Last week, Bobby credited my advice of measuring everything as the single most important tip to get you on the fast track to success. I hate to break it to you, Bobby: I took that advice directly from Peter Drucker — who wrote those words years ago. The good news is that the statement remains true whether you’re an emerging startup or an established enterprise. You’ve got to systematically measure your progress to have any idea of where you’re heading.

First, let’s get something straight:

A goal without a plan is only a wish.

In a 1979 survey of one thousand graduating Harvard students, 84% had no particular defined goals, while 13% had goals, but did not write them down. The remaining 3% had goals that were written down. When they were surveyed 10 years later, the results were unsurprisingly predictable:

• The 13% who had goals but never wrote them down, had average earnings nearly twice as much as those that didn’t have goals at all.
• The 3% that had written goals earned, on average, 10 times more than the remaining 97% of students

It isn’t rocket science — here’s how you put a plan together:

1. Write down your goals. Whether they be 1 year, 1 decade or even 1 week out from now, you need to put them on paper.
2. Work backwards. That is, write down the next, immediate step you can take towards your goal.
3. Measure repeatedly. Get into a routine of checking your progress toward your goals. I do this weekly and I strongly recommend doing it much more than that.

Get yourself into a routine today: all it takes is some discipline and a few minutes of your time. The results will be far more than you’re probably getting today. You’ll thank me later.

Paul Singh is an entrepreneur based in San Francisco, CA and Washington, DC. You can read more of his tips on his blog: Results Junkies.