Writing Great Weekly Goals
5 min read
Weekly goals are the engine of your sprint. Get them right and you'll make consistent progress. Get them wrong and you'll spin your wheels.
Goals, Not Tasks
A weekly goal is an outcome, not a task. It's something you can definitively say you accomplished or didn't.
- Task: "Work on landing page"
- Goal: "Launch landing page and get 50 email signups"
- Task: "Do customer interviews"
- Goal: "Complete 10 customer interviews and document key insights"
If you can't clearly mark it done or not done at the end of the week, it's not a good goal.
Clearly Measurable
Good goals are clearly measurable. At minimum, they're pass/fail: you either shipped it or you didn't.
But the best goals have a target number. Numbers remove ambiguity and force honest assessment.
- Vague: "Start working on articles for the Founder Handbook"
- Measurable: "Get 5 articles published in the Founder Handbook"
The vague goal is technically "done" the moment you type the first letter. The measurable goal has a clear finish line.
When you set a target number, you know exactly where you stand at the end of the week. Did you hit 5? Did you hit 3? There's no wiggle room.
The Right Number of Goals
Set 3-5 goals per week. More than that and you're spreading yourself too thin. Fewer than that and you're probably not being ambitious enough.
Connected to Your Milestones
Your weekly goals should drive at unlocking your next milestone. Your milestones push you toward your North Star.
Ask yourself: "What are the 3-5 things that, if I accomplish them this week, do the most to unlock my next milestone?"
If you can't draw a clear line between a goal and your upcoming milestone, question whether it belongs this week. Nice-to-haves can wait. Your sprint is for must-haves.
Honest Assessment
At the end of each week, mark each goal honestly:
- Done: You accomplished what you set out to do
- Partial: You made progress but didn't fully hit the target
- Not Done: You didn't get to it or couldn't finish it
If your goal had a target number and you mark it partial, enter the number you actually accomplished. "Get 5 customer interviews" marked partial with "3" is useful data. It tells you exactly how close you got.
Marking something "not done" isn't failure. It's data. It tells you something about your planning, your priorities, or your obstacles.
The Weekly Retro
Your Weekly Retro is where you process how you prioritized your goals for the last week. What worked? What didn't? What got in the way?
This reflection is what helps you set better, higher-impact goals for the week ahead. Without it, you'll keep making the same planning mistakes.
Common Mistakes
Goals that are too vague
"Make progress on product" is not a goal. What does done look like? Put a number on it.
Goals that aren't in your control
"Get featured in TechCrunch" depends on others. "Pitch 10 journalists" is in your control.
Too many goals
If you have 10 weekly goals, you have no priorities.
Goals that don't connect to your milestone
If it doesn't push you toward your next checkpoint, it can probably wait.