What gets measured gets done.

I had set out on an ambitious project. I was aiming to triple our organic article views on Apple News for the month of August. I picked just one metric to focus on because that gave me laser focus to work on just that. Nothing else mattered. 

This made it thrilling (and sometimes disheartening) to check our daily results. I broke down the ambitious goal into daily, measurable progress by simple deduction. Ie. If we need to be here by the end of the month, then we need at least X article views per day. We shared different types of articles (design, art, travel, food, recipes, business) every day, and this helped me see what types of content our readers resonated with the most. Having an end goal to run towards, I was now paying more attention to every factor that could impact whether I was going to get there. 

I also pulled someone one of our team members into the race with me, to bounce ideas off of and to keep me on track. I literally reported daily achievements to them to keep ME excited. I’ve written about this ‘performance buddy concept before, which I learned from the book “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy. Here again, I used it to help me stay accountable. 

What were the results after 1 month? We ended up at an increase of 2.8X our monthly article views. 

At the same time, we also 4X our number of articles shares and saves, 2X our user time on page, and 3X the number of new users. 

Even though we didn’t quite attain a 3X increase in our article views, I would say this is a classic case of “shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you will land among the stars.” In fact, it also helped to improve several other performance metrics along the way.

5 KEYS TO SETTING EFFECTIVE, ATTAINABLE GOALS

1. Make it a measurable BHAG. For those who don’t know what a BHAG is, it’s a “Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal”. In my opinion, goals other than those that fall in this category aren’t as fun to go after because they aren’t as challenging. 

   I had definitely set a stretch goal, but if it isn’t a stretch goal then I wouldn’t have required me to work extra hard to attain it; the process wouldn’t have been as fruitful, enjoyable, or as big of of a learning experience. 

2. FOCUS your goal. We have all experienced this in some shape or form. We want to do too many things at once, which usually ensures that we get none of it done. If I had said, I want to triple our article views...AND time on page AND number of new users by X then what would have happened? My attention would have been spread across too many things. Which likely would have meant mediocre results on multiple fronts. 

   What we often don’t notice is that even when we are focused on one element only, other elements will naturally improve to improve the singular element we are focusing on.

   Ok. Now again in plain English. 

   Runners focus on one element: time. 

   They train repeatedly to improve their running time, and the same holds true whether you are doing a 100-meter dash or a 50K marathon. Time is their singular focus. 

   However, through training for a better time, they are also improving their running posture, starting position, nutrition to enhance endurance and many other aspects that impact their unit of measurement. Even though they are focused on one thing, everything else is being improved to meet that goal. 

3. Give the goal a time limit. You need to set the finish line for a certain date to give your goal a sense of urgency. If I had just said, “let’s triple our views!“ but with no end in sight, my team wouldn’t know where the finish line is. Now, how fun would it be to run a race where there’s no finish line? You would just get a bunch of people asking you “are we there yet?!”

4. Don’t run the race alone. There are several reasons to get others invested in the race with you. 1/ they keep you accountable to your set goal — they are the ones to ask you what kind of progress you’ve made and 2/ they help you stay away from tunnel vision by being your sounding board for new ideas, to try different ways to get to your goal. In other words, they offer perspective. 

5. Celebrate like it’s a big deal. We all like watching or playing some sort of sport or team activity; what do teams do when they win big? They celebrate big? Basketball teams go on city parades, football teams pour buckets of ice on each other...so you should celebrate your big win in style. Maybe it’s not a citywide parade, but at least something you will highly-anticipate at the end of all your efforts.

So, before you embark on your next goal, make sure to review the list above to increase your chances of success! Good luck!