The Art of Measurement: How to Track Progress Without Obsessing
“What gets measured gets managed.” It’s a classic business axiom for a reason. To know if your action plan is working, you need to track your progress. However, many people track the wrong things, leading to frustration and a feeling of being stuck. The key is to understand the difference between the actions you take and the results you get.
To do this effectively, we need to define two crucial pairs of concepts: lagging versus leading indicators, and output versus input goals.
Lagging vs. Leading Indicators
A lagging indicator is a measure of output or a result. It tells you what has already happened. Examples include the number on the scale, the amount of revenue in your bank account, or the number of followers you have. While important, you cannot directly control lagging indicators. They are the result of past actions.
A leading indicator, on the other hand, measures the critical actions that lead to the result. These are the inputs you can directly control. Examples include the number of calories you track, the number of sales calls you make, or the number of times you post on social media. The beauty of leading indicators is that they are within your power. You can’t force someone to buy your product, but you can control how many people you reach out to.
Output vs. Input Goals
This is another way of looking at the same idea. An output goal is focused on the final outcome (the lagging indicator). For example, “Lose 10 pounds.”
An input goal is focused on the behaviors required to achieve that outcome (the leading indicator). For example, “Go to the gym three times a week and track my meals every day.”
The secret to sustained progress is to set your primary focus on your input goals. Your output goal (the SMART goal) is the destination, but your input goals are the daily directions. If you consistently hit your input goals—the behaviors you control—the output goals will eventually take care of themselves. This approach shifts your focus from the result, which can be slow to change and demoralizing, to the process, which you can win every single day.
The Review Cadence: Your Weekly Check-In
Measurement is useless without reflection. Schedule a brief, non-negotiable 15-30 minute review session each week. During this time, look at your leading indicators. Did you complete your planned workouts? Did you write the words you committed to writing? Ask yourself three questions:
1. What went well this week?
2. What didn’t go as planned?
3. What will I adjust or do differently next week?
How to Handle Slip-Ups
You will miss a day. You will have a bad week. It is inevitable. The difference between those who succeed and those who fail is how they respond. Do not treat a slip-up as a moral failure. Treat it as data. A missed workout isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a data point that might tell you that your plan was too ambitious or that you need a better strategy for dealing with afternoon fatigue. Learn from it, adjust your plan, and get back on track with the next small action. The goal is not perfection; it is persistence.
