Brian Johnson breaks down product goals (12-month outcomes) versus process goals (daily habits that get you there). Pick three life domains, set one product goal per domain, then define three daily practices for each. His example: create 150 new notes in 2015 through morning time blocks and reading one page daily.
Questions this video answers
September 2 (recording year implied 2015 in context)
Create 150 new notes in 2015
He had done 105 notes and had 45 left
You're nine times more likely to achieve what you want if you write down your goals
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one is on product versus process. It's inspired by executive toughness by Dr. Jason Selk. This is my favorite idea from the book. There are a lot of good ideas in the book.
This one's huge.
So a lot of people wonder, well, okay, so I get the fact we don't want to emphasize outcome goals, but how do I really focus on process? And I think that Jason describes it beautifully. I'm excited to unpack it quickly here. So we just talked in the last episode about how important it is that we write down our goals, right? But not just our product goals, but also our process goals. So let's define our terms. A product goal is something that we can achieve in the next 12 months, right? Not necessarily guaranteed, but we can attain it in the next 12 months. The process goals are the things we're going to do daily such that these product goals become a natural byproduct of our hustle showing up day in and day out. Here's how he walks us through the basic idea. He says, first, identify the three primary domains of your life. Then identify product goal number one product goal in each of those domains. And I'm going to walk you through mine in a moment. And then you want to identify your process goals that are going to help you get this product goal. This again is the stuff that you're going to do daily. You want to identify three per product goal. So three domains that I want to optimize my life as an example. Think about your domains of your life as I go through this. And then you can fill in yours here. 1, 2, 2, 3. What are yours?
Boom, boom, boom.
Right? And then think about your number ones.
As I go through it.
Mine is, first one is creativity. I want to create powerfully. Second domain is my family. I want to optimize that continuously. And the third is my vitality, my connection to myself, my health, et cetera. Those are my three domains. So then what are my top product goals, my number one product goals for each of these things that I can attain in the next 12 months? Well, my number one for creativity is to create 150 new notes in 2015 plus 150, 2015. Now I'm recording this in September. September 2nd. This is, I've done 105, so I have 45 left in the next four months. That's my most important 12 month goal. Now it's only four months away, but that's the most important one for me, for my creativity. Right? Okay, that's Cool. What are the three process goals that I'm going to do on a daily basis to achieve this number one product goal? Well, my first one is my AM1 time block. I do it before I get onto the Internet. I do that seven days a week. I'll either read or work on a note for 60 to 120 minutes before I turn on the Internet. That's my AM1 time block. Remember, I talk about time blocks all the time. Number one power tool of time management. That's my first process goal. So every day I'm gonna look in and I'm gonna say, hey, did I do that? And if I do that seven days a week, 365 days a year, I have a good chance of achieving my product goals and achieving the bigger outcome goals that I wanna achieve in other aspects of my creativity and business. That's the first process goal. The second process goal is I do one more time block where I read, I write, or I teach. Now, I might do more than that, but that's my process goal. I'm going to do at least one more of these time blocks. Now I've got two of them and again, I'm going to do that. My target is seven days a week. Now, I don't work a whole lot on the weekend, but I can put in a couple hours of work easily. I do the first hour before the family gets up. I can do one more of reading or writing or whatever. That's my second process goal. The third one for me is to read at least one page. This is a mini habit idea, right? Remember, mini habits. If you don't go back and check that out, really cool stuff, a book and all the micro classes for it. Those are my three process goals. I have an AM one time block. I have another time block and I read one page a day. If I do these process goals, without exception, of course I'm not going to be perfect, but I'm going to go for it. I'm going to hit this product goal. I'm going to optimize my creativity. I'm going to hit some other goals that I have over the long run, right? And again, remember, if we want to have an ideal life long term, say five years out, that's a function of great days. And this is how you make process goals primary. You identify what you want to achieve and then you figure out what you have to do on a daily basis. Now, I'm not going to walk you through these I do in the note, but you can check out my other number ones here in my another 1, 2, 3. But what I want you to do is to take this and to think about yours. So what are your three domains that are most important to you? What's your number one product goal for each? And then what are the three things you're going to do on a daily basis such that your process goals are primary and these product goals are natural byproducts of you showing up day in and day out? It's a little longer one excited about this. We're going to keep on coming back.
To it, but there you go.
Product versus process. Hope you enjoyed and I hope you take the time to write this down. Remember the magic number. Nine times more likely to achieve what you want to achieve if you write down your goals. We want to write down both the product and the process. I look forward to sharing more and I look forward to relentlessly pursuing our greatness together.
Have an awesome day.
See ya.
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