As I mentioned in the previous post, Simple Goal Tracking Tools, I had come across one other online tool that was worth checking out, but it needed a much more in-depth look. The site is 42goals.com – and while the premise is very simple, the depth with which you can apply it is … very complete. My aim here isn’t to give you a complete and in-depth tutorial on how to use this, but rather a decent overview of the features so you can get a good idea on if it’s a tool you think you might be interested in using. I *may* get in to some more in-depth tutorial stuff at a later date.
At it’s most basic, 42 goals is a tracking tool. You tell it what you want to track, and it creates a basic grid. The items to track along the left side, with a column for each day in the week.
To start out with, you need a goal, and like I talked about in Simple Steps to Setting Goals you need performance goals to reach your outcome goals, and to really work your performance goals need to be measurable. If it’s measurable, you can track it, and that’s where a site like 42 Goals can help.
Let’s start out simple. One of my goals right now is to make it to the gym at least 3 days a week over the course of the next few months. So I create a free account at 42goals.com and add a goal called “gym”. Then for each day in the week that I go to the gym, I can check it of. Their grid system gives me a very simple visual of if I accomplished my goal for the week.
Say I want to start tracking a few more things. Like making sure I get at least 8 cups of water each day, that I take all my vitamins each day, and that I eat breakfast within 90min of waking up each day. No problem, just add more line items, and check them off as I do them.
Ok, great, but I know what you’re thinking. I could do the same thing in a spreadsheet, or on a piece of paper. Why use something like this instead? Well this is where 42 Goals kicks things up a notch. They’ve taken this simple concept and tweeked it just enough to make it very customizable.
To boil it down, you aren’t limited to simply “did I do this or not” type tracking. You can not only track if you did something, but you can keep track of specific aspects like “how many glasses of water did I drink”, “how many calciums did I take”, “how long did I ride the stationary bike”, and much more.
They do this by letting you pick from four different types of goals (with the premium you get a fifth type I’ll mention later):
On top of that they let you customize it in a few other ways as well, you can choose from about 19 different icons to give a visual representation to your goal, you can set some specific targets for your goals, and even look at stats related to each goal over time.
So I’ve modified my goals to track not just how much water, but how many cups. Not just did I take my vitamins, but how many calcium, multivitamin and vitamin D did I take, and still have the gym one in there. And since I can set a specific number for a daily goal on the far edge, here’s what my week looks like now.
A couple other things you may notice here… you can attach a note to a specific entry, like I did with Thursday gym goal. And at the far right you can set some weekly or monthly goal totals, then a simple bar graph charts your progress so you can view a basic trend to your activity.
All this can be done with a free account. You just have to register using a valid email address. However, if you upgrade to a premium account, you do get a couple of extras. When I contacted the folks over at 42 Goals to let them know I was planning on writing a review of their site they did supply me with a free, 1-year upgrade to their premium account.
So what do you get for a premium account? You get one additional goal type, the stopwatch. Here I’ve added an additional goal for keeping track of how many minutes I did either on the eliptical or stationary bike when I go to the gym.
The other feature you get with a premium account is you can sort your goals in to various tabs. This would let you organize your goals by type.. work versus exercise goals, or whatever. They give a lot of good examples and templates for things you can track in seven different categories, everything from what time you arrived or left work, to feeding your pet to brushing your teeth – along with some fun icons to go with them. Hopefully they’ll keep adding more, or maybe give you the chance to upload your own at some point.
One other thing I should point out is that they have a really nice mobile interface. I’m really glad they’ve gone this route rather than a dedicated app … this means you can access it from just about any newer smart-phone, tablet, whatever. When you log in from such a device you’ll get a screen like this:
Unfortunately it doesn’t look like you can make use of the timer feature, not even enter in a time. And you can’t make notes, so I’ll have to wait to get home from the gym to update that item, but other items are easily updated on the go.
Also worth mentioning is they are adding “social functions” where you can set up a profile page and list goals you wouldn’t mind making public, share with friends how you are doing and more. I haven’t had a chance to dive in to that part of things, so can’t say much more about them.
Now normally a premium account is going to run you $5 a month, or as they say “cheaper than: a bottle of beer, a pack of cigarettes, a fast food meal, a chocolate bar” – but they are running a special that they’ve told me will be valid at least until the end of January of getting your first year for just $20.
I dunno… I’m just starting to use this, but yea, I could see how this could help maintain some self-accountability, maybe help your motivation when it comes to tracking your goals, and really recommend you check it out soon, so you can jump on the premium account special if you think it’s something that will help you out too.
If you have checked it out, what are some of the goals you’re using it to track? Share in the comments!
Hi,
We’ve just launched a similar service, called YouChecks.
You can check it out:
http://www.YouChecks.com
Thanks and have a nice day.
Thanks, I’ll take a peek when I get a minute.