11 Free Goal Setting Software & Tools You Can Use
By Ellesse Chow
Are you looking for a simple free goal setting software or tool that does the job and hopefully comes at a zero price tag?
Over the past week, I’ve been scouring the web for a list of such free goal setting software and here’s my result. A word of warning though. Don’t lose the forest for the trees. Action and persistence is the key when it comes to Goal Setting so though it may be tempting to try each and every tool, hold your horses and pick only those free goal setting software that looks relevant to your needs!
Most of these free goal setting software tools assume you’ve already decided on your goals and therefore doesn’t have much of a brainstorming function. Except for one. If you want some help with that, please subscribe to Goal Setting College and refer to the 2 free brainstorming questionnaires that comes with your free subscriber bonus.
With further ado, here are the ones who made it to the list :
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Joe’s Goals
Simple and effective, this nifty online tool is great for tracking goals that involve a habitual routine. Like, how many times you’ve worked out this week, how many articles you’ve written etc. For every task or vice you commit, you add and deduct a point respectively. Total up the score and you can show it off to your friends. With more than 10,000 users, you can’t go wrong with this.
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Goalsetting1
Using graphs, this tool tabulates your bodyweight loss, income earned or whatever that’s defined by you against the period specified. Daily, weekly or monthly email reminders are sent for progress update and it’s excellent for tracking time critical SMART goals. You can also write short journals posts and invite others to leave a shout out. Even though there’s a ‘privacy’ mode, there’s no true privacy. Once you update your goals, it’ll be published in the dashboard on the main page.
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LifeTango
The only tool with a brainstorming wizard. After answering a series of questions such as “Where would you like to go on vacation?”, “What job title would you like to achieve?” etc, you’ll have a list of recommended goals derived on your answers. Pick the ones you want, set a deadline and slowly indicate your progress in percentages. You can add milestones and invite friends and family for comments in this free goal setting software freeware. Monthly reminders are also available.
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BackpackIT
A very efficient to-do list, you create your own set of to-do goals, shuffle them as much as you like and check them off once you’ve completed them. Email and mobile text (only certain countries) reminders can be set on the fly. The premium version allows you to tie it up with a calender and load motivational graphics and files. In my opinion, the free version is more than enough to handle the job.
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8goals
A simple system with a rather basic interface, 8goals allows you to add current, future and lifetime goals. To update your progress, you need to indicate the percentage of completion for each goal to generate a simple graph and pie chart. Refer to the instructional video on the site to find out more about other features.
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My Life Changes
Similar to Joe’s Goals, this tool’s suitable for tracking habitual life goals in congruence to your core values. For example, how many times have you trained up for your Mount Everest trek (as opposed to your values of Adventure under the Health/Energy/Image life category). You mark it in red if you’ve not met the goal, yellow if you’ve come close and green once you’ve achieve it. If you want to setup reminders, write journals, keep your past accomplishments, archive your old entries and remove the ads, you’ll need to upgrade to the premium version of this free goal setting software.
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Goal Setting Toolkit
This is a set of wallet sized paper goal setting cards for you to carry to wherever you go and is the only non-software tool I’ve on the list. The main motive is to keep your goals in sight, similar to the effect Vision Boards create. Download the templates and try out all 9 different cards.
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Sparkpeople
Great for health & fitness related goals, Sparkspeople is a large community of weight loss enthusiasts. You get to specify your ideal weight, your nutrition goals and fitness regime and track them as you go along. More importantly, you’ll get a lot of support from the helpful forum, informative recipes, tips, articles etc. Anything you want to know about Health & Fitness can be found here. There is also an ‘Other Goals’ section where you can work on non-fitness related goals as well.
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FitDay
Similar to Sparkpeople, Fitday is exclusively for the health & fitness community. You get to track the foods you eat, monitor your workout activities, set your weight goals and maintain your own journals etc. It also comes with a calendar to trace all your historical and planned activities. Cool. The online account is free. However, if you’re experiencing slow internet access generating all the colour charts and statistics, you may want to purchase its desktop version.
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Wesabe
Doubling up as a financial goals setting site, Wasabe’s main job is to help you track your expenses. If you’ve an electronic copy of your credit card bill or bank statements (selected banks only), upload it and you’re set to analyze your finances. Once you’ve set your financial targets, the system will prompt a list of related tips based on comments from other people within the community and also provide feedback based on your expenditure. I’m not able to verify this though. Because Wesabe doesn’t support Singapore bank accounts!
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43things
Write out your goals here and see what happens! You’ll get suggestions and recommendations from fellow members that may inspire or laugh you off your seat. You can also ask for advice from people who’ve completed similar goals. As they say, success leave clues. Who knows? It may not be that tough after all!
That’s all I have. If there’s any free goal setting software you know that’s not on this list, feel free to let me know in the comments!
Thanks for the mention of SparkPeople! We love helping people reach their goals. Look for more new developments from us for many types of goals
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Good luck to you and everyone with their goals!
SparkGuy
SparkPeople Founder & CEO
Hi SparkGuy, nice to have you around! Sparkpeople’s a great site! It jolly well deserves to be on this list!
Ellesse
You’ve been tagged for the “Does Most Leadership Suck Challengeâ€. Check the link for details.
Take care…
JWM
Hey John, thanks for the tag! I’ll see what I can do…
Hi Ellesse,
After Priscilla Palmer’s self development list Jenny and I have decided to try to help build the self development community. So we are holding a little contest. I would like to invite you, and anyone else interested, to find out more details at Win a $25 Gift Certificate”
Geez Erin, that’s an interesting contest you’re having! I’ll see what I can do
Hi
Thanks for the mention. Every little piece helps.
Peace
Terry
Thanks for the link to GoalSetting1.com. It’s hard to get links these days!
Hey Michael & Terry, thanks for the visits! Valuable sites deserves to be linked and both of yours definitely belong to that category!
Thank you for this detailed list. It is very helpful to find those resources in one place. Alas, link no. 7 (Goal Setting Toolkit) doesn’t work anymore.
Ellesse, have a nice day, and keep up the good work!
Melanie
Melanie, thank you!
I think the Goal Setting Toolkit was suspended for exceeding their bandwidth.. ah, must be a good dash of traffic from somewhere. They should be up soon once they’ve requested for the additional bandwidth!
Please take a look at our single-step motivational software! We’d love to see it added to the list…
Hey Ken, is the single step motivational software a premium product? This list is currently for free software or premium software that offers a light free version. But I do cover reviews of premium software separately.
Well, what I actually find really helpful is to make a daily to do list everyday…. its sort of like a goals for today list and it helps a lot with being productive. I like this site called Simple to do list (ZoToDo.com) but there are others too…. the thing is though, I think using a daily to do list manager helps a lot. Should be added to list. I also like 43 things a lot, which you already mentioned
I use ZoToDo.com for daily goals and 43 things I want to accomplish on a more general scale.
@Don Thanks for sharing a new tool. I do agree with you on the simplicity of To-Do lists. In fact, Backpackit is a very good to-do list too. I would love to do a comprehensive listing but geez, new tools are growing everyday such that it’s almost difficult for me to keep up! haha.
Regardless of the effectiveness of all the tools, I do want to reiterate that real action/habits have to go hand in hand in working each goal.
Hey Ellesse,
Lifetick also offers a free version of their goal setting software. You are limited to 4 goals, but that’s a good start. I think their domain is also their name.
Thanks for providing different goal setting resources all in one place.
Darren Barr-Engstrom
Coach My Life
@Darren Thanks for the headsup on Lifetick. Actually I was invited to give Lifetick a trial run sometime back. The functionality works pretty much like myGoals though I’ve to admit the look and feel’s very sleek and Web 2.0. Since it’s free for the first 4 goals, I agree it’s an option.
Hi Ellesse,
We have a free version of single-step goal software as well. It is limited to two goals, but includes all advanced motivational features such as affirmations and visualizations. Users can visit le.single-step.com to register a copy.
Best regards,
-Ken
@Ken Oh, I must have missed out the free part. Looks like there are better free tools out. Maybe it’s time to follow up this article with a Part II
There are wonderful tips!
I personally use a goal tracking and to do list management web site GoalsOnTrack.com. You will see the instant progress update after completing a task on your goal. It’s free and worth a try. http://www.goalsontrack.com
@Harry you own the site, don’t you? Haha! From the look of it, GoalsOnTrack.com does look very good and I’ll definitely check it out. Continue to work hard on the site, it definitely has a lot of potential!
Ellesse, yes I do own the site. Feel free to give a try and let me know what you think. Thanks!
i am a interior contractor, i want to set a goal to achive 10cr turnover in a year, how should i have to set goal.
@Vinay You might want to check out the free goal setting tutorial. Hope it helps!
I’ve used stickk.com before which is really great too- you should check it out!
Sometimes i prefer the lowtech tools, ie the goal setting booklet you can download at http://isetmygoals.com/goal-setting.html . I always hav it with me in my wallet, keeps me focused on my goals an i can review them wherever i want.
I wanna thank Ellesse Chow for taking her time to do this research. I am really grateful for that, but like the indecisive procrastinator i am lol i dunno which 1 to choose, im so confused: ( can someone tell me the pros and cons of there experience from any of these 11 choices i may ask anybody?
@Ronny That’s looks like a handy tool
@Moninn I’ve to admit that since writing this article, there have been more free new software and tools coming up. However, like what I’ve stressed in this article, don’t lose the forest for the trees. Get kicking on your goals! If you prefer manual writing, get the Goal Setting Toolkit. Otherwise, Joe’s Goals simple and easy interface is a good start. Hope this helps!
@Moninn @Elesse
I think an important message here is: keep it simple. Read ie Zen To Done. You should spend mer time doing the thing than experimenting with tools for managing your tasks. Therefore i love the 5×5p5 goal setting booklet. Like the goal setting toolkit it is simple, fits in your wallet/purse, no batteries needed, and you can focus on the real stuff instead of the tools.
Enjoy and success!
Ronny
The “LifeTango” website seems to be having some performance / capacity issues. Very poor performance and lately I’ve hardly been able to logon with timeout issues. By all means try it out, but give it a good trial before trying to rely on it as your sole “repository” of ideas and aspirations.
Harry
A bit confused with the free part you mentioned for Goals online. The link takes you direct to a payment page.
@Ronny I agree simplicity is the best policy. For the real minimalists, you probably don’t need any booklet or preprinted cards, just a pen and some paper will do
@Coolio It’s been a while since I collate this list and many more new tools have come and gone. Nonetheless, thanks for giving others the headsup.
@Mccollr It’s no longer free.
Thank for this list! I’m looking into your suggestions, but I still have questions. I’m a natural goal setter, with very long term goals. Which, if any, of these sites would allow me to set long term goals, broken into smaller more manageable portions? For instance, if my goal was to publish a novel, I might first develop a strong plot and characters. Next, I might begin to write the novel itself, chapter by chapter or scene by scene. Etc. I want to be able to monitor my progress and set due dates for each section of the overall goal. Once the larger goal is complete, then I will be content to focus on another.
Thanks!
@Jessie If my memory serves me well, for the free versions offered on this list, Lifetango, 8goals & Mylifechanges can cater to this function. Need some tweaking, I think. Another suggestion, that I’ve come across but not on this list – yet – is mylifeorganized. It’s not a web application but it helps to track sub tasks very well. There’s a premium & free version. You can go for the free one if you so prefer. Hope this helps!