Lifehacker: Focussing goals

http://lifehacker.com/5912971/focus-your-ambitions-with-the-lifehacker-hierarchy-of-goals

THORIN KLOSOWSKI

Level 1: The Primary Goals

• Base of all other goals - one or two things you aspire to do before you die - that will truly matter to you in 20 years. 
• Everything above this bottom level should help you to one day complete these goals. 
• Should only have two or three high stakes goals

Level 2: Long Term Goals

• Major goals that are required to get to the primary goals. 
• E.g. Sustainable habits you need to form over the years 
• E.g. Achievements you want to reach

Level 3: Short Term Goals

• Weeks or months out. 
• Short term, not short-sighted. 
• What you can do now to make primary goal happen?

Level 4: Recurring Goals

• What you want to do daily/weekly/monthly regardless of what else is going on. 
• These aren't quite the same as short-term goals because they're to form a habit. 
• Ask yourself what you need to do on a daily basis to make that happen in the long run.

Level 5: Immediate Goals

• Goals and to-dos that you can and want to accomplish right this second. 
• Ever-changing but necessary part of pyramid - allows you to measure your daily duties to see how they have an affect on overall life goals. 
• Could be as simple as making a phone call. 
• How do they affect other aspects of the pyramid both positively and negatively?

Weed Out Junk and Accomplish Your Goals

• "Life consists of what you pay attention to" - you can structure your goals the same way.
• When you have too many goals conflicting with each other your attention is shifted too often. 
• Trim away junk goals to get things done and find an actionable path.
• The goal of the pyramid is to ensure that every aspect of your goals work together:
• Can see where your ideas fail and aren't coalescing.

1. Start at the bottom of your pyramid and draw lines up through goals that match each other. The line should move through each level and hit one or two different goals along the way.
2. Do this with all your goals moving upwards through the pyramid.
3. When you're done you'll probably have a few outliers scattered about. 
1. Ask yourself: Why do I want this? 
2. Does this relate to anything else I want? 
3. If you don't have a good answer, cut them from the list. 
4. If you want to keep goals then focus them to help you with another goal.
4. Go back through your levels and see what goals you can outsource to other people.

Focus only on the goals that matter, break them into smaller steps, and start work immediately