Frequent Monitoring Paves the Way

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INDUSTRIAL ENGINEER – VOLUME: 48 NUMBER: 1

Measuring and prompting increase likelihood of reaching your goal
Even the American Psychological Association is learning the wisdom behind the old IE dictum that you cannot improve what you cannot measure.

Recent research published in the journal Psychological Bulletin noted that the more you monitor your progress, the more likely you are to achieve your goal. Benjamin Harkin of the University of Sheffield and his colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 138 studies comprising 19,951 participants that looked at the effectiveness of an intervention or treatment designed to prompt participants to monitor their progress. Prompting participants to monitor their progress increased the likelihood that they would achieve that goal. And the more frequent the monitoring, the greater the chance of success.

Harkin said, that prompting people to monitor their progress can help them to achieve their goals, but some methods of monitoring are better than others.