitasking is a no-no when it comes to productivity.

So what to do when there seems to be way too little time for so much to do?

The answer is setting goals to become more productive!

While skipping classes with your classmates can help you develop your social skills, it’ll force you to cram. And its worst side-effect is stress.

Going back to the list one more time, eating breakfast and burning calories seem to be much more productive goals, don’t you think?

To manage your time efficiently, you want to make sure you’re tracking all your goals.

And there’s no tool better than Evernote for that.

How to track goals with Evernote

Using the example of “burning some calories at the gym.”

I like this one because it was my personal motivation to get out of bed many times.

For almost two years straight, I did cardio sessions in the morning before starting my day in the office.

I’m not a morning person, and that wasn’t an easy task for me in the beginning.

But I had the goal of improving my physique to take part in Bikini competitions. So, I had to start leaving bed much earlier than necessary to train.

Sometimes, “burning calories” was the extra motivation I needed to accomplish my primary goal: becoming stage-ready.

I always aimed for the next competition (main goal due date). Based on it, I broke down all the tasks that I had to do until showtime.

Just to give you an idea of how I used to plan my days, weeks, and months, check these two templates I created to track my goals with Evernote.

Goals dump list template

What I love the most about Evernote is that I have it with me everywhere, all the time!

If I need to check my progress, I just open it on my MacBook, iPhone, or iPad.

Then, I can check incoming due dates, add/remove items, and organize my calendar.

On this template, as the name implies, I just dumped everything I would love to do or accomplish.

In this example, I included the choices and changes I made after being diagnosed with brain tumor.

Yes, sometimes Life gets in the way and we have to find a workaround and keep moving.

The numbers 1, 2, and 3 correspond to the priority levels of each goal.

I updated some as my focus changed.

For the sake of the example, I changed the text format to strikethrough, but you can simply move the mark from one column to another.

The last column contains a link to the note in Evernote where I break down my main goal into small steps.

You don’t want to put too much information in this overview to avoid losing focus.

Goal-tracking template

On this second note is where things get serious!

First of all, you HAVE TO set a due date!

Use Evernote’s reminder to remember your next milestone (for example, ordering Bikini).

Remember to update it regularly.

I prefer to organize my to-do’s into Main and Sub-Tasks.

Whether you use two columns, like I did, or go for a color-coding, it’s up to you.

As long as it makes sense, go for it.

Use the checkboxes to mark your progress.

Once you have been through a step, you don’t need to think about it again. Just focus on the following one.

Share your overview with your accountability partner(s).

You increase your chances of success by talking about your goals with supportive, like-minded people. But instead of spamming each other back and forth, just share your note with them.

It’s a much more efficient way of communicating and excellent for follow-up.

Why you have to start tracking your goals

Think of all the things you have to keep in mind, follow up, and remember.

Now, think again, because you probably missed half of them.

Our brain isn’t wired to track the huge amount of information we have access to.

What happens then?

We forget things!

And we forget first the things that matter the most: our goals.

When you don’t focus on your goals, you limit yourself to surviving instead of living.

You get caught up in busYness.

How to achieve your dreams by tracking your goals with @evernote. #EvernoteCommunity #mentor #coach Click To Tweet

Just going through the day without an objective is hard and frustrating.

It makes you feel overwhelmed and unfulfilled.

Besides, you waste precious time and aren’t productive.

But with Evernote, you can easily track your goals.

You don’t have to burn yourself up when there’s such a user-friendly tool out there, FOR FREE.

Today, start by:

• Making a list of your goals.
• Breaking them your goals down into smaller tasks.
• Setting deadlines and milestones.
• Committing to yourself and your goals.
• Finding an accountability partner.
• Starting to track your progress.
• Going get them!!!

And if you don’t have Evernote yet, learn more about their various plans here.

I’m sure you’ll love the Elephant just like I do. Don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

 

Before you go

Can you answer the following question in the comments below, please?

How do you keep track of your goals?

Disclaimer: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. However, when you order through my link, it helps me to continue to offer you lots of free stuff. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. Thank you, in advance for your support!