The ABCs of getting $@#! done.
How having plans for your plans will make your more productive.
EFFIGIES — Bringing nerds together to reveal the hidden wisdom of comics for fuller, more productive lives!
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What is the ABC method of goal-setting?
Applying the ABC strategy to make goals more dynamic.
A few weeks ago, I was catching up on Chip Zdarsky’s Batman run. In the first arc of the run – Failsafe – we learn that Batman has set up a contingency plan in case he ever breaks his “Batman doesn’t kill” rule. Without giving away spoilers, the events of the story trigger the contingency plan.
As I was reading, I started thinking about how we set ourselves up for approaching goals and habits. For most people, the general mode tends to be binary – either I did or did not do what I needed to achieve my goal today. While it would be nice to hit the mark every single day, such a dogmatic pass/fail approach isn’t particularly forgiving. I used to think this way, too, but then I learned about the ABC method.
The ABC strategy.
The ABC method is a flexible approach to goal-setting that accounts for varying circumstances and obstacles, allowing you to adjust your goals dynamically while still making progress. With this method, you establish three levels of goals, ranging from the best possible outcome for a day to the smallest unit of accomplishment that will still move progress forward:
A - Ideal Scenario
This is your primary goal when everything goes according to plan. It represents the optimal outcome you aim for under perfect conditions. For me, this is a full 90-minute writing session. An hour and a half is a solid session, and I can usually knock out 2 to 3 scenes.
B - Backup Plan
This goal comes into play if circumstances prevent you from achieving your ideal scenario. It’s a slightly scaled-down version of your primary goal, still pushing you forward but acknowledging the limitations. A full 90 minutes of writing time isn’t always possible, so my backup plan is to aim for at least 45 minutes on busy days. This half-sized writing block usually results in 1 to 2 scenes.
C - Minimum Viable Effort
This is your fallback goal, ensuring you still make some progress even if things don’t go as planned at all. It represents the least you can do to keep moving forward, maintaining consistency and preventing regression. Then, there are those unrelenting days when I need to fight for every free minute. On those days, I commit to sitting down for 15 minutes, or enough time to write 1 good page of script – and any progress is better than no progress.
Of all the frameworks I’ve learned and implemented over the years, the ABC method is one of my favorites because it’s inherently flexible. It allows life to happen and provides a progress-positive approach to managing curveballs and competing priorities. More recently, though, I’ve felt that this model of sliding goals can be applied more widely.
While the ABC method of goal-setting is designed to give you flexibility while maintaining progress toward your goal, I have another application I’ve been considering. In a perfect world, every good habit we try to form would be fun. In my opinion, making a habit more fun is the ultimate way to significantly increase the likelihood that the habit forms and sticks. However, not every habit lends itself to being fun. So, what I’m proposing is an ABC-like set of sliding strategies for how to approach designing our goals. Here’s what that looks like:
A - Make It Fun (Ideal Scenario)
As mentioned above, making a habit enjoyable increases the likelihood that you will stick with it. In an ideal world, you will find ways to incorporate elements of fun into your new habit. Remember Pokémon Go? It got a lot of people out walking and exercising. How? By allowing users to play a genuinely fun game that rewarded them for walking.
In my own life, I’ve leveraged audiobooks and music to make mundane or hard tasks more enjoyable. Every morning, I take a five-mile walk. It takes about 90 minutes and would be unbearable without Audible. I enjoy learning, and being able to do that while I walk makes walking that much easier. The same is true when I hit the weights. Lifting sucks, but it sucks less when you’ve got a good soundtrack to pump you up.
B - Make It Easy (Backup Plan)
If you can’t make it fun, then aim to make your new habit as simple as possible. Simplify the habit so that it requires minimal effort to start and maintain it. Remove any unnecessary barriers that might prevent you from following through. The easiest way to make a habit easy is to implement a nudge or remove sludge. I wrote about making habits easier (or harder) the last couple of weeks and spoke to this point when discussing how I removed some sludge from my morning routine to make sitting down to write easier.
C - Stack With Existing (Minimum Viable Effort)
Finally, if you can’t make it fun or easy, you should at least look for opportunities to link your new good habit to an existing one. Integrating a new habit into your existing routine can make it easier to remember and maintain. Even though this strategy is less likely to help new habits take root, stacking a new habit onto an existing habit can still be quite powerful.
When I was in my twenties, I wasn’t the best roommate and would leave my dishes in or near the sink. This led to some clutter on and around the counters. To tackle this, I implemented a habit stack that said anytime I ate, I would place my dish into the dishwasher immediately upon finishing eating. The habit eventually took root because the habit I already did (eating) acted as the cue to trigger the new behavior.
As I mentioned earlier, limiting yourself to a restrictive daily pass/fail model doesn’t allow much room for life to happen. Opening up your options for success by having A, B, and C plans provides much-needed flexibility that counts and rewards even minimal effort. Writing one page isn’t as good as writing a couple of full scenes, of course. But it’s better than writing nothing. And when you adopt that attitude and apply some ABC planning, no day is wasted.
• Frank
I’m Frank Gogol, writer of comics such as Dead End Kids, No Heroine, Unborn, Power Rangers, and more. If this newsletter was interesting / helpful / entertaining…
You can also check out some back issues of the newsletter:
After Credits Scene.
For the most part, I haven’t included updates on the projects I’m writing. I wanted to get some practice in putting out this version of the newsletter before I split my focus. This is a space where I write about productivity and often use my writing as an example. I want to put my money where my mouth is and start sharing the fruits of that productivity. So, starting in the next few weeks, I’ll be talking more about my writing projects – No Heroine 2, in particular. In the meantime, here’s another sneak peek at what’s coming down the pike:
Super excited for No Heroine 2 and while I don't comment on all of them, really enjoying all the stuff you've been putting here. I think it's just great to hear from you again. Take care boss.