This is exactly what I wanted to add. I have BHAG goals for each environment of my life. It would be totally awesome if I could put them all into the Simpleology structure. Massive Please

Multiple short, medium and long-term focus would be a great addition (in my humble opinion).

I know there is a great reason to have just ONE target (focus), and to have MULTIPLE targets (we are normally not just doing one thing in life).

I suggest we have a PRE-DEFINED NUMBER (say 4?) targets

Some people may use them for personal and work targets, others may use them for work / health / relationships / financial targets - each person may use them any way they like.

So allowing a pre-defined (not unlimited number) number of targets will make this feature much more powerful.

Garth Bradley commented · Just Now · Delete
I would want them segmented into 4 categories with each having short, medium and long term options.

I’d want to be able to define short, medium & long term major focus areas across these 4 areas:
Body / Physical
Being / Spiritual
Balance / Relationships
Business / Money

For me this is one of the most useful improvements. As there are major focus of different areas of our life: short, medium and long term. I have a daily work where I need to make sure I keep focus on a specific target per time frame but then I try to use part of the time of my day to carry forward projects outside my daily job and I really need to split focus for the different objectives.
this is really a key improvement in the tool

For those who want to limit their focus they can always do that by choice if Simpleology allows more Major Focus targets.

For those who find themselves, by necessity, juggling multiple focuses - e.g. working a job, raising a family, in part-time education, and being self-employed / starting a new business (many people are doing this) - we need a tool to help us, Simpleology can be improved to be able to adapt to this. Sometimes laser focus on just one thing is a luxury. Ultimately, we all want to get to a place where we can narrow our focus to fewer things but that isn't always the position we start out in. We need help getting there and Simpleology can provide this help. At the moment, the realistic position many people find themselves in isn't catered for in the Major Focus module.

As I said before, if this option is given, strong advice can also be given to counteract any tendency to abuse it.

However, the Project module goes along way to cover these requirements to the extent that I now use it often and the Major Focus module rarely.

1st - Let me agree with Eric - The Backward Planner needs to be more tightly integrated with Daily targets. Rather than brainstorm everyday what I'm going to do to achieve my major focus, I would like to be able to select a target from my backward planning list. :)

I do not think that we need to have multiple categories or classifications for our major focus areas.

These things are all interrelated and I believe the way the Major Focus Areas are currently broken down does address this - Having, Being, Doing - we can truly only do 1 thing at a time.

By truly defining our goals with great detail, I think you'll find that there is so much overlap between personal, financial, relationship, etc., that trying to segment them will only get you even more confused and unable to focus on any single goal.

Let's say that I want to take an anniversary vacation with my husband - this will have targets that cross many "categories" - financial, relationships, personal - but it falls squarely in the "doing" section that already exists.

Let's say that I want to become a personal trainer. Again, it crosses many "categories" there will once again be targets in personal, financial, and maybe even relationships because this will affect my relationships.

This becomes truly clear when you really start focusing on the "Why" as much as the what...

IMHO... :)

I strongly believe in the power of focus. It is important to have only 1 "Primary" continuum of goals so that you know where your priorities lie. However, it is also true that there are multiple areas of improvement in a persons life. I don't believe that having multiple focuses should be arranged "categorically" but rather "Hierarchically". Instead of different categories like personal, business, relationships, etc. it should be "Primary", "Secondary", and "Tertiary". This allows us to have multiple goals without removing the importance of our main goal and without the limitations of "Labels" because not everyone will have the same categories. One of the main themes of this company is the impact of focus. Doing this will allow us to diversify and expand our goal setting without diluting our personal "Prime Directive". I love simpleology's attitude toward change but I would not like to see a change come at the price of its core principles. Thank you for your time and integrity. Keep up the excellent work and have a nice day.

My vote for this is quite simple, I want to use simpleology for business and personal use. Each area has its short to long term aims. In the current system I am not able to, for example, lose 1% body fat in a month (personal) and implement a maketing strategy over the next four weeks (business).

It may have already been said. However, the backward planner needs to be integrated into the major focus and also, we should be able to apply the steps from the backward planner into the daily targets. It seems that I should be able to start my day at the major focus area and apply with a button the tasks needed to accomplish the major focus right into the daily targets. Right now it feels like the two are completely different areas and not working together. Am I missing something? That beautiful menu on each item in the daily target should be everywhere like on the lists and backward planner items. Thank you

I agree goals should be limited and I understand limited to one. My biggest problem is focusing on one goal. I was able to narrow it down to as few as possible. I can focus on one goal on one day but to maintain my health I was able to narrow it down to 4 for a balanced life.

I have a quadrant:
Relationships (example: family, social),
Work (example: project, promotion, money) ,
Financial ( example: work 5 year goal or home finances),
Health (health and nutrition, exercise, fitness activities)

I am surprised that setting a focus (long medium short) erases older ones which where long working to define.

I believe one of the keys to achievement in life is having goals. Short term, medium, and long term. The issue has always been how do you manage these goals and make sure you are doing the little things everyday that lead up to their achievement in the time frame you have set for them. I have to believe that only having one goal in each time frame is limiting, all of us are working on several areas of our lives with goals in each. Being able to see your goals consistently, track your progress in them is crucial. This is a huge topic and much larger than just having the ability to have multiple goals in each time frame. You have to have a system to manage and measure the progress, or why have them in the first place.

I agree with the post about projects. Without the ability to form project lists I almost can't use this program. That along with the ability to nominate a few long, medium and short term goals would be ideal. As many others stated, one goal at a time is unrealistic. I must focus on my long and short term financial goals as well as my fitness goals at the same time. I can't wait to get fit until my financial goals are met, etc. Please fix this - I love this program but really can't use it to organize my daily life yet.

I'm afraid I posted my suggestion before I saw this suggestion. I think mine is kinda in line with this. See Below.

"Stuff I Want" is great... but I'd personally love it if goals were specifically categorized according to more specific areas of life:
*Health, Wellness, and Fitness (e.g. mental, physical, spiritual)
*Pastimes and Recreational (e.g. vacay, sports, hobbies)
*Career (including education and vocation)
*Charitible Contributions (e.g. tithes, charities, etc)
*Financial (e.g. income, investments, etc.)
*Relationship (e.g. with love partner, family, friends, in the workplace)
*Personal (e.g. Stuff I want to have... Things I want to do... Who I want to be)

When planning my goals, I think this will make it easier to list the goals in specific categories. That way, I can specifically zoom in on particular categories when I'm ready to improve that area of my life.

Implement this as stated below by Mark Jones.
Add a toggle to include or hide a particular focus from start my day.
This allows people to capture their focus areas with an associated plan but choose whether to have them all visible or just a subset visible during start my day. This caters to different styles of working. I need to see it all before I am comfortable I have selected the right things to do today. If items are hidden away in lists not visible I just worry I have missed something and/or important things get lost.

Others find this way distracting and need to only make visible what they want to focus on now - they drown if too much is on the page.

This implementation caters to both types.

How about doing it this way: Give us the ability to add a new Focus up to any amount but then also the ability to categorise the focus as Short, Medium or Long Term.

This could be done in the following way:

1) The Major Focus screen can stay the same but at the top, provide a "Add new focus" button.

2) When this button is clicked, an overlay screen pops up with a generic New Focus form where we add the focus details.

3) On this screen will also be a drop down box with a label "Choose focus type" allowing us to select between "Short Term", "Medium Term", or "Long Term" types.

4) The user selects the required focus type and clicks a save button. The overlay window disappears and the new Focus is added to the other Focus tabs.

5) Focus tabs are arranged in order with Short Term Focus tabs on the left, Medium Term Focus tabs in the middle, and Long Term Focus tabs on the right (maybe colour coded for each type). Screen space might require the ability to navigate through pages of Focus tabs left or right.

Perhaps there should also be a warning when adding a focus over a certain amount, not to add too many Focuses and thus (ironically) actually losing focus. I probably wouldn't want to add more than three of each type but perhaps some hard-limits thereabouts may also be in order for either technical or philosophical reasons.

Would any object or agree to this approach?

Larry, you must have been reading my mind... We need to ability to categorize long term, medium term and short term in different categories as you have stated.

I posted something very similar earlier in 2011 here:

https://simpleology.uservoice.com/forums/106391-simpleology/suggestions/1587085-optional-advanced-dtp-for-those-who-manage-sever

but I am transferring my votes to this idea as it seems to have gained more traction.

It is pretty much the same idea but in mine I go more into my rationale for having this feature.

To admin: I think the votes for both ideas should be combined when considering whether to prioritize this.

I look at the targets as goals in my life. Something significant outside the daily routines I want to achieve. Daily stuff that requires a bit more action/attention are projects to me.

Sadly theres no project management in Simpleology.

I would like to keep the Targets, but the really should implement Projects! have posted about that. Look at other apps and programs, most of them have projects, but not the Target or goalsetting thinking as Simpleology.

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I totally agree with your comments and I personally find it frustrating to only be able to nominate one short/medium/long them goal at the time.
I think being able to have one goal for each area of life would be more useful.
The drawback could be that having too many goals visible in Simpleology might distract us and make us lose focus. I am talking from the perspective of the science behind Simpleology...

I personally would love to have this feature offered!