The Spreadsheet That Made Me Question Everything
I opened my Q3 review document last week and stared at a peculiar pattern. Three out of five goals were marked “completed,” but I felt more frustrated than accomplished. The problem wasn’t that I’d failed—it was that I’d succeeded at the wrong things.
Take my goal to “publish 12 blog posts this quarter.” I hit 14 posts, technically crushing it. But when I looked closer, half of those posts were shallow, rushed pieces that added nothing meaningful to my thinking or my readers’ lives. I’d optimized for a number instead of impact, and the spreadsheet couldn’t capture that distinction.
This disconnect between achievement and satisfaction sent me down a rabbit hole of rethinking how I approach quarterly planning. What I discovered changed not just my goal-setting process, but my entire relationship with measuring progress.
The Two-Layer System I’m Testing Now
After that wake-up call, I started experimenting with what I’m calling “outcome goals” and “process experiments.” Outcome goals are the traditional measurable targets. Launch the course, hit revenue milestones, complete the manuscript. Process experiments are the behavioral changes I want to test. Write for 30 minutes before checking email, have one deep conversation with a reader each week, or prototype ideas before committing to them fully.
The magic happens when these layers interact. For Q4, my outcome goal is to redesign my newsletter format. The process experiment is to interview three readers before making any design decisions and to ship a rough prototype within two weeks instead of perfecting it for months. The outcome gives me direction. The experiment forces me to work differently.
What I love about this approach is that even if the outcome goal shifts, maybe the newsletter redesign reveals I should focus on my podcast instead, the process experiment still teaches me something valuable about how I work. I’m building better habits while pursuing concrete targets.
The Weekly Check-In That Actually Changed My Behavior
Monthly reviews used to feel like awkward performance evaluations with myself. Too much time had passed to remember the real reasons behind my decisions. Weekly check-ins solved this, but only after I figured out the right questions to ask.
Every Friday afternoon, I spend 15 minutes with three prompts: What worked this week that I want to repeat? What felt hard in a way that suggests I’m learning something new? What felt hard in a way that suggests I’m fighting against reality? The first question captures wins, the second identifies growth edges, and the third catches me when I’m being stubborn about the wrong things.
Two weeks ago, this process helped me realize I was spending enormous energy trying to make video content work because I thought I “should” be on YouTube. The resistance wasn’t teaching me anything, it was just draining me. I dropped video experiments and doubled down on writing, which immediately felt like swimming downstream instead of up.
When Goals Collide With Life
Here’s what most goal-setting advice misses: life doesn’t pause for your quarterly planning. In August, my dad had a health scare that required three weeks of hospital visits and family coordination. My neat Q3 timeline exploded, and I had to choose what really mattered.
The outcome goals mostly got delayed or scaled back. But the process experiments proved their worth. My habit of writing before email meant I captured thoughts during stressful mornings in hospital waiting rooms. Those fragments became some of my most honest writing later. The practice of interviewing readers gave me permission to reach out for support when I needed it most.
This taught me that resilient goal-setting isn’t about creating bulletproof plans, it’s about building systems that adapt when plans inevitably break. The outcome goals provide direction, but the process experiments create the foundation that holds when everything else shifts.
My Messy Q4 Experiment
I’m sharing my actual Q4 goals not because they’re perfect, but because seeing someone else’s real planning might spark ideas for your own. Outcome goal: Launch a small cohort course on creative project management by December 15th. Process experiments: Interview five potential students before building anything, ship a rough outline within two weeks for feedback, and limit course creation to 10 hours per week maximum.
I’m already nervous about the timeline, and I suspect the course content will look nothing like what I imagine right now. But that’s exactly why I’m documenting this process. I want to capture what actually happens when plans meet reality, not just the polished success story afterward.
What I’m most curious about is whether limiting myself to 10 hours per week will force better decisions or just create artificial pressure. Will interviewing students first prevent me from building something nobody wants, or will it introduce so many perspectives that I get paralyzed by options? I genuinely don’t know, and that uncertainty is exactly what makes this worth trying.
The real question isn’t whether these goals will work perfectly, it’s what they’ll teach me about building things people actually want while maintaining the creative energy for the long game. What experiments are you running with your own planning? What’s working, what’s failing, and what are you learning along the way?
