Tools, Techniques, and Tips on Goal-Setting

In my post last night I mentioned a gadget for your Google Homepage which allows you to view your progress toward your goals using "Joe's Goals", a site designed to help you track just that. I know that, at this time of year, a lot of people think about goal setting and goal achieving. To that end, I thought I would share with you some of the resources and tools I've found online and off which can help us achieve those goals. After all you don't want to be one of the 94.6% of the population who gives up on their New Years resolutions by the end of February, right? And You certainly don't want to be among the 76.4% of us who make up statistics on the spot!

So what follows (in no particular order) are some of my favorite (goal) things:

• Joe's Goals -- A free site which allows you to track your progress in achieving whatever goals you might specify. You can assign different point values for each goal (even negative point for those behaviors you wish to avoid). If you go too long without recording anything, the site will send out a friendly reminder.
• "Success Principles" by Jack Canfield -- I wrote about this one before. It's a great compilation of all of the rules to follow to uncover your goals and then how to achieve them.
• Lifehack.org -- A compilation website/blog which gathers information about how to make life easier in any number of ways, from concepts in goal setting to how to get inexpensive airline flights. They gather stuff from all over the Web so you don't have to.
• "Getting Things Done" by David Allen -- I've just started into this book, but already it has helped me to clear up the clutter in my life. This frees up my mind to focus on the important things.
• My MP3 player -- I use a Creative Zen Vision:M, but any portable digital audio device will do. I can listen to any of a number of great audio programs which help me by either teaching me something new, or by giving me encouragement in whatever I'm attempting. All this while I take a nice walk around the neighborhood.
• My (somewhat) smart phone -- I have an LG enV (or something like that). As with the MP3 player, it gives me a chance to use some of those small pieces of time that we all have throughout the day. If I'm early to an appointment or the other person is late, I can take time to check email, read blogs, or even just snap a few pictures of what's going on around me.

I'll undoubtedly uncover more helpful tools and resources in the future. I'll let you know if I discover anything momentous.

What sorts of tools have you found useful in achieving your goals?