Take a square sheet of note paper and draw 4 boxes, one in each corner to represent the 4 goals you want to achieve today. As you complete each goal add a large tick in one of the boxes, any goals not completed at the end of the day get a large cross instead.
If you completed all your goals for the day then you get to choose what to do with the square of paper:
Add the completed square to a file of some kind in order to remind you of all the goals you’ve completed. I like the idea of stabbing it through one of those ‘nail on a board’ things they use in restaurants to store orders that have been served to customers.
Sticking the square to a wall until you build up a collection of them would work well too and as a bonus you’d probably benefit from the don’t break the chain productivity method in the process.
If you’re anything like me and don’t appreciate having a growing collection of bits of paper taking up space - even if they represent something positive - then you could destroy the square instead.
Ripping the square down the middle, scrunching it up in your first, then throwing it into the bin gives me great satisfaction so this is my preferred option.
One school of thought is that you should get rid of uncompleted squares as soon as possible as they represent failure, and seeing too much of that might make you believe that is all your capable of.
However, I love the idea of using uncompleted squares to your advantage by forcing yourself to keep hold of them for x number of days as punishment for not getting everything done. As someone who doesn’t like paperwork this gives me a real boost in motivation because I hate the idea of carrying around an unnecessary object, especially one that reminds me how I couldn’t be bothered to do some task a couple of weeks ago. I’ll put in extra effort to complete all the goals to avoid this consequence. And is that not how live works anyway? We have to face the consequences for for not completing our goals one way or the other so perhaps this strategy is a healthy reminder of that?
I read about this technique in 100 Ways To Motivate Yourself by Steve Chandler, it’s item 50 in the list titled “Get Down and Get Small”. Chandler is describing a concept in “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi” where goals are categorized as either small “process goals” or larger “outcome goals”. This technique is designed for the “process” type goals, small tasks which can can be completed within a day.
Chandler suggests you file each completed squares to build up a library of them and doesn’t mention what to do with uncompleted squares.