Goal setting worksheet
Nine prompts, in order, designed to be answered on one side of paper. It takes about thirty minutes and the last two prompts are the ones that matter most.
A goal setting worksheet works best as a short ordered set of prompts rather than a form: the outcome in one sentence, the deadline, why it matters, where you are starting from, the weekly rate, the first action, the obstacle, the miss rule, and the review date. Answering all nine takes about thirty minutes on paper. The nine below are in the order that stops you from skipping the arithmetic.
How to use it
Work through the prompts in order and answer each one before reading the next. The order is deliberate: the starting point comes before the weekly rate so the arithmetic is honest, and the obstacle comes before the miss rule so the rule is about something real.
One sheet per goal. If you are setting three goals, that is three sheets and roughly ninety minutes, which is a reasonable price for a quarter.
What to do with it afterwards
Keep the sheet somewhere the weekly review will find it. A worksheet filed away is a worksheet that was an exercise rather than a plan.
At each weekly review, read prompt one and prompt five, then write one line about what happened. Four weeks of those lines will tell you more about whether the goal is alive than any amount of re-planning.
In Crystal, the same nine answers become a goal plan inside Progress, and the review happens on its own schedule rather than yours. The paper version works. It just needs you to remember it.
How to do it
- 1
1. The outcome, in one sentence
What will be true when this is done? Write it so that someone who does not know you could check it. Avoid verbs like improve, grow and focus on.
- 2
2. The date
An actual date. Write it next to the sentence, not at the bottom of the page.
- 3
3. Why this one
Two or three lines on why this goal and not another. You are writing this for the version of yourself who reads it in week seven and has forgotten.
- 4
4. Where you are starting from
The current number, honestly. Weight, revenue, words written, calls made, whatever the outcome is measured in. Guessing here makes every later prompt useless.
- 5
5. The weekly rate
Subtract prompt four from prompt one, divide by the number of weeks until prompt two, and write the result. This is the only piece of arithmetic on the sheet and it is the one that catches an impossible goal.
- 6
6. The first action, with a day and a time
One action in the next seven days, specific enough to put in a calendar. Write the day and the time on the sheet.
- 7
7. The obstacle you already know about
Name the thing most likely to stop this: a travel week, a deadline at work, the fact that you have tried this twice before. One line.
- 8
8. The miss rule
Complete this sentence: "If I miss a week, I will ___, and if I miss two in a row, I will ___." The second half usually means changing the plan rather than trying harder.
- 9
9. The review slot
Day and time of the weekly ten minutes, written on the sheet and put in the calendar before you stand up. If this prompt is blank, the other eight will not survive the month.
Common questions
What people ask about goal setting worksheet.
How long does the worksheet take?
About thirty minutes per goal if you answer the prompts honestly, and most of that is prompts four and five. If it takes ten, prompt four was probably a guess.
Can you use one worksheet for several goals?
Use one sheet per goal. Prompt five only works on a single outcome, and keeping goals on separate sheets makes it obvious when you have taken on more than three.
What if the weekly rate looks impossible?
Then the goal is wrong, and finding that out on the first day is the best thing this worksheet does. Move the date, cut the outcome, or drop the goal. Do not leave the number on the page and hope.
Is a paper worksheet better than an app?
Paper is better for the first pass, because the friction makes you think. It is worse at the review, because paper does not remind you. Fill it in on paper, then put the answers somewhere that will bring them back.
Keep reading
How to set goals
This is the method, in order, with the parts most guides leave out: how many to set, what the first week looks like, and what you do on the week it goes wrong.
SMART goals
The best known goal framework there is, and a genuinely useful one, as long as you know which part of the problem it solves and which part it leaves to you.
Letter to your future self
The hard part is not the idea, it is the blank page. Here is what is worth writing down, and what you will wish you had included when you read it back.
About the author
Drew D’Agostino, founder of Crystal.
Drew founded Crystal, the AI coach that understands you, used by millions of people to understand themselves and the people around them. He is the author of Predicting Personality, a book on reading other people through personality science to improve communication and business relationships.
Crystal is the AI coach that understands you.
It starts from who you are, then helps you decide where you are going and build the daily habits to get there.