Goal Setting Prompt: 90-Day Goals That Fit Your Real Week

Prompt

Act as a goal-setting coach who turns a person's priorities and real free hours into at most three 90-day goals, with weekly actions that fit the calendar, checkpoints dated from the start date, and if-then plans built from what went wrong before.

Inputs:
- Life areas I care about most right now, in order: [LifeAreas]
- Where I am today in each area (numbers if I have them): [CurrentState]
- Free hours per day of the week: [WeeklyHours]
- Constraints, including money I can set aside if relevant: [Constraints]
- What happened the last time I set goals: [PastAttempts]
- Start date (a Monday): [StartDate]

Generate:
1. Goal shortlist: at most three 90-day goals, one per top life area, each with an outcome measure and the baseline from CurrentState.
2. Weekly lead actions for each goal: what I do every week, with hours.
3. Time budget: hours per goal per week, the total, the free hours from WeeklyHours, and the buffer left. If the total is over, cut actions before adding more.
4. Weekly schedule: each action placed on a day from WeeklyHours, with daily totals that never exceed that day's hours.
5. Checkpoints at week 4, week 8, and week 13, dated from StartDate, with the number each goal should reach; show any arithmetic.
6. If-then plans: one per pattern in PastAttempts.
7. Weekly review: five questions for a 30 minute Sunday review.
8. Not now list: anything from my inputs that should wait until after the 13 weeks.

Rules:
- Use only the numbers and dates in my inputs and show every calculation.
- Never plan more hours than WeeklyHours allows on any day.

Instructions

Fill in your own priorities, real free hours, and money numbers, and start on a Monday. Works on ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Recheck the math in the output, and treat money goals as personal planning, not financial advice. This is planning help, not mental health advice. If goals stir up stress, low mood, or burnout, talk with a licensed professional; in a crisis in the US, call or text 988.

Generated Output

This image was generated using the prompt above.

Goal Setting Prompt: 90-Day Goals That Fit Your Real Week - Result

Examples

Example Input

LifeAreas: 1) move from retail to a junior data analyst job, 2) build an emergency fund, 3) play guitar for fun
CurrentState: work retail 32 hours a week; finished 6 of 12 modules of an online SQL course; no portfolio project yet; emergency fund $600; know 4 guitar chords and no full songs
WeeklyHours: Mon 1.5, Tue 1.5, Wed 0, Thu 1.5, Fri 0, Sat 3, Sun 2
Constraints: shifts are posted one week ahead; I can set aside up to $120 a week; emergency fund target $2,000; I also want to start learning Spanish
PastAttempts: last January I started four goals at once and quit after 3 weeks when one busy work week broke my streak
StartDate: Monday, November 2, 2026

Example Output

1. GOAL SHORTLIST (13 weeks: Mon Nov 2, 2026 to Sun Jan 31, 2027)
G1 Career: finish the SQL course and publish one portfolio project. Baseline: 6 of 12 modules, no project.
G2 Money: emergency fund from $600 to $2,000. Baseline: $600.
G3 Guitar: play 3 full songs. Baseline: 4 chords, 0 songs.

2. WEEKLY LEAD ACTIONS
G1: weeks 1 to 6, one course module a week; weeks 7 to 13, the portfolio project. 4 hours a week.
G2: move $108 to savings every week. $1,400 needed / 13 weeks = $107.69, so $108 a week (under your $120 limit). 0 hours.
G3: three 30 minute practice sessions. 1.5 hours a week.
Review: 0.5 hours on Sunday.

3. TIME BUDGET
4 + 1.5 + 0.5 = 6 hours planned. Free hours: 1.5 + 1.5 + 0 + 1.5 + 0 + 3 + 2 = 9.5. Buffer: 3.5 hours a week, kept on purpose after last January.

4. WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Mon 1.5: G1 1.5
Tue 1.5: G3 0.5, buffer 1.0
Thu 1.5: G3 0.5, buffer 1.0
Sat 3.0: G1 2.5, G3 0.5
Sun 2.0: review 0.5, buffer 1.5
Check: G1 1.5 + 2.5 = 4; G3 0.5 x 3 = 1.5; buffer 1 + 1 + 1.5 = 3.5.

5. CHECKPOINTS
Week 4 (Sun Nov 29): modules 7 to 10 done (10 of 12); fund $600 + 4 x $108 = $1,032; song 1 playable.
Week 8 (Sun Dec 27): course done in week 6, project dataset chosen and first queries written; fund $600 + 8 x $108 = $1,464; song 2 playable.
Week 13 (Sun Jan 31): project published; fund $600 + 13 x $108 = $2,004; song 3 playable.

6. IF-THEN PLANS
- If a busy work week breaks the schedule, then I still do the Sunday review and plan only the Saturday G1 block for the next week.
- If I miss two practice sessions in a row, then the next session is 10 minutes, not 30.
- If shifts are posted and a block is gone, then I move it into that week's buffer hours.

7. SUNDAY REVIEW (30 minutes)
1) Which lead actions did I do, out of 6 blocks?
2) Did the $108 move this week?
3) What got in the way, and which if-then plan applies?
4) Do next week's posted shifts remove any block?
5) Am I on track for the next checkpoint?
Tip for a paper planner: give G1, G2, and G3 one sticky note color each.

8. NOT NOW
Learning Spanish waits until February 2027, after the week 13 checkpoint. Starting it now would make four goals, the same setup that ended last January's attempt.