In 2021, I had an unusual way of measuring results from my personal goals. I was still working my first job as a lecturer, for almost two years at this point. Also pursuing my first Msc in Business Administration. Also taking academic gigs on the side.

.... I had personal goals to: publish an article on Medium every week, and create at least three videos for Instagram (recording, editing, and scheduling). And yes, I also made sandals by hand and sold to customers.

**falls on the ground dramatically because of fatigue**

But seriously, there were days I slept off on my living room floor (makeshift workshop), with a measuring tape over my neck, lying down on the leather and other materials I used to make sandals. 

One time the tape almost choked my and I woke up by force 😅

I struggled to juggle everything, and I obviously dropped balls. So to measure how well I achieved my goals for the week, I would create a new to-do list, every week, detailing all I was meant to do.

Then on Saturday evening, I tick off what I’ve done, then measure actual tasks completed vs overall tasks I should have done. So if my to do list had 30 items, but I only did 21, I’d have 70% score for the week.

As weeks and months went by, this % kept dropping. It frustrated me because I felt so unproductive. "What have you been doing with your time this week?" I was asking myself that a lot.

Then one day, amidst my anger and guilt, after calculating my percentage for that week, I decided never to do it again.