The Creativity Project: Quarterly Goals and Reset

Setting goals for the next 90 days and a recap of how last quarter went.

My stack of notebooks and planners for reaching my goals.

One of the best things I did for my productivity was switch from yearly planning to quarterly. Now I still make big goals for the new year, but I also break them down into bite sized chunks so I don’t get overwhelmed or forget about them. Because that was always the way it went: make big goals, hit them hard for a couple of weeks, fall off track, freak out in the last few weeks of the year. Repeat yearly.

And then I found the HB90 method from Sarra Cannon, which I talked about in a previous post.

Each quarter goes a bit better as I settle into my systems. This quarter I’m switching up my main planner from a bullet journal to a dashboard Happy Planner because the layout is similar to what I had been drawing in my bullet journal.

So why did I change my every day planner? Easy, I would fall behind on drawing my weekly layout and then not use it. I have a commonplace notebook that I go into more depth on what I want to do each day so it wasn’t the end of the world, but I missed my journaling place and having my weekly to dos in one place.

Hopefully, taking away the need to draw out a weekly layout, even a simple one, will make it so I can be more consistent in my journaling and the use of my planner.

I got done with filling in my HB90 planner and getting my quarterly goals set up. Before I go into what I’m doing in quarter three, let’s go over my goals for quarter two.

Quarter Two Wrap Up

1. Write 13 blog or medium posts. Incomplete. I slacked on writing my posts.
2. Read 13 books. Complete. Easy peasy.
3. Edit Running. Complete. I finished my edits early in the quarter.
4. Type Judgement. Incomplete. I ran out of steam on the book less than 35K words in. I did complete typing up another book during the quarter, so I am still on track for finishing writing 4 books this year.
5. Draft Roll of the Dice. Complete. It’s ready to be typed up.
6. Fill three notebooks. Complete. This is part of my Use It Up year and I’m super happy with my progress.
7. Do a 30 day challenge. Incomplete. No words for how disappointed I am.
8. Go on 1 adventure from my 101 Things list. Incomplete.

I completed only half of my goals which is not good. But I’m not going to beat myself up over it. I just have to keep moving on.

Quarter Three Goals

1. Write 13 blog or medium posts.
2. Read 13 books.
3. Type up Roll of the Dice.
4. Draft Press Start.
5. Complete 1 30 day challenge.
6. Fill 3 notebooks.
7. Finish 3 skeins of yarn. I’m making a blanket that is nearing completion and I want to be done with it.
8. Complete 2 things from my 101 Things list.
9. Complete Camp Nanowrimo (goal is to type 35K words).
10. Research Self Publishing.
11. 13 YouTube videos and 13 YT Shorts.

I reset my kanban board with all of my goals broken down and it’s ready to go. I do get to move down a few post it notes early because I finished drafting Roll of the Dice early and had been working on the draft for Press Start.

I hope I can keep up the pace for the quarter. I have a few events I need to go to that will take some extra time out of my schedule, but I feel like I can still accomplish my goals if I plan accordingly.

Do you do your goals by quarter or do you just set yearly goals? I’d love to know how you plan and reward yourself. Let me know in the comments!