Goals & Progress
Plan the twelve weeks in front of you
Your quarter is the part of your annual goals you commit to for the next twelve weeks. In the Goals & Progress Life Goals App you tick the milestones that belong in these three months, then put each one into a month.
Where you are in the journey
You have written your annual goals, and each one has dated milestones. That was the guide before this one, Plan your annual goals from your Summit Goals. After this one you turn a month into this week’s priorities, in Plan your week and your day.
What you will learn
- Which milestones belong in the next twelve weeks.
- How to name your quarter and write its theme.
- How to give each month its two main focus items.
- How long the month and quarter check-ins take.
Where your quarter comes from
Each level of your plan uses the level over it, which the app calls the Goal Cascade. Your year sets the quarter. The quarter sets the month, and the month sets your week. Goal cascading from vision to daily tasks follows that chain to today.
Twelve weeks is long enough to finish something and short enough to see the end, the block the Focus Quarter uses. The app’s example plan belongs to Maya Chen, a bank branch manager, and her three annual goals feed this quarter.
Name the quarter and write its theme
- Open Execute, then Quarter.
- On Plan, type a Theme name. The field suggests two to five words.
- Write one sentence for what these three months look like at their best.
Maya’s theme is “Steady on all three”. Her one sentence names the capstone, weekend long runs and Friday family night. A theme is optional.
On the phone this is step 1 of 10, with a screen for the two fields.
Press Continue to go to your first annual goal.
Tick the milestones you commit to
Under each annual goal the app sorts your milestones into three groups. Due this quarter shows the milestones dated inside these twelve weeks. Starts now, due later shows the milestones due later this year whose preparation starts now.
The third group, Tracked, no work yet, shows the milestones that need nothing from you yet. An empty group says so, and Add a milestone under the card takes you back to the year.
- Tick the milestones you commit to, in any of the three groups.
- Write one sentence under the question about your own area and quarter.
- Repeat for your other annual goals.
- Under Set this quarter’s numbers, give each target a value for the end of the quarter.
Maya’s health goal fills all three groups at once.
“4th run day added (Tue or Sun)” is due in days, so it sits under Due this quarter. “Eight long runs logged, building to the 10k” is due two months out and needs work now. “First 10k race finished” is further out and needs nothing yet.
Three to five milestones in a quarter is the number to aim for, and the app’s help window is stricter: three per quarter is plenty. Maya wrote the reason in her own Q1 check-in: “Three goals a quarter is my limit. With four, something always slips.”
How do you split a countable milestone?
A milestone that counts something gets a Split across the quarter row with one box per month. The total counts only what is left to do, never what you already did.
Maya has logged 2 of her 8 long runs, so 6 remain. She typed 2, 3 and 3.
That is two runs too many, so the count next to Split across the quarter reads “2 over 6 to place” in red. Lower one box until it clears.
Each target of your annual goals takes a value for the end of the quarter in the same way. A target with no number takes Done by end of Q instead. How to track progress for personal goals is the record, compare, correct routine behind those numbers.
Give each month its focus
Each month takes two main focus items. Allow a third main focus raises the cap, Back to 2 main focus items lowers it. Anything over the cap goes to Stretch, which is what you do when the month goes well.
- Press Place your months at the end of Plan.
- On Monthly focus, read the Unplaced tray, which holds what you just ticked.
- Press a month button under Main focus in for each item in the tray.
- Press Add a main focus in a month for a job that is not a milestone.
- Press Set this quarter’s plan.
The tray sits over the three month columns. Every item in it has its own month buttons.
One press moves the item out of the tray and into that month, under Main focus.
The app fills Milestones this month from the dates you set on the year, so you place none by hand. A month that has ended cannot take new work, so its buttons are switched off.
Open the month and plan it
- Open Execute, then Month.
- Write one line under Describe this month at its best.
- Give each Main focus card a date and a Done means line.
- Press the button on a milestone row for Prepare before its due month, or Execute in it.
- Type small jobs under Tasks.
- Read Check what is dated this month for the month in date order.
- Press Set this month’s plan.
Maya’s first main focus this month is “Send the capstone outline v2 to my advisor”, with 18 Sep 2026 in the date field.
Her done line under the date reads “Advisor replies with a go on the topic”, which is a result she can see.
At the top of the month screen you see your quarter theme again, so you know what this month serves.
How long do the two check-ins take?
The month check-in takes about 10 minutes. You mark what moved, tick the obstacles that came up and write what you learned. The quarter check-in takes about 20 minutes, four times a year. You answer whether the quarter served your theme, then set each milestone that needs a decision to Achieved, Partial or Abandoned.
Both sit on the Review tab of that screen, which unlocks once you have set the plan. Press Change plan to open a plan again. A later guide in this series walks through both sessions, and the app’s own rhythm page lists all five cycles.
Try these tips and tricks
- Press Add a second theme when a quarter has two jobs. The chip on each milestone row then switches between the two.
- Open Goal Check from the quarter or the month to see every annual goal in one view. You can tick a milestone right there.
- Press Mark as a break on a month you are away. A break stops the prompts and keeps that month out of your numbers.
- On the phone the quarter runs one question per screen. After the theme you get one screen per annual goal, then the numbers, then the months.
Key takeaways
- Your quarter is the twelve weeks of your annual goals you commit to now.
- Three to five milestones in a quarter is the number to aim for.
- A countable milestone splits across the three months, counting only what is left.
- Each month takes two main focus items, or three when you raise the cap.
- The month check-in takes about 10 minutes, the quarter check-in about 20.
Open Execute, then Quarter, and read the three groups under your first annual goal. Tick the one milestone you are sure about. The theme and the months can wait until tomorrow. The app’s own recipe, cascade your year down to today, covers the same ground.
