Why do we need goal setting tools?
Goal setting Tools are an essential part of modern life, the ability to process and sort information and plot and plan out the things you want to achieve in life, and on a daily time horizon has become essential to making a success of life.
If you’re anything like me, your life is full of distractions. We sit down with all the best intentions of undertaking a task, only to catch ourselves in the act of browsing Insta or Youtube for half an hour, not having actually done anything we sat down with the intention to do!
Well, today we are gonna change that!
We are going to explore some tools that make a difference in your ability to plan and create content and track progress, which will help you organize your life and streamline your productivity. Making things easier to accomplish, with less effort.
Let’s look at:
What type of goal setting tools are there
For the sake of convenience, I have organized the best goal setting tools into 5 practical categories.
The categories are:
These goal setting tools are aimed at helping your ability to plan, as well as aiding and assisting you in reaching your goals. All of them offer some form of improvement to the tasks that we need to do on a daily basis to get where we want to go.
I have also tried to include a free version alternative wherever possible!
Being productive and reaching your goals does not need to be expensive!
Best Tools for organizing your life
In the old days they would you would have a filing cabinet or diary dedicated to the task, and don’t get me wrong, a plain old journal is still one of the very best goal-setting tools around, however, we have come a long way since then, and today’s modern applications make life a lot easier!
It doesn’t matter if you are a photographer, a blogger, a designer, a sales executive or an aspiring creative, the one thing you’re going to need throughout your digital life is access to types of tools that allow you to form your own database resources and tools.
Let’s look at the 3 best organizational goal setting tools around:
- Google Workspace
- Microsoft Onedrive
- Zoho Drive
- Google Workspace:
By far one of the most convenient and free tools around! By opening a Gmail account you gain access to google docs, sheets, calendar, and most importantly google drive, which takes care of your backups. It links between devices and grants instantaneous access to your projects and information regardless of where you are.
To make things even better, you only need to pay when you are ready to upgrade your account to something more professional. TLAT runs on google workspace and at only $6 a month for a professional account, with your own e-mail address, it is by far one of the best packages for a small business.
- Microsoft 365
Just like with Google Workspace, Microsoft offers its own series of organizational and productivity solutions. They also offer E-mail & calendar solutions, as well as document management tools such as word and Excell. Microsoft Onedrive acts in the same way as Google drive and is also free to use for entry-level users
Microsoft is more catered towards enterprises and medium-sized businesses, they have a traditional series of products that have evolved along with their operating system and has wide-scale adoption from many users. As a small or medium business, it is definitely worth considering as it has an advantage in teamwork and communication over its competitors, however as an individual user, you would be better off sticking with what Google has to offer.
- Zoho Drive
As a nice alternative to Microsoft and Google’s service offerings, we have Zoho Drive. They have all the same bells and whistles as their competitors, but the real bonus is that they are substantially cheaper when it comes to their monthly pricing!
They are the largest emerging competitor to the two software giants, but don’t think they can’t compete! With an active database of more than 80 million users, they are fast growing and competitive, and well worth consideration as one of the top goal setting tools around!
They also have a very affordable and highly functional CRM system worth considering if you are running a small business!
All the services we have looked at under organizational goal setting tools are here to provide you with benefits like:
- Cloud storage
- Document management tools
- Form creating tools
- CRM systems
All of the above lays the foundation for a reliable and organized system on which to base your future projects. Not only will the use of them allow you to appear professional to the outside world, but they solve practical problems and save you money and time when used correctly.
Best Tools for improving productivity
Now that we have organization and our file systems out of the way, it’s time to focus on getting more done. Productivity tools are one of the most important types of goal setting tools, and if we are doing it right, will allow us to get more done, with less effort, and in less time!
The applications we will be looking at here are really focused on creating timelines and allowing collaboration between multiple parties. They offer multiple integrations and have the ability to really make your projects trackable, be they business or personal, they will help you improve efficiency and get ahead of the competition!
Let’s look at the 3 best productivity related goal setting tools around:
- ClickUp
ClickUp is by far our top pick when it comes to productivity goal-setting tools! Not only is it free to use in your personal capacity, but it has almost all the features of our favorite organizational tools built into it as well!
The free feature includes all kinds of useful tools like whiteboards, planning, and goal-setting systems and if you decide to upgrade to their $5-a-month package you not only gain unlimited storage but also access to their collaboration and resource management sections, which is invaluable for a small business!
- Monday.com
Monday.com comes in at a close second, they have all the features that make ClickUp so great and also offer free accounts for personal users. There is access to all kinds of integrations, meaning that you are able to use it in conjunction with a system like Google Workspace, as well as great workflow prioritization tools.
The reason it’s not in our number one spot is that ClickUp currently outperforms them on pricing, however as you go to their more advanced plans, this difference falls away, and Monday moves into the number one spot for medium-sized enterprises!
- Bonsai
Bonsai is our top pick for businesses, they are more expensive than ClickUp or Monday, and offer fewer integrations, however, they make up for this with more comprehensive systems that are able to handle invoicing and payments systems that also integrate with your existing service providers like Quickbooks or Sage.
There is also a great sub-contractor management system in place, that allows for easy onboarding, this means that depending on your requirements in a productivity system, Bonsai might be by far the best pick for you!
These goal-setting tools will really help you up your productivity and manage your workflow. They all offer free versions to personal users and affordable options for business users that will allow you to make your goals more trackable and help identify any problem areas within the process!
Best Tools to increase mindfulness
The previous two sections have been focussed on organization and productivity, however even with all the software in the world, little will improve your ability to achieve goals as much as a clear mind and focussed drive backing it up.
Mindfullness and meditation is one of those things that is hard for everyone, and it remains hard, until suddenly it isn’t. Not only is it proven to change the way you think, and react towards things, but it actually proven to permanently change the composition and chemical balance in your brain.
Let’s look at the 3 best goal setting tools for mindfulness around:
- Headspace
Headspace was started with one mission: to improve the health and happiness of the world. Now a little secret everyone should know is that life is not about the pursuit of happiness, but rather about the happiness of pursuit!
Becoming comfortable with yourself and being able to enjoy the activities you spend your time on is something that many people struggle with. Headspace is one of those amazing apps that brings meditation to the world in a easy and relateable way, and It’s priced at only $12.99 pm, and is definitely worth every penny!
- Calm
As the name implies Calm is one of the worlds best rated sleep and relaxation app. This by no means, means that it will be putting you to sleep, rather that if you are a highly stressed person or struggle with anxiety, that the practices they offer will be very effective for you as a individual!
It comes with a free 14 day trial, and there after it’s price at $14 p/m or $69 per year, and is defintely money well spent. The best investment you can make, is investing in yourself, and peace of mind is definitely a skill that everyone should master during their journey!
- Smiling mind
Smiling Mind is a not-for-profit helping every mind thrive. They are an Australian based organization with the goal of creating generational change in the mental health of people, and make use of life-long, evidence-based tools deliver the essential mental fitness skills needed to underpin good mental health and resilience from an early age.
They are free to use and completely user supported, so if you find value in the practices and teachings they share, be sure to support them!
If there is one goal setting tool that you want to incorporate that is guarenteed to improve the success rate you have when trying to accomplish goals, then it’s a mindfullness practice. From breath work, to meditation to something like yoga that combines the two, you can’t go wrong if you’re looking to become more productive and motivated!
Best Personal goal setting tools
Let’s look at the 3 best Personal goal setting tools around:
Best Goal setting tools for learning
Let’s look at the 3 best organizational goal setting tools around:
Extra goals setting tips
Keep making good life decisions and you’ll keep getting good results!
Be sure to check out the rest of our series on goal setting:
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