Never set another goal without first appreciating Pearson's Law

Most people know the first half of Pearson’s Law:

“What is measured, improves.”

Basically, setting metrics to track performance ensures said performance improves. We all know this. We know we set goals by having a target, a metric. For example, write 100 words a day. “100” and “a day” are the task and time-bound metrics by which to measure how your daily writing habit is progressing.

But many don’t know there’s a second half to Pearson’s Law (me included):

“That which is measured and reported improves exponentially.”

That means you got to intentionally share it to the relevant parties, or in public. It’s not enough to know the metrics and results in your own head. I think this points back to the social/public accountability levers that we tap on here in Lifelog.

The daily streak is public. Everyone’s post is published in public. You set a goal that everyone can read. We openly set monthly goals and review them at the end of every month. These are automatically shared and reported out in the open. All that are techniques to help you “improve exponentially” in your daily writing habit and your goals.

Quick internet research stated that reporting back can bring an improvement from 300% to 1200%! That’s an insane amount of leverage from just reporting back in public. Goes to show why tracking KPIs and reporting on them is such a universal practice now in corporate world.

So, never set another goal without first appreciating the power of Pearson’s Law, especially the second half of it.

What gets measure and reported gets improved, by up to 1200%.