Happy New Year and Happy Monday to you!

Welcome to 2024, a fresh canvas of possibilities and opportunities. As we step into this new year and embrace another week, let's remind ourselves that, in the face of life’s challenges, we are not just survivors but Everyday Knowledge Warriors. Each day is a chance to conquer not just the week but also any digital defeat that comes our way. Armed with strategy, determination, and a systematic approach, let's make 2024 a year of transformation, growth, and unparalleled achievement. Here's to a year where every challenge becomes a stepping stone to success!

Elevate Your Goals: The Power of Proactive and Performance Measures

We often celebrate the destinations in our journeys—be it the culmination of a project or the achievement of a fitness milestone. But what if we could gain as much insight and fulfillment from the steps we take towards these outcomes? In my own journey, I've tracked various goals through Performance Measures: the tangible results from my content creation to fitness achievements. Now I'm bringing a new player onto the field: Proactive Measures.

While Performance Measures are like the mile markers showing us how far we've traveled, Proactive Measures are the consistent steps we take every day on our journey. Performance Measures focus on the end results – the likes, shares, and views of our digital content, or the pounds lost and skills gained. They are the quantifiable outcomes of our efforts. Proactive Measures, on the other hand, are about the actions we control – drafting that blog post, initiating a networking conversation, or choosing a healthy meal. These are the daily decisions and efforts that lay the foundation for reaching those milestones.

For 2024, I'm charting a new course with a daily log of my proactive efforts in Tana. Here's a glimpse into the supertag system I've crafted...

Daily Drive: My Proactive Measures in Tana

For each area of my life or goal where I want to track the proactive measures I'm working on, I've created a relevantly named supertag called Area/Goal Name Proactive Measures. For example, I'm introducing proactive measures for tracking my Systematic You content production, so I created a ✨ Proactive Measures supertag (this star emoji is what I use to tag all efforts related to Systematic You) with the following fields in Tana:

• Area(s): This is set to my Systematic You area in the supertag by default so I don't have to remember to change it
• ✨ Working Status: I select whether I'm In or Out of Office, i.e. did I work on Systematic You today? I'm tracking this because I want to be able to compare how many days I worked on my business to the results I see for each week, month, and quarter.
• ✨ X Post: Yes/In Progress/No (Yes = I published a post; In Progress=I worked on a post, and No=I didn't publish or work on a post).
• ✨ X Details: If I posted, this includes a link to the post and/or the node with the actual post text.

This continues for the rest of the fields for the other areas where I post online: LinkedIn, my YouTube Channel, Instagram, and for my newsletters (I send Systematic News on Mondays and this week I'm starting a new edition of my curated online favorites called Systematic Finds that I'll send on Fridays).

✨Proactive Measures Supertag

By tracking these proactive measures daily, I ensure that every content publication effort aligns with my overarching goals and isn't just a shot in the dark.

Weekly Reflections with Performance Measures

Then, once a week, I'll sit with my tea on Sunday mornings and review the outcomes by tracking my performance measures with the ✨Performance Measures supertag. I'm looking to learn the answers to questions like:

1. How many of you have engaged with the new content?
2. What's the latest subscriber count?

This reflection is not just about numbers; it's about understanding the story they tell about my efforts towards growing Systematic You, and the directions I ought to pursue more (or do less of) based on what the numbers are telling me. These measures help me make realtime adjustments to my strategy when needed and keep me in the mindset of consistently reflecting on my efforts and not just on the hamster wheel of content production.

My ✨Performance Measures supertag includes fields to track views and engagement on all of the platforms I'm creating content for. I have fields that relate to X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and my newsletters.

X (Twitter)

LinkedIn

YouTube

Instagram (IG)

Systematic News & Systematic Finds Newsletters

Examples of Performance vs. Proactive Measures

This dual approach of tracking proactive AND performance measures isn't just for the content creators among us. It's a universal strategy that can be applied to any area of life, including personal health and wellness. Consider this:

If your goal is better health,

• Performance Measures could be the weight changes or inches gained/lost, echoing the long-term impact of your efforts.
• Your Proactive Measures? They're the nutritious meals you prepare, the daily jogs, the hours of sleep you prioritize – the direct actions that contribute to your health journey.

If your aspiration is to enhance your professional development:

• Performance Measures might include the number of new skills mastered or certifications obtained, reflecting your growth over time in your career.
• Your Proactive Measures? These are the daily hours you dedicate to professional reading, the networking events you attend, and the targeted training sessions you complete – each a deliberate step toward your professional enrichment.

Your Action Plan: Proactive and Performance Measures

As we forge our paths ahead for 2024, it’s not just the outcome that counts but also the quality and intention behind each step we take.

How can you apply this systematic approach? Whether it's advancing in your career, enhancing your health, or pursuing lifelong learning, here’s how to apply these concepts:

• Set Clear Definitions: Understand the difference between Proactive (actions you can control) and Performance (results from those actions) Measures.
• Daily Dedication: Commit to logging your Proactive Measures daily. This could be the new skills you're learning, the healthy meals you're eating, or the chapters written for your book.
• Weekly Wins: Take time each week to review and log your Performance Measures. Celebrate the pounds lost, the positive feedback from peers, or the successful projects completed.
• Adjust and Adapt: Use the insights gained from your Performance Measures to refine your Proactive Measures for the following week.
• Stay the Course: Remember, consistency is your ally. Regularly tracking your measures keeps you focused and on track.

By embracing both Proactive and Performance Measures, you're not just setting goals — you're actively constructing the road to their attainment.

Systematic Minds Want to Know

Your journey is unique, and I'm eager to hear about the Proactive and Performance Measures you're tracking this year.

What's one step you've committed to that's making a real difference? Hit reply and let’s share our stories of intentional action, inspiring one another as we each carve out our path to success.

Let's Build Together!

Monica D.T. Rysavy, Ph.D., Ed.D.
Founder, Systematic You

Continue Your Systematic Journey

Before you go...consider these curated opportunities to enrich your systematic journey. Each resource offers a unique blend of structure and flexibility, designed to empower you as you build, grow, and teach. Choose the one that aligns with your goals, and let's continue to transform our potential into progress.

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