Four times a year
The quarterly check-in
A quarter is the shortest honest unit for a goal. The check-in takes every goal you have set and asks about each one separately, which is harder to dodge than a single question about how the quarter went.
What it asks
Every goal you set, asked about one at a time.
- Each goal on its own: what happened, and whether you still want it
- Which ones have gone quiet, and whether that is a decision or a drift
- What the next quarter is actually for
One at a time, because averages hide the truth
Asked how the quarter went, most people answer about the goal that went best. Asked about five goals one at a time, they answer about five goals, and the two or three nobody has touched since January become visible.
That is the whole design. A quarterly review that produces a paragraph is a story; one that produces an answer per goal is a list of decisions, including the decision to stop.
Dropping a goal on purpose is a good outcome and very rarely a recorded one. A review that never asks whether you still want the thing turns every abandoned goal into quiet guilt instead of a choice.
How Crystal asks it
Inside the product.
- One goal per screen, with the days you said you wanted to work on it beside what actually happened.
- Goals carry no plans and no task lists. The only recurring question is whether you worked on it.
- Anything you set here comes back in the weekly check-in, which is where it gets its weekly test.