{"id":11523,"date":"2017-01-13T12:21:19","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T12:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.intercom.com\/?p=11523"},"modified":"2025-01-07T16:13:20","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T16:13:20","slug":"goals-not-tasks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/goals-not-tasks\/","title":{"rendered":"To perform at your best, focus on goals not tasks"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am a big believer in setting goals.<\/p>\n

Throughout my career I\u2019ve learned that when I set myself goals and stick to them, my performance really improves. I\u2019ve also seen this in others that I\u2019ve worked with, time after time. I think there are two main reasons:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Goals force me to focus<\/strong>. Modern life is full of distractions, which kill productivity and impact, and goals are my way of avoiding distraction. When I inevitably get dragged into email or Slack, or start working on things reactively as they come up, having my goals in front of me brings me back to a place of focus and ruthless priority. It empowers me to say no to the many random things that come up. This hugely increases my impact because it means I\u2019m working on the most important things.<\/li>\n
  2. It forces competition \u2013 me against myself<\/strong>. I\u2019m a very competitive person, and without someone to compete against within my own job, and when my version of winning is played out over months and years, goals over a shorter timeframe allow me to compete against myself.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The level of impact you can have with hitting your goals is obviously dependent on setting good goals. I have a process with our directors where we each set weekly goals, and we also have a process across the product org where each individual contributor sets weekly goals. A common mistake we all make is that we slip into writing tasks instead of goals. This is bad.<\/p>\n

    “Goals are progress-oriented, not event-oriented. Because of this, goals tend to have much higher impact over time for people”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    So what\u2019s the difference? For me, there is one main thing: Goals are strategic and aspirational, whereas tasks are tactical and will likely happen anyway. Goals are progress-oriented, not event-oriented. Because of this, goals tend to have much higher impact over time for people. I have more tasks than I know what to do with, but addressing all these tasks would simply result in me being very busy, but having very low impact.<\/p>\n

    How to improve your goals<\/h2>\n

    Here are three examples of bad weekly goals, and alternatives:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Goal: Present the new approval process at the All Hands.<\/strong>
      \nThe All Hands is happening, and presenting at it might lead to little value to attendees. This is a task. A good goal gets at the longer term benefit of presenting. A better version might be: \u2018Ensure everyone in the team understands the new approval process by the end of the week\u2019. This is aspirational and extends beyond the task of presenting at the all hands.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        \n
      • Goal: Work with Julie on next steps for new onboarding design.
        \n<\/strong>What does it look like to hit this goal? Have a meeting, goal hit. This goal isn\u2019t progress oriented. It doesn\u2019t push everyone involved to focus on progress. A much better version would be something like: \u2018Next steps for new onboarding design approved by both Design and PM Directors\u2019. The approval is aspirational. It\u2019s going to require focus to make that happen.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
          \n
        • Goal: Interview for the open PM position.<\/strong>
          \nRunning an interview is a task. It\u2019s in your calendar. Someone is showing up. It\u2019s going to happen. A better goal might be \u2018Fill the PM position by end of the week or have a concrete plan for how we\u2019ll source more leads\u2019. Now we\u2019re aspirational. We\u2019re more long term. We\u2019ll need to get creative to come up with ways to hit the goal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Obsess about understanding the distinction between goals and tasks. Once you do, the critical thing to know is that goals won\u2019t get hit unless you set aside dedicated, focused time to work on them. Without dedicated time, you\u2019ll fill your day doing task after task. You won\u2019t make fast progress. You simply won\u2019t be a high impact individual at your company.<\/p>\n

          This is why, despite having a large team to manage and more meeting requests than you can imagine, I block out every morning of every day \u2013 almost half my available time \u2013 to work on my goals. I win \u2013\u00a0and Intercom wins \u2013 if I set goals not tasks, and hit them week after week after week.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Busily ticking off tasks will not get you where you want to go. To really make progress, focus on setting goals that are both strategic and aspirational.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":11525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"category":[5],"tags":[175,115,215],"coauthors":[358],"class_list":["post-11523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-product-and-design","tag-business","tag-company-culture","tag-productivity"],"yoast_head":"\nTo perform at your best, focus on goals not tasks - The Intercom Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Busily ticking off tasks will not get you where you want to go. 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