Dashboard showing all your relevant information
We all have goals we want to achieve - some big (like climbing a mountain), some small (like remembering to buy milk). At the same time, the world throws stuff at us continuously that we need to consider. Understanding the big picture should be easier.
If you're familiar with the Getting Things Done methodology by David Allen, you know that a central tenet is the weekly review. This is an occasion for you to go through all relevant info, recently done and upcoming tasks, etc. It's an opportunity for introspection and ensuring you're on the right track.
I think most people do this, but not every week. And the less frequently you see this big-picture view of your life, the slower you are to correct your course.
On a day-to-day basis, you want to stay aligned with your overall goals. Also, you want to keep sight of the smaller ones. You can use simple lists on paper or your computer, a dedicated application, or whatever suits your needs.
But you must remember to look at the list or open the app. We tend to forget when things are hectic at work and at home.
Businesses often have dashboards where they keep track of their performance. The level of detail depends on the company, but for the general picture view, it's common to focus on the critical few indicators. These data points make or break the company in the long run. When an indicator rises or falls over or under a certain threshold, action will follow.
Personal performance indicators
Picture a dashboard with all the information you need to take the best possible action at any given time. It answers the question, "what should I be doing right now to bring me closer to achieving my goals?" without any need for information gathering or introspection (since you designed it yourself).
More concretely, this could be:
- Your most important tasks
- Upcoming deadlines
- Progress on projects
- Progress on other personal goals (lose weight, learn a new language, etc.)
- Appointments
Next Actions
- Define the content for the dashboard
- Research current solutions for the start page in browsers. They all have more or less the same experience (recently visited websites, pinned websites, marketing in one form or another). Chrome has the same tool menu available as when you are logged in to, e.g., Gmail, but things are still hidden from view.