Yearly Goal Tracking FAQ

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 12:35:37 +0800

I track my yearly goals by publishing and emailing them to my contacts:

Here are questions people have asked about my goal tracking.

How do you know that you have achieved the Better Husband tag?

In 2024, she said that I was “definitely worse in 2023 than 2024.”

In 2025, after a long pause, she finally declared “Yes”. 🙂

Your “Better husband - PASS” made me smile. How do you track relationship/soft goals without making them feel transactional?

In this case, I don’t track. But being serious about my goal makes me mindful. (E.g. during an argument, my mind-voice says, “Remember: Better husband. You’re mailing the entire world!”)

Is living with a stranger something you have never done before? Roommates, staying at hostels, etc.? How are you defining this?

Good point. I had roommates only when I was at IBM in Bangalore. They are such good friends that I forgot they were once strangers!

If I invite myself to stay for 3 nights with someone I don’t really know, I’ll count it.

What do you have planned for Live with a Stranger and what do you hope to get out of it?

Changing environment helps. I hope to get a new perspective
Being uncomfortable is good. It pushes boundaries. I hope to get comfortable with discomfort.

How do you track “buy low”?

By “Buy low” I mean make investmented when it roughly bottomed out. I check if I bought approximately at the bottom of a U curve.

It’s not a systematic behavior, nor a precise metric, nor a sustainable approach. So I dropped it.

What is your process to manage the discipline to stay on course?

Public commitment helps. E.g. I’m afraid to email everyone I know that I failed a goal. I pay upfront for courses. I get others to join me - harder to skip, then.
Environment & habits help. Yoga as soon as I wake up, phone automatically tracks activity, hiding junk food, etc.
Daily tracking helps. I know where I am and whether I’m progressing.

When you “failed” the 80 heart points in 2024, how did you process that? Did you adjust mid-year or accept and move on to 2025?

I didn’t have a choice. I felt very bad (and still feed a bit bad), so I didn’t process it well, I guess. The good part is, whether we process things well or not, live moves on.

How granular should tracking be? I’m building a Git repository with daily logs, XP points, Python scripts for reports… Am I over engineering this? (Probably yes, but tell me anyway!)

I track granularly. I prefer automatic tracking (e.g. GitHub for commits, Google Fit for heart points) over manual apps (e.g. weight on Google Fit, books on GoodReads) over notes (e.g. # of students).

Regular tracking feels more important than granular tracking.
Exception tracking seems powerful, e.g. track days when I miss Yoga. (That never happened, since I was conscious.)

How do you balance “ambitious goals” with “life happens”? Is it okay to explicitly plan for lower standards during chaos (my Q2), or is that pre-planning failure?

I’ve always aimed low - for fear of failure. I tried ambition… but not minding failure so much is working better for me.

What inspired you to start this yearly email tradition? How has it evolved over the years?

I started emailing goals in Dec 2020. Inspired by Tim Ferriss, maybe? It was a way to commit myself, stay in touch, and brag a bit.

My earliest goals list is from 1996. I reviewed those annually.
From 1999 - 2006, I tracked “achievements” on a Rating x Weightage = Points scale without goals.
From 2007 - 2019, I tried various logging mechanisms but don’t remember tracking goals.
From 2020 onwards, I use this email tradition.

What is the year on year short term to long term thread that connects these decisions to your life purpose? Horizons of Focus

I don’t know, so I asked Claude - and agree with its synthesis: Learn, Teach, then Automate.

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For those curious about my Vipassana meditation experience, here’s the summary.

I attended a 10-day Vipassana meditation center.
Each day had 12 hours of meditation, 7 hours sleep, 3 hours rest, and 2 hours to eat.

You live like a monk. It’s a hostel life.
The food is basic. You wash utensils and your room.

There are rules. No phone, laptop, no communication.
You can’t speak to anyone. As an introvert, I enjoyed this!
You can’t kill. Sparing cockroaches and mosquitos were hard.
You can’t mix meditations. But I continued daily Yoga.
You can’t steal. But I did smuggle a peanut chikki out.
No intoxicants or sexual misconducts.

You’re woken up by bell at 4 am daily.
You sit cross-legged without moving, which I found impossible.
I was the sole attendee who needed a backrest.
I blame back muscle loss which accompanied my weight loss.

You observe your sensations calmly.
Don’t imagine sensations. Don’t like or hate them.
It’s pragmatic. Accept what works. Reject what doesn’t.
There’s no dogma. More science than religion.
I discovered several cravings and aversions, like fear of losing money and an efficiency obsession.
Also that humor, curiosity and compassion really help.

It was 10 days well spent. I strongly recommend it.

Comic story: https://sanand0.github.io/datastories/vipassana-chatgpt/
ChatGPT conversation: https://chatgpt.com/share/687629fc-c3f4-800c-9ba7-107d542f4373

Download the PDF.

personal-growth on S Anand

Yearly Goal Tracking FAQ