Quarterly goal review: a 90-minute template
A 90-minute quarterly goal review with a minute-by-minute agenda, scoring method and question list. Backed by research on progress monitoring, specific goals and small wins.
A quarterly goal review is a scheduled 90-minute session to check what moved, what stalled and what to change in the next three months. Research on progress monitoring suggests that checking in regularly improves your odds of reaching a goal.
Why review beats willpower
Monitoring progress increases goal attainment, and more frequent monitoring helps more. A 2016 meta-analysis in Psychological Bulletin covered 138 studies and 19,951 participants. Prompting people to monitor progress raised the likelihood of success.1
The same analysis found that recording progress physically or reporting it publicly had an even greater effect.1 Most of the studies focused on personal health goals such as weight, diet and smoking.2
Review quarterly, check weekly
Quarterly reviews set direction, and short weekly check-ins keep it. Three months is long enough to see movement and short enough to correct course.
| Cadence | Time | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly | 5–10 minutes | Pick the next actions |
| Quarterly | 90 minutes | Review, score, reset |
| Annual | Half a day | Revisit areas and values |
What the goal research adds
Specific, difficult goals outperform vague ones when people receive feedback. Edwin Locke and Gary Latham's goal-setting theory summarises decades of studies on this.3
A review has two jobs: make goals specific and supply feedback. The agenda below does both.
The 90-minute agenda
Follow the time blocks in order.
| Minutes | Step | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 0–10 | Close last quarter's loop | A list of what you finished and dropped |
| 10–30 | Walk the board by area | Each card marked Done, Archive or Keep |
| 30–55 | Score each area from 1 to 10 | One sentence on why for each score |
| 55–70 | Choose three goals for next quarter | Each with an if-then plan |
| 70–85 | Schedule the actions | Dates in your calendar |
| 85–90 | Write one win to carry forward | A line in your wins log |
Minutes 0 to 10: close the loop
List what you said you would do and what happened. Be factual. Note blockers without judging them.
Minutes 10 to 30: walk the board
Decide a status for every card. There are only three honest options.
- Done. Move it to Completed.
- Archive. Retire it without guilt. Priorities change.
- Keep. It remains a goal for next quarter.
Minutes 30 to 55: score the areas
Score each life area from 1 to 10 for satisfaction. This is the Wheel of Life method, credited to Paul J. Meyer in the 1960s.4 Plotting scores shows imbalance at a glance.5
Write one sentence on why for each score. A low score with a clear reason is more useful than a number alone.
Minutes 55 to 70: pick three goals
Limit next quarter to three goals. More than that dilutes attention.
Add an obstacle and an if-then plan to each. Gollwitzer and Sheeran's meta-analysis of 94 studies found a medium-to-large effect of if-then planning on goal attainment.6
- If it is Tuesday at 7 a.m., then I will write for 30 minutes before email.
Minutes 70 to 85: schedule
An action without a date rarely happens. Put the first action of each goal on the calendar. Set the date of your next review before you close the session.
Minutes 85 to 90: carry one win forward
End by writing one thing that went well. Teresa Amabile's research found that progress in meaningful work is a strong driver of positive emotions and motivation.7 Naming a win makes that progress concrete.
Review questions
Use these questions as prompts, one or two per area.
- What moved this quarter, and what caused it?
- What did I plan but not start? Why?
- What should I stop doing?
- What did I learn about how I work?
- What would make next quarter easier?
- Which goal no longer matters to me?
Rebuild the board without losing history
Keep finished cards. They are evidence of progress. Move them to Completed instead of deleting them. A glance back at what you did is useful when motivation dips.
Archive goals you have dropped. A board with only live goals is easier to act on.
Run the review in Mandaboard
Mandaboard's board has the three statuses built in. Finished cards move to Completed (⌘5) and retired ones go to Archive (⌘6). Cards can carry dates, and you can keep a separate board for each chapter of your life.
Use the Mandala view (⌘2) to see all areas together while you score them. Add the carried-forward win in Wins (⌘3). See Getting started and the research in Do vision boards work?.
References
Footnotes
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Harkin, B., Webb, T. L., Chang, B. P. I., et al. (2016). Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 142(2), 198–229. APA press release. ↩ ↩2
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Southern Methodist University Health Behavior Lab. Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? ↩
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Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705–717. Overview: ScienceDirect Topics. ↩
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BetterUp. Wheel of Life: how it helps you find balance. ↩
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PositivePsychology.com. The Wheel of Life: how to apply it in coaching. ↩
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Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38. ScienceDirect. ↩
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Amabile, T. M., & Kramer, S. J. (2011). The Progress Principle. Harvard Business Review Press. HBS record. ↩
Mandaboard
A calm, private Mac app with three rooms: envision, remember, reframe.