The If This Then That of Goal Setting
Why this year I’m adding a little logic (literally) to help me focus on what matters.
If this, then that is a fundamental principle of programming. It’s event-driven, conditional logic that states if a specific event happens, then react with a particular response. IFTTT, along with similar services, has brought this concept to non-programmers, allowing one to create “Recipes” by stitching together commonly used services. For example, update your Facebook photo, and IFTTT can be programmed to update your Twitter avatar with the same photo.
IFTTT in this context is a collection of life hacks — little ways to save time, be more productive or enrich one’s life. Besides, making IFTTT Recipes or using existing ones is just fun, rewarding and a little addictive.
With the new year upon us, I began to think about my goals and how to incorporate the idea of if this, then that. Goals are meaningless alone. They must be coupled with means and pathways to achieve them. Our means are often riddled with variables and our pathways are non-linear. The conditional logic — IFTTT if you will — can be applied to these means and pathways to help us pivot, make informed decisions and reach goals more quickly.
For example, imagine you intend to earn $250,000 by year’s end. The path is plotted by breaking up earnings by month. The growth is likely progressive — $5K in January, $7.5K in February, $10K in March, $15K in April, and so on.
To earn these amounts, strategies — our means — will need to be devised. If you earn a salary, strategies might include an annual raise, a promotion, bonuses and/or creating some form of passive income via a side project. If you’re an entrepreneur, perhaps it’s getting more clients, landing lucrative projects, releasing a new product or service, reaching a wider audience through better marketing, etc.
Once your goal is set, broken down into milestones, and coupled with the means you’ll deploy to reach each milestone, it needs to be routinely tracked. Did I hit my January goal of $5K? If I’m already into February and if I didn’t accomplish my January milestone, I have no time to re-adjust my strategies for February — therefore my entire forecast is off and I’ve just gotten started.
This method of goal setting and tracking is a bit maddening and deprives one of the feeling of control. It forces one to scramble to re-align expectations or devise new strategies quickly.
Introducing a bit of IFTTT helps bring order to the chaos.
Looking at my own situation, I have an amount I’d like to earn, but I’d also like 2015 to be one where I take on fewer clients and focus more on product development. With fewer clients, I can work more autonomously and travel more, another of my goals.
Recently, I wrote a book, I’m in the process of releasing a commercial WordPress plug-in, and have 2 other products on the market. I also run a digital product development firm in Chicago with my business partner Vicente. All of these entities have the potential to help me reach my goals, but those goals must coincide with focus. Spread too thin and I’m toast. Focus on the wrong thing and I may fall behind. IFTTT to the rescue.
With the book, I’ve begun to think about creating a companion online course. The book retails for $9.99, but a course could potentially be sold for $99, $299, $399 or more. This product is far more lucrative. At $299 I’d have to sell thirty books to one course buyer. Should I create the course? I think that depends on book sales. So my IFTTT logic could look like:
If book sales are XX by X then create course.
Alternatively,
If book sales average XX daily by X then create course.
I’ve been marketing the book and plan to do so more aggressively in 2015, so my logic is sound and based on the book’s popularity. If I don’t hit the benchmark, I don’t create the course.
In programming, IFTTT typically doesn’t stop there. You can add “or” and “and” clauses and introduce “else” and “else if” statements to create multiple levels of conditions. Perhaps the WordPress plug-in I created has more potential than I thought. My logic might then be:
If book sales are XX by X and WordPress plug-in earns less than $X then create course. Else, focus on marketing and enhancing WordPress plug-in.
This logic could be broken down into a simple decision tree chart which is plotted chronologically in parallel with income, such as:
This logic tree is applicable to nearly any set of goals. Where it lacks in linearity, it makes decision making clearer. Benchmarks and resulting actions based on outcomes are predetermined.
This logic is applicable to nearly anything lacking a non-linear path. Your Kickstarter campaign didn’t get funded but there was genuine interest in your product? Perhaps a funding or interest benchmark determines if you’ll continue to focus on that product or switch to something else.
Lots of ideas, initiatives and aspirations are great. But focus is truly what propels us to success. Entrepreneurs are cursed with ideas and we often get bored with our decisions. By tying clear benchmarks and resulting actions to our goals, we conceivably follow the right pathways.
This year I’m giving IFTTT logic a go. I’d love to see enhancements or different ways of designing this goal logic. If you’ve got an idea, reach out to me at davidpaulalbert.com.
