Log Pose

A Survey, Assessment, and Evaluation tool for one’s own life. If New Year’s resolutions didn’t work for you, give this one a try.

Driver

The name for the tool was inspired by the manga One Piece.

A Log Pose is a compass-like navigational device, a necessity for traveling the Grand Line*. […] The Log Pose functions by recording the magnetic wave of an island in the Grand Line, and points to that island so user can travel there.

Once on an island for the required amount of time, the recording of the magnetic wave resets, and the needle starts pointing toward the next island. The time it takes to lock onto the magnetic waves of the next island varies from island to island. The reset time could could only take seconds, or it could take years.

For many years, I had struggled to find a balance between having the freedom of listening to my instincts and yet, setting clear aims for my personal development. I experimented with defining SMART goals, getting structured by Getting Things Done, setting up a Personal Kanban, you name it. While all helped me in certain ways, they only allowed me to focus on a narrowed segment of my life. I missed the overall picture. I was looking for a tool that gives me sufficient structure to ground myself and still leaves space for intuition and creativity.

Description

• Clarifies focus areas and priorities in life
• Provides a simple longitudinal method for self-assessment
• Rewards the journey—feeds back based on effort and achievements, not by pre-defined targets
• Adapts to changes by considering priorities at evaluation time, not at the goal setting time

Usage

1. Do a self-reflection every 6 months. You may want to follow the natural cycles of seasons. If so, do it right before spring and at the end of summer. You may want to align with the calendar years. Then do it at the turn and the middle of the year.
2. Use a sheet of paper, or pick your favorite digital note keeping software.
3. Collect your subjects. These are the focus areas and priorities in your life. Use the subjects from the previous period as a baseline. Add new emerging ones or remove obsoletes.
4. Review each of your subjects. Focus on one at a time. Observe your feelings. Record them. Provide a summary of the subject. Highlight efforts, achievements, challenges, future wishes. You may also want to use grades to measure your satisfaction with the subject.
5. Take time to review your records. Observe your feelings.
6. Look back at the previous period’s summary. You may want to look for trends.

Example

Credits

Originally I stumbled upon Ders Haag’s “felevi bizonyitvany” (mid-term report) in which the author evaluated their homesteading project. I started to experiment with their idea and twisted it to fit my needs. This is how Log Pose was born.

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