Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: GoalPro 8
Kai Chandler gets goal oriented with GoalPro 8
| Product | GoalPro 8 |
|---|---|
| Company | Success Studios |
| Web | Click here for full details and free 15-day trial of GoalPro 8 |
| Price | $89.95 |
| We like | Video training, highly customisable |
| We don't like | Expensive. |
| Rating | 8/10 |
| Requirements | Windows XP/Vista |
In his book "What They Don't Teach You in the Harvard Business School", Mark McCormack describes a study conducted on students in the 1979 Harvard MBA program.
In that year, the students were asked, "Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?" Only three percent of the graduates had written goals and plans. 13 percent had unwritten goals but 84 percent had no specific goals at all.
Ten years later, the members of the class were interviewed again, and the findings were remarkable. The 13 percent of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all. And what about the three percent who had clear, written goals? They were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent.
If ever there was an argument for goal setting, it has to be to get into that top three percent.
You won't be surprised to know that there's some software intended to help you do just that. GoalPro 8 from Success Studios is intended to help you define and organise your goals. It does for goals what a word processor does for words!
Success Tree
At its core is a top-down goal editor called the Success Tree into which you enter your major goals. You can then break each major goal into smaller goals, then into tasks and appointments which schedule activities to help you achieve the goal. I like the top-down approach and the way that for each goal, you are encouraged to add as much detail as you wish on the benefits and reasons for achieving as well as challenges in meeting the goal. You can also track your performance against the goal.
GoalPro Calendar
The calendar lets you enter dated tasks to achieve each goal. They can be one-off tasks or can repeat over a period. You can export any scheduled items to Microsoft Outlook, Act and Palm but what of Lotus Notes and other calendar programs? Without true integration with your particular calendar there's a danger that GoalPro might become an optional extra rather than a core activity.
Daily Checklist
The greatest benefits from goalsetting come from regular review of your goals. The Daily Checklist function encourages you to review and maintain your goals and reminds you about your daily tasks to support the goals.
There are loads of other bells and whistles such as comprehensive reports and graphs to help show you how well you are keeping to your goals, a daily journal to record your thoughts, a scratchpad to enter text that you can easily turn into goals and appointments and so on. A "Support Wizard" helps you analyze your goals to ensure they are sufficiently detailed and to improve your chance of achieving them.
Most aspects of the program are very configurable so you can tailor it to your requirements. For example you can change what to include in your Success Tree and can finetune the appearance of the reports.
Getting started with GoalPro 8 is very straightforward as there are eight short online video training guides to show you exactly how to set up your goals, action plans and most other key aspects of the program. There's also an excellent Getting Started Wizard and comprehensive help.
Conclusion
There's evidence that creating and writing down goals will put you on the fast track to success. Goalpro 8 will help you define, review and maintain your goals and, although expensive at a shade under $90, you can put it through its paces with the 15 day free trial and see if it's right for you. While GoalPro is very comprehensive, is there a danger that it's a sledghammer to crack a nut? For some, it may simply be a distraction but for many it could be an essential aid to help achieve their goals.
