Hey :)
A small but surprisingly helpful addition to my goal setting this year has been a simple tracking app called Tally.
A small but surprisingly helpful addition to my goal setting this year has been a simple tracking app called Tally.
I paid a few pounds for it, installed it on my iPhone, and started using it for one reason only: to track a handful of numbers that genuinely matter to me right now.
Not vanity metrics.
Not things I think I should care about.
Just a few signals that tell me whether I’m doing the things I’ve already decided are important.
For example:
- The number of pull-ups I do across the year
- The number of gym sessions I complete
- Hours of deep, focused work
- How often I visit my granddad (he’s getting older, and this matters more than almost anything else right now)
Each of these has a target attached to it.
But here’s the important part: these numbers didn’t come first.
They’re lagging indicators.
They’re not the thinking. They’re the evidence.
Before I put the numbers into the app, I spent time writing about why these things matter.
Why time with family is a priority right now.
Why deep work matters more to me than busyness.
Why physical training isn’t about aesthetics, but about consistency and self-respect.
Why time with family is a priority right now.
Why deep work matters more to me than busyness.
Why physical training isn’t about aesthetics, but about consistency and self-respect.
The numbers are just a way of checking whether my behaviour matches my intentions.
That’s why something like “500 hours of deep work this year” isn’t really a productivity target.
It’s a proxy for whether I’m spending my time on the work I believe actually counts.
You just tap a square.
No dashboards to obsess over.
No gamification that pulls you away from the point.
No dashboards to obsess over.
No gamification that pulls you away from the point.
Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly — you can reset, experiment, add temporary trackers, remove things when they stop being relevant. It’s simple, colourful, and oddly satisfying.
Most importantly, it keeps my attention on doing, not endlessly reviewing.
So if you’re someone who’s thought deeply about what matters this year — and you just want a clean, lightweight way to keep yourself honest — this might be worth trying.
I use it on iPhone, and it’s easy to find in the App Store.
If you do give it a go and it sticks, let me know. I’m always curious what other people choose to track once they stop measuring everything and start measuring the right things.
🗣️ 👀
Chris.
PS. This is not a paid promotion!