Product goals or process goals?
how the approach we take to goal-setting shapes our view of success
At the beginning of the year, I set a New Year’s Resolution to be less productive this year. It was a pretty unambitious New Year’s Resolution, but it has proven harder to do than you might think. For weeks, I braced against silence, solitude, and space because I had so many different project ideas that I wanted to tackle.
And yet . . .
Six months later, as I turn down project ideas and focus in on doing slower, more deliberate work, I find myself enjoying creative work again. I’m having fun writing, drawing, and making videos. It’s impacted my personal life, too. Over the last six months, I played with my kids in a way that was fully present. I wasn’t thinking of my to-do list. I wasn’t worrying about a deadline.
However, in those moments when I sat down to work on a sketchy video or a novel or a blog post, I became fully immersed in the process. I hit a state of flow, completely losing track of time. I contrast this to last year, when I hit moments when I was so focussed on completing creative projects that even some of the more enjoyable work became a grind. Now, with a looser schedule and a little more slack, I am back to that place where I am enjoying the creative process again.
It goes beyond simply doing less. A big part of it revolves around how I have been setting goals.
Process Goals or Product Goals?
In the past, I have focused almost entirely on product goals. These goals were outcome-based, with a strong emphasis on finishing specific tasks by specific dates. An example might be, “Write one chapter every three days” or “post four blog posts per week.” Just to clarify, these goals were not external. They weren’t based upon the success or failure of something I made. Instead, they were deeply internal.
These product-oriented goals worked on some level. I did a ton of stuff. However, there were a few problems I ran into. When I focused entirely on finishing a task, I didn’t enjoy the journey. Also, when a task took longer than anticipated, I would rush through another phase and the quality would diminish. Or worse, when I experienced unexpected interruptions, I found myself feeling irritated by the “unproductive” moments of life. Stare at the stars? There’s no time. I’ve got a chapter I promised myself I’d finish by tomorrow.
These product-oriented goals pushed success at all costs and now, stepping away from that, I am able to see what the cost actually was — namely, the enjoyment of creative work. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed making things. But I didn’t realize how anxious I had become in this drive to get things done until I changed my approach to goal-setting.
Somewhere around January, I switched to process-oriented goals. Instead of saying, “I’m going to run 25 miles this week,” I’m said, “I’m setting aside 40 minutes five days a week to go running.” If I run slower, fine. If I run faster, okay. If something comes up and I can’t get it done, that’s fine. It’s not about mileage. It’s about routine. Instead of saying, “I’m going to make two videos per week,” I’m saying, “I want to spend about a half an hour a day working on videos.” I had almost an entire month where the video I attempted simply bombed. However, because I hadn’t focused on the product, I was able to take risks and learn from the mistakes. The process didn’t feel wasted.
In other words, I’m being less disciplined about specific results and more disciplined about my schedule. Because I am doing fewer projects, I have more flexibility when urgent tasks come up and I have to change my plans. Moreover, I am able to work more leisurely on creative projects. There’s no pressure attached to it.
See, when I placed the journey above the destination, I discovered that my goals were not destinations at all. They had become habits. They were sacred rituals that enabled me to do the creative work that I love without thinking too hard about results.
Product Goals Still Matter
A little nuance here: I realize that there are times when deadlines are necessary. I understand that most projects require some kind of planning. There are times when specific tasks need to be finished, such as the syllabus for an upcoming course or the prep work for an upcoming keynote. In these moments, I still set product-oriented goals.
In other words, these two types of goals are actually complimentary. When I am doing long-term work with flexible deadlines, I am going to stick to process-oriented goals. However, there are moments when I have an exciting short-term project and I need to allow for a chaotic schedule where I throw myself into the project for a short time and passionately finish the tasks.
I have a hunch that when I work on my doctorate, I will follow the same process that my friend Luke did. I will lock myself in a room for a week and knock out an entire thesis just to keep a sense of consistency. But then I will take a few hours a day in the revision process and it will be more of a a process-oriented approach.
In the past, however, I had packed my schedule with these product-oriented goals and I set deadline-driven goals for every creative work I tackled. In the process, I failed to create the routines and habits that would allow me to thrive. Now, as I focus on process-oriented goals, I have the time and the space to occasionally take on a product-oriented goal and pursue a creative work quickly, with reckless abandon.
