It’s harder to blow off your goals when you have something serious on the line. Tom has heard of some people who advocate giving a substantial check to a friend to deposit to a cause you hate, or sending a trusted friend a really embarrassing picture to publish should you fail in your goals. It’s the same strategy as runners who sign up for a race because, come race day, if they haven’t trained, they figure they will suffer. Personally, I like a little reward with my punishment, so we struck a bit of a balance.
Extra fun money for every week that we meet our weekly goals. Minus 5X that amount for every week we fail to do so. See that is a little “carrot”, and a little “stick”.
The goals change from week to week (failing to set them Sunday night constitutes failing at a goal for the week), but generally fall into a couple of different categories. Fitness is a big one for me. Computer and web projects are a big one for Tom. But, we do a bit of mixing and matching, and there are always more goals and projects than there is time. This seems, so far at least, to be keeping me focused and realistic.