Matt Ragland breaks down his ACE framework for goal-setting: Awareness of how you spend time, Clarity on specific goals and habits, and Execution through consistent action. He uses bullet journaling to track progress and mental health throughout the process.
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Hi everyone, my name is Matt, and welcome to another Bullet Journal productivity video. In this episode, I'm really excited to share with you my ACE framework for goal setting and achievement. And the reason that I like this so much is it's really simple. It's something you can always use to like kind of come back and measure how am I doing, what am I thinking about, what kind time do I have available? And it allows you to really see in a quick way what you could be doing a little bit better, what you could be doing differently, and what you need to keep doing. So let me tell you what ACE stands for. It stands for Awareness, Clarity, and Execution. Before we go any further in explaining and outlining the ACE framework, I want to tell you that I'm doing a private training webinar exactly for this and how to set up your goals and systems, your planning, everything for the new year. So I'm doing this training this week, November 14th and 15th. There are two times, two days. You can sign up for either one. It's totally free. There's going to be bonuses. There's going to be a download. You're going to get a ton out of it, and there will be a replay. You just, you do have to register if you want to get the replay. So even if you can't make the main times, Make sure you register and I'll send you the replay afterwards. So I'm really excited to share that with you. The link to sign up is in the description below, so make sure you check that out. I'm also going to be talking with you about the productivity and journaling program that I have coming out, and that is all going to be Thursday and Friday, so make sure you check that out. You're going to love it. All right, so let's talk a little bit more about the ACE Framework. And the reason that I have liked using this, because as I kept on bullet journaling and just, you know, journaling for self-awareness and like, you know, mental health really, I realized that everything that I was doing with bullet journaling and everything that I would read about like productivity or time management really kind of boiled down to these 3 things and this ACE method. Because when you think about it, the awareness piece of this Am I aware of the time that I have available to do new things, to do the things that are expected of me? Once you have an awareness of the time available and the things that you're expected to do, the things that you want to do, that really changes some things. Because if we have an awareness of it, then hopefully we can have some courage in order to better prioritize or communicate that like, hey, this is what I can do, this is the time that I have available. So that A standing for awareness is incredibly important. And that's something that we have used time tracking for in the past. Time tracking can be really useful for raising your awareness of the amount of time that you have available for the things that you want to be doing. The C in the ACE framework is for clarity, because once you have an awareness of the time that you have available and the responsibilities that you're committed to, then you can create a lot of clarity over the goals that you want to achieve, the systems and habits that you need to put into place in order to achieve them, and the tasks that will build over time to lead to achievement and lead to success and lead to consistent success through, like, goal setting, systems, and habits. Clarity is really important because when you have an understanding of what needs to be done coupled with the time that you have available to do it, it's an incredibly powerful and important way for you to combine those two things and go on to the next stage of the ACE framework, which is execution. Because tell me if you've experienced this before. I know I have, and a lot of people that I've worked with and coached have experienced this as well. You have an awareness of the time that you have available, you have clarity on what you want to be doing or should be doing, and the task, you know, you have like a whole list of tasks. But actually getting to the execution stage and actually like staying focused, removing distractions, being able to commit to that time and that task over a long period of time, that is something that a lot of people have trouble with. And even if you're really good at it once, like, you'll continue to stay pretty good at it. But it's something you have to continually practice, at least that's what I've experienced. And a lot of the people that I've coached have also experienced is that you can have an awareness like, okay, I know that I have time available from 8 to 9 AM in the morning or 9 to 10 PM in the evening. I have clarity on the type of goal that I want, and I know what tasks I have to do to, to actually like make that happen. But the execution, the actually doing it and continuing to execute and stay focused and remove distractions and like review and preview and do all of the things that lead to consistent consistent success, something that is really attainable, I believe, for everyone to continually look back and make sure that you're executing on the goals that you have clarity about in the amount of time that you're aware that you have available. So in a nutshell, that is the ACE framework that I believe you can use going into 2020. Am I aware of the time that I have available? Am I clear on the goals and tasks that it takes to do it? And then how can I execute and stay focused over a long period of time in order to reach my goals and be able to continue to scale them up or shift my attention into something else? Remember, there is a live full hour of training that I'm doing on this, and there's going to be a webinar, there's going to be a slide deck, there's going to be downloads and bonuses and like everything, everything that you'd want, PDFs, printables, all that stuff. I'm going to have for this live training, November 14th and 15th, Thursday and Friday. Make sure you click the link in the description below to know more about it. Get signed up. Even if you can't attend one of the live sessions, there will be a replay that goes out that you'll be able to watch and, you know, have for future training reference, all of those things. I hope that you can join us. I hope that you can, you know, watch and follow along. Thank you so much for being a subscriber. If you're not a subscriber, still love you, but I would love it also if you subscribed because I think you would really enjoy it here. If you've made it to the end of this video, then you probably will like all of the other videos that I have, and the community that is in the comments is just a wonderful bunch of people. So thanks everyone for helping this grow. Thank you for being so amazing. I am really excited going into 2020 for the type of things that we can do together for some of the fun stuff that, and videos that I have planned. So make sure that you sign up for the training if you're interested in that. And I can't wait to, can't wait to see so many people live on Thursday and Friday. So hope to see you there. And I will also be back with another video very soon. New year coming, new you, all of the tag words, all the buzzwords. We're going to help you get there. And I hope you have a great day. All right, bye. That was crazy. That was maybe a little too much energy, Matt. I don't know if you're still watching this in the comments, you know, the end cards and stuff here. Energy Matt, what do you think about energy Matt with this shirt? I love it. Excellence is not an act but a habit. Shout out to Levi Allen. All right everybody, see ya.
