Previously I wrote about how to simply track your goals using a check-off grid to ensure that you meet daily targets. I have also discovered a unique way of doing the same thing, but with a little creative flair behind it.

In the dim and distant past, I was given a set of “magnetic poetry” as a gift and whilst I graciously thanked the gift giver, I have to divulge that this is probably one of the more useless gifts I have been given. I am not known for collecting chotzke possessions, above and beyond a few sentimental pieces. I am grateful for all gifts I receive, but sometimes I just do not know what the gift afterwards.

So this magnetic poetry gift remained in my desk drawer for the longest time, because I did not want to throw it out, as it had been given as a gift with some thought behind it – “You like Scrabble and word puzzles, so I bought you this!” – but I also did not want to retain the gift any longer, as I had no particular interest in using it.

I have found a creative use for it finally.

My magnetic poetry check-off grid is a regular kind of check-off grid, but I have constructed this one with a metal backing from an old serving tray, that allows the magnetic words to stick to the grid.

I still use the check-off grid like I regularly do but instead of a coloured marker completing each day I use words instead. I try to make an interesting message or something inspirational that applies to the goal I am reaching. Most of the time I am just putting up utterly nonsense doggerel. But it is fun to interact with and makes the focus on the goal more visceral.

If you have the time and parts available to you, you might want to try making your own magnetic poetry check-off grid.

Again, the chaos of a jumble of words around the outside edge of the check-off grid pushes our basic psychological buttons to create order out of chaos. Plus there is still the motivator of filling in all of those empty boxes.

I transferred some of my current monthly grids to the new magnetic grids to see how effective it would be and was pleased with the results.

Now I have to caution visitors who make use of the bathroom, that they are not to tamper with the check-off grids. I have had one person remove words – in effect my checked off days – from one grid and move the words to a completely unrelated grid because “the sentence scanned better.”

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I have personal milestones I am attempting to reach with this blog in terms of number of posts and number of words. I have just reached my first one with 50 (actually 54 now) published posts and 100,000 published words, numbers that I currently have mixed feelings about.

I intended to reach this milestone in the last week of April but fell short by about 12 days, meaning that I missed my target by about 10%.

The milestones I have set for myself deal, at this time, only with the amount of material created for the website. As the amount of articles published approaches a more respectable number that increases the readership, I intend to change my focus so that I am concentrating on reaching milestones that make the blog more approachable to the target audience.

My next milestone is 100 published articles and 250,000 published words which I am intending to reach by the end of July. By the time I reach that particular word count I suspect I will have more than 100 articles published here. The milestone after that is 250 articles and 500,000 words which should be the end of the year.

Notice how my milestones are growing further apart? I am using the small milestones up front to set the direction and using the milestones later on to ensure I am still reaching my performance goals. As the milestones become further apart, I will not have to obsess over the goal quite so much and that will free up mental bandwidth to concentrate on other variables that will matter more, such as audience size and topic focus.

This moving apart of milestones is actually a very useful technique if you have different areas that need to be focused on over the full life cycle of a project. You do not need to spend time at the beginning of a project being concerned with development that cannot be planned until you have the proper information, or at least more information, and you cannot obtain that information without first working on the project.

The moving milestone tracking allows you to utilise the Ready, Fire, Aim! approach, pick a direction, pick some variables to measure, then get going. Gain some traction, change, but only by a small amount, those things you are measuring, adjust your course, and move forward again. Rinse and repeat until you have enough concrete information to determine that what you are doing is working.

I hope you will be here to cheer (or boo) me past my next milestone, but until that time, keep an eye on the word count in the top right of the website title area.

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