Does Monitoring Goal Progress Promote Goal Attainment?

Most of us have tried tracking the foods we eat or used a FitBit in hopes of meeting our health goals. Have you wondered whether it was worth the trouble? Findings from a recent meta-analysis published in Psychological Bulletin suggest that it is.

Meta-analysis is a research methodology in which the findings from several studies on the same topic are combined and analyzed together. A well-conducted meta-analysis is considered the gold standard of evidence for an effect because idiosyncrasies that exist in any individual study that can affect its results are minimized when analyzing findings across studies. Thus, a meta-analysis provides a more precise and accurate estimate of an effect than any one study can.

In the recently published meta-analysis, researchers tested whether people who monitored their progress on goals were more likely to attain those goals. The studies included in the analysis covered a range of goals (e.g., weight loss, smoking cessation, physical activity, medication adherence, time management), although most were health related. The researchers also determined whether various factors influence the strength of the effect, such as whether the monitoring of goal progress is public (e.g., sharing step counts with friends via a social networking site) and whether it is physically recorded (e.g., using a smartphone). In addition, this meta-analysis is particularly valuable because the researchers only included experimental studies that randomly assigned participants to monitor goal progress or to a control group. Thus, the findings from this meta-analysis reflect how strongly monitoring goal progress actually has a causal effect on goal attainment – a critical piece to understanding the effect of monitoring goal progress.

The results of the meta-analysis included several interesting findings. First, goal monitoring interventions had strong effects on the frequency of progress monitoring, which led to consistent and reliable changes in goal attainment. Second, public monitoring and physically recording one’s progress both led to stronger effects on goal attainment. Third, the effect of goal monitoring was stronger when the focal behavior was the management of a specific medical condition (e.g., asthma, diabetes) compared to other health goals (e.g., weight loss, physical activity).

These findings are the most conclusive and definitive to date on the effect of goal monitoring progress. The findings clearly indicate that keeping track of the progress toward your goals will increase the likelihood you accomplish your goals. This is especially true if others can see your progress and you’re physically keeping track, like in a smartphone app. Moreover, the findings provide strong evidence to include goal monitoring as part of effective behavioral interventions aimed at changing behaviors such as physical activity.

Reference. Harkin, B., Webb, T. L., Chang, B. P., Prestwich, A., Conner, M., Kellar, I., Benn, Y., & Sheeran, P. (2016). Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 142, 198-229.