Mid-Year Check-In: Tracking and Updating Goals
As we finish Q2 for 2025, it’s a perfect time to assess where you stand with your goals.
I use a 2x2 matrix to track key goals and maintenance goals for each quarter. Breaking goals into chunks such as quarters, months, weeks, and days helps me accomplish the small steps I need to make change. I’ve also found that tracking my progress really helps me maintain focus.
Goal Setting and Adjustment
Below is a 2x2 matrix a colleague (Emily Teng) shared with me to organize priorities and maintenance items across quarters. I try to set yearly goals and then check in every quarter. It’s important to be honest about what can be accomplished - what's working, what isn't, and what circumstances have changed since the previous check-in.
When we check in on goals, we want to celebrate what has gone well and be curious about what hasn’t. Often, when my clients are not making progress on their goals it’s because the goal is too big or not defined in an accessible way. For more information about how to make goals easier to accomplish by breaking them into micro steps, see the AIM SMART Framework post.
We all want to feel successful. Recognizing that goals often need adjustment is liberating. It’s not a failure, it’s just part of the planning process. I will always remember an employee I interviewed who told me she never missed a deadline. If something came up, she would immediately meet with her supervisor to discuss the situation and figure out how to accomplish the task either with additional resources, changing part of the task, or moving the deadline. She made it sound so easy and when we worked together, it was. She had a strong work ethic, took pride in what she did, and was honest about what could be accomplished.
Stuff happens. Updating goals and communicating how any update will affect others leads to increased flexibility.
In summary, mid-year check-ins are about course-correction, not judgment. They are an opportunity to look for patterns and try to make things easier. The goal is to feel inspired by what you’ve done and increase momentum towards something important to you.
See also:
How to set small goals, the AIM SMART Framework post
Track your quarterly progress: 13-week tracker
