Your favourite tags
As your library grows, you can add more of your favourite tags here to quickly access them from anywhere, anytime.
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💡 Here you'll find all progress goals that you've identified from your Insights. Once a progress goal achieved your desired Outcome, tick off the Success Checkbox.
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🎉 Look back at your wins and celebrate the progress goals that you've successfully used to attain your desired Outcome. Who knows, maybe these progress goals hold some lessons as to what works for you?
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💪🏼 Here are some insights that still need work - you've written them down, but they don't have an outcome goal connected yet. Tick the Currently working it out? checkbox to get any insight ready to be turned into an action and then jump to the section below.
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<aside> 💡 It's time to take your insights and turn them into actions. This section is designed to guide you through a process of introspection. Take a moment to reflect and answer them to increase the likelihood of sticking to your new resolutions.
The process is inspired by my approach to goals and systems (you can read more about it here). Don't like it? No worries, change questions to what works for you or skip them altogether.
If you have several insights, then I recommend going through the first one completely before turning to the second one. To do so, simply select the insight you'd like to work on by selecting the Currently working it out? checkbox.
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<aside> ❤️ What is it that drew you to this specific insight? Articulating your why will connect the required actions directly with the thing that ultimately motivates you (which makes it more likely that you commit to it).
For best results, don't stop after your first "Why". Go deeper and ask again: why does this answer matter to me? This is the famous 5-Why-Technique (as applied by the Toyota Motor Corporation) to avoid shallow answers and get to the root of the matter. The closer you get to the root of your motivation, the more precise the steps you can take to achieve it.
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<aside> ✨ Let's get a bit more specific. Which outcome would you like to achieve? This is your typical goal. The measurable, quantifiable thing that lets you know: You did it.
Second, who is the kind of person to achieve a goal like this? This is closely related to the Identity James Clear talks about in Atomic Habits. In a nutshell, we are more likely to do something that is aligned with how we see ourselves. You see yourself as a fit and healthy person? Picking up running just got a lot easier than if you see yourself as a couch potato.
That doesn't mean though that you shouldn't try to turn something into action that's not aligned with how you see yourself right now. It just means that you need to be wary that change will be a bit harder and that it's advisable to start with small, achievable steps instead of shooting for a field goal right away.
Ex.: you are a couch potato but want to start running? Don't commit to three 45 minute runs per week. Start small. Commit to 5 minutes of running as regularly (ideally daily) as possible.
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<aside> 🛡️ Next up: problem analysis. Turning your insight into action probably won't be as simple as flicking a switch. Naming potential pitfalls early on will greatly increase the likelihood that you'll be able to mitigate these risks.
But don't just stop there. Take a moment: what can you already to minimise this risk later on?
Ex.: one common risk is that we simply forget the good intention we had or let it fizzle out. To mitigate this, tell people around you about your plan. Create outside accountability, maybe even ask a friend to regularly check in with you.
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<aside> 🤝 You don't have to figure everything out on your own. Having a mentor or just in general someone who's a bit more experienced can n success and failure.
So who could you ask for help or advice? Has anyone done something similar like this? If you don't know anyone in your circle, consider posting on Reddit or Twitter to find some like-minded people who might be a step ahead in the journey and can share with you what worked for them.
Here's my Twitter in case you'd like to connect.
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<aside> 🎯 Finally, let's nail down the process to achieve your goal. This is all about creating the system that will carry you to your desired outcome.
Ex.: say you want to have a twitter audience (= desired outcome), because your insight was: my chances of serendipity increase massively if I break out of my small bubble and get to know more people. Your system, i.e. your daily / weekly process would be to post regularly. Quantify this and it turns into your process goal: 3 tweets per day or 21 tweets per week.
Remember, here's your desired outcome again:
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<aside> 💡 Great! You've worked out how to turn your insight into action and now it's time to actually do the thing you've committed to.
Public accountability is a great way to get started, so why not tweet about your plans? Tag me (@mfreihaendig) and I'll be sure to cheer you on 🎉
Also, you can tidy up the list of insights you're working on below to keep things tidy and less cluttered. Simply uncheck the box and it will disappear from this page.
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Optional: tagging
<aside> 💡 You've done the key steps to make sure that your insight is turned into action. If you want to use this template more like a Personal Knowledge Management System, you could now go ahead and also tag the insight depending on the topic related to it.
This is purely optional and while it increases the "library value" of your insight, it's likely to decrease the effectiveness of your commitment to action. After all, the more complex the upkeep for a system, the more likely we are to abandon it. Still, if you want to go ahead, here's where you would do so:
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