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VOXU

One promise a day.

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Specific beats "do your best"

A clear target gets more done than a general intention to try hard.

"Work on the project" leaves every decision for later: which part, how much, when is it done. "Write the first 200 words" answers all three.

Decades of goal-setting research found that specific goals led to better performance than being told to "do your best" — partly because a specific goal tells you when you've finished.

Try this

Check today's promise: could someone else tell, tonight, whether you kept it? If not, make it that clear.

Make today's promise

Source

  • Summarised research showing specific, challenging goals led to higher performance than vague "do your best" goals.

    Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705–717.

A general finding about how people tend to work — not advice for your situation, and not a diagnosis.