How to achieve goals? - Go for a Road Map!

It's already been 3 months - a full quarter of this year! So how are your resolutions and goals going? How many new things have you started? How many of them are already given up? How many of them are slacking?
What does this Q1(Quarter 1) results reflect? Do you see your goals achieved at the end of this year based on these results?
Are you balancing the juggling of several things? Have you been staying on track in every aspect of life - health, family, career, etc? Or have you been neglecting health/family for career? Or neglecting career for trivial things?

Road Map for Goals

This is why you need a road map! If you have ever worked in a software project, you will know how a project is completed.

Relevant:

Facebook doesn't go delivering pizzas to people(it only spies on what pizza you eat), Uber doesn't show you the photos of it's other customers, Youtube can't book a ride for you - you get the point. They do what they do - what they are meant to do and what they are best at doing.

Often it happens that we tend to get influenced by our peers who are doing this cool fab thing - you may have no interest or skill whatsoever, but you now want to do it, because hey- your friend's doing it! Stay true to your passions. Become the best in those niches. It always helps in the long run even if your niche isn't as cool or profitable as your friends'.

Current Release:

We often overwhelm ourselves. We tend to have a zillion goals. We try to do everything in one day. We all behave like Lenka - "All I wanna be is everything- everything at once". Or like Elon Musk solving Mars colonization, electric cars, solar panels, hyperloop and flamethrowers - all at a time!

A product will always have a zillion things to be improved and another zillion new features to be added. We don't just simply start working on all of them. We build a road map - we categorize those infinite things - we pick the highest priority or highest valued ones and pick them for now - the current release- current year. All you burned out people, you gotta realize that we only have 24 hrs and you gotta rest your body at least a few hours.

Big Picture:

First comes the analysis. We don't go to the minute level of analysis- We only deal with the big picture. Is this feasible, What are the best ways to achieve this,  Pros and cons of each, Challenges we may face, mentoring, training and KT(Knowledge transfer) needed, etc. This is what sets the base and pace for the project.
Then comes the rough estimate or as my manager calls it - gut feel estimate - a quarter/an year etc.
Starting a project with no big picture often leads to quitting as we end up feeling lost in few days.

Chunks - quite specific:

We write a detailed Technical/Functional document with clear specific objectives.Then we break the huge monster to small monstrous chunks and then even more till they are tiny everyday chunks.We now give almost perfect estimates by carefully considering every detail and accounting for the worst case situations.
Any vague goals like - for example, "being financially secure" is never measurable. Anything that can't be measured can't be managed and improved.(Damn, I sound like my manager). How much money is exactly "financially secure"? Is it 1 Million? By when? What's this month's target in that case? You can't just simply say "I need 1 million by the end of this year". You gotta break it down to everyday level. That's 2740 approximately everyday to be earned!

Reach out:

If you have been part of the "Agile" model,you will know how if you get blocked,it immediately becomes the priority and you are supposed to reach out to the scrum master so that he/she can find someone who can help you and get you un-blocked.
If only we can reach out more for help by keeping our hesitations and ego aside when we are blocked at something in life, we could achieve much more! Get a mentor, find an expert who has already achieved your goal. Let them be the beacon you can reach out to when you are in the dark.(God, I need to stop these cliched quotes).

Streak:

Streak is a pretty important thing. If you have ever used Duolingo, you know the pain you feel when you miss it one day and Duolingo mercilessly resets your streak to zero - even if it was 363 days previously. It's highly suggested to mark your goals on a calendar to see your streak and get going. But it always happens that if we had a streak of 200 days and we missed it for one day, then we tend to neglect the goal altogether - cause the devil tells you that the damage is already done, just let go now. But please don't stop, remember why you started in the first place. Let this be the beginning of a new ultimate streak. Remember, the project doesn't stop when a developer goes on leave for a day - it must always be resumed and stops only when it's done and dusted.

Results:

You can't tell the same status to your manager everyday and assure him that you are giving your 100%. They only see the results - which is good in a way. Someone needs to see the overall progress and not the number of hours you are clocking in.

Sometimes we work so hard to achieve a goal that we get blinded to see anything else. We don't focus on the major thing - results. Sometimes we fail to see the big picture by getting involved too much in details. It's like "Now you see me, now you don't" or more like "The closer you look, the less you see". Unless we have a reality check periodically, we sway from our goals and deadlines.

The best tip about efforts and results would be the 80/20 goal - where you figure out the 80% efforts that only lead to 20% results and the 20% efforts that led to 80% results- You know what to focus on.

Feedback:

Testers see the code written by you with new eyes. That's how they see things(issues) which you are blind to.

We are always blinded in few things which can only be seen by another person. This person isn't as involved as you into all the details, but they know enough to act as a critic.

Also, the best critic is sometimes you. If you can review at the end of the day like Anand Tiwari from Go Goa Gone - "What did we see? What did we learn?", you can even fight zombies :D
(Comment below, if you got the reference).

Cost cutting:

What happens when your company doesn't achieve it's revenue goals? They start cost cutting - no annual budget for your team outings and all that.

If you experience temporary loss, don't just quit. Make necessary amendments and keep going.
Financial loss in your side hustle? Cut down those Friday pizzas.

Break and Repeat:

Take a break. Disconnect. Relax. Don't overwork your body. Recharge.

Repeat the cycle :)



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What's your road map for this year?