An Example from The Language of Objectives Course
A Course on Writing Have-Done Lists
The Language of Objectives Courses teaches a writing and visualization technique that I call have-done lists. They replace to-do lists, they replace other goal-setting techniques; it’s an all-in-one method:
- Set a heading that looks like this: “Before the end of the day|week|morning|meeting|season, I’ll have”.
- Write objectives that start with a past participle verb (ie. Accomplished, Advanced on, Obtained, Finished, Made sure).
- Prioritize, re-order, indent, rewrite until each objective feels inevitable and important (this is a big area where the course comes in handy and where the gems are)
- Live out those objectives (it works).
They’ll come in handy if you’re struggling with seeing all the imperfect things around you and if you long for working on a bigger vision you’re constantly putting off to later.
The course is all done through email. Over 10 weeks, you’ll receive examples like the one found below — where you pretend to be the person, in this case Helen, a college student — in which have-done lists help resolve the situation. In each email, I also offer individual coaching (if you’d like) by asking you questions and responding to your responses with pertinent feedback.
So here’s a sample email sent on Wednesday in the course’s first week:
Helen’s Wednesday — The Language of Objectives Course
Happy Wednesday!
Today’s questions. Since they’re related to the past, I encourage you to answer them before reading today’s email (and maybe some new ideas will come up when reading the email, so you can add to your response afterwards):
Question 1: How did it go with your list from Monday? How much of what you visualized in your objectives actually occurred? As the day progressed, did you have to make some adjustments that surprised you in some way?
Question 2: What has been on your wish list of things to do, but gets constantly pushed for later (and it bugs you that it does?). Share only if you feel comfortable sharing, but I invite you to answer the question on your own regardless.
Let’s continue pretending you’re in Helen’s situation
After a few days of doing these daily have-done lists, you feel like you’re pulled in different directions.
You get stuff done on a daily basis (well, the exercise only got done once), but there’s something else: time is running out and there are many things to do.
There are the exam deadlines coming, the group project to finish, there’s this trip that needs to get planned, and you’re feeling guilty of not spending time with your friends and your parents.
Plus, your courses are giving you so many ideas of neat things to do, and the urge keeps gnawing at you to spend time thinking of ways to apply those ideas.
So you write down those concerns.
What to do about all this?
A daily have-done list won’t cut it. These things are in a bigger timeframe. Which timeframe to pick?
What will be the timeline for which you’ll visualize a success? The end of the week? The end of the month? Those seem arbitrary.
Let’s make an inventory of your next big deadlines:
Ah yes, well it looks like the start of the exams is the next timeline you can push towards. It’s a good vantage point from which to imagine a collection of achievements that you’re celebrating.
What will you have done before the start of the exams?
Let’s put them in order, since some of these are big deals and might conflict for your attention.
Let’s pretend you’re at the start of the exam period, and you’re feeling really good about yourself because you aced the essential things. What are those essential things?
Yes, it does feel like your own urge to think about those new ideas will get pushed to the last thing. But everything else is more crucial anyway, and you’ll feel great about yourself if you ace these objectives in that order (not necessarily in that sequence, but by having respected their relative importance, their relative cruciality).
Some of these needs to be defined a little more.
What does it mean to have “Spent more time with your friends and your parents”? How much time is that? Is that really what you want to do? You feel guilty that you’re not spending time with them, but what exactly will you be celebrating you’ll have done by the time the exams start. You are, after all, in an important period where your time is limited.
That’s more like it. Frequent attention is what you can give, and that’s what’s important.
But now there’s this trip planning. Is that only your responsibility? Is it a group effort? Why are you planning this trip anyway? It’s because unless you finalize those details now, there’s a chance everything will be booked. And this is about spending some good quality time after the exams are done and before summer jobs start.
So this trip planning isn’t competing with time spent with friends, it’s all the related to connecting with your friends.
That feels just right. You’ll have connected with your friends and your parents. And to do that, you’ll have tended to the most pressing item: the trip. You’ll also have given your frequent attention to your friends and your parents, and helped out Isabelle who’s going through a rough patch.
Now, are you going to ever get to that last objective before the exams? Will you ever get to allow yourself to think of those interesting ideas you have? There might be a way to work it into your daily goals, as a treat, as something you look forward to each day.
Doesn’t this list of objectives feel a little obvious by now? Doesn’t it feel a little inevitable? With the important stuff at the top and a treat to look forward to each day, plus your cares about your friends and your parents getting addressed, the list is structured in such a way that each item will naturally help the accomplishment of the other items down the list.
Here’s the final list.
Your turn:
I’ll review your answers around 4:30pm (EST).
Question 1: How did it go with your list from Monday? How much of what you visualized in your objectives actually occurred? As the day progressed, did you have to make some adjustments that surprised you in some way?
Question 2: What has been on your wish list of things to do, but gets constantly pushed for later (and it bugs you that it does?). Share only if you feel comfortable sharing, but I invite you to answer the question on your own regardless.
Next example: Monday
We’ll take up someone else’s situation next Monday, that of a young professional.
Enjoy the rest of the week,
Pascal
See how Helen was struggling with many small concerns pulling in different directions? And finally, she found a way to program objectives that feel inevitable? That’s what it’s all about.
There’s a new cohort for the course every 5 weeks. To be notified when the next cohort starts, learn more about The Language of Objectives Course here.
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