[Method] i dropped quarterly goals for a monday/friday loop. here's the whole thing
problem
we used to run 90 day goals in my company. you probably know the pattern: you set them in january, by week three something has moved (a new idea, a market shift, a better plan) and you keep running the old plan anyway, because changing it feels like admitting you didn't know what you were doing.
discipline has little to do with it. the plan was built for a slower pace than the one you actually live at. so we stopped planning in quarters and now nearly everything sits inside the next 30 days, run by a weekly loop.
method: monday strategy / friday learnings
two fixed points a week. everything in between is just doing the work.
monday strategy, 30 min:
- read your vision. one page, three years out. one question: still true? most weeks yes, move on. the vision barely changes, the weekly priority does.
- pick ONE priority for the week. say it out loud if you work with people, write it down if you don't.
- close the notebook.
friday learnings, 30 min:
- look at the same few numbers you care about, every week.
- ignore the average, hunt the outliers. something way up is a question (what caused that?). something way down is a job for next week. not next quarter, next week.
- one line: what do i do more of, what do i drop.
monday reads friday's line before setting anything new. that's the loop.
the rule that holds it together: no midweek redirects
i get roughly 25 ideas a week and act on maybe 5. but i don't walk in on wednesday with a new idea and blow up everyone's week. i've coached business owners for 23 years and this is the pattern i've seen break more teams than any bad strategy: the owner's head moves faster than the team's checklist, every idea becomes a tuesday pivot, and nobody knows which plan is real. from the inside it feels like leadership. from the outside it's whiplash.
so i run those 5 as small side experiments, alone, and only bring the ones that worked to monday.
works the same if you're solo. monday-you made a plan. wednesday-you doesn't get to overrule it just because he's excited. he writes the idea down and pitches it on monday.
why i think it works
you can't drift very far in 4 days. friday keeps it honest, because one priority means the answer is yes or no, not "kind of made progress on several fronts". and the experiment list gives the restless part of your brain somewhere to go, so it stops wrecking the week.
my own results
this is the loop i run on myself now. the biggest change wasn't a metric. i stopped optimizing for busy. i have three kids and i actually see them. i started rowing in a team (badly) and i make it to the races.
i didn't plan harder to get there. the loop just got faster than the plan.
if you try it
go smaller than feels serious. one priority monday, one yes/no and one line friday. give it four weeks before you judge it. most people quit on the friday part first, so guard that one.