8 Steps for an Effective Mid-Year Goals Review (And Tools to Make It Fun!)

Last week’s post on willingness had me back to thinking about goal-planning. (I know- no big surprises there). Specifically, I’ve been focusing on not just my goals and intentions, but the progress I’ve made during the first half of the year.

Although the year is technically more than half-way over, I still think there’s plenty of time to stop and reflect on where we’ve been and where we are headed for the rest of 2020. Yes, even during a pandemic, with everything up in the air.

While I encouraged folks to think about their goals at the beginning of the pandemic in this post, it is equally important to reevaluate goals now that it appears we are going to be living with this situation for the foreseeable future.

Why Mid-Year Reviews Can Help with Long-Term Goal Planning.

The concept of a mid-year review is actually one that many employers use. And, while I do not believe in taking a corporate policy approach to all aspects of my life, a mid-year performance review, when applied to our goals, can be a helpful way to make sure we’re on track with the things we want to accomplish in a given year.

Companies that perform mid-year performance reviews, which are similar to annual reviews, do so for more than just a chance to justify pay raises (or the denial of them). In a well-run company, providing an opportunity to give positive feedback and guidance for improvement mid-year can be a great way to keep employees engaged in the work and committed to achieving excellence.

I conduct similar evaluations for students who are working at my office as part of an externship experience with their schools. I find that letting students know how things are going half-way through their time with us allows me to encourage their positive attributes while giving them a chance to work on issues or skills they’re struggling with.

These concepts can be applied to personal growth as much as they help in the context of professional development. As long as you approach the review as a constructive experience (building someone up rather than tearing them down), you can help yourself find ways to improve your goals or how you go about achieving them.

In other words, while we may not have an HR department to monitor our personal progress or growth, we can do this for ourselves. What this means is that, while life itself is unpredictable and we cannot expect to be true “managers” of our circumstances, our goals are something that we can monitor and manage.

Being the manager of your goals allows you to take the reins and start thinking about what motivates you and what you are willing to do to see your goals through. And, good managers are encouraging and motivating, which is how a mid-year review should make you feel.

A few reasons a mid-year goal review can benefit your goal-planning:

1. Checking in. In the same way employers use a mid-year performance review to check in with their employees and see how they are doing in their jobs, a mid-year- goals review allows us to check in with ourselves. Because this is the summer, and we don’t have as much going on, we may have some extra time to see how we are feeling about what we had previously planned, how we are going about it, and whether we need to make changes. In short, it provides some clarity about where we are and where we’re headed.
2. Identifying struggles. By making time to check in with your goals, you can take the time to identify any challenges you are having that you might not have been allowing yourself to acknowledge, let alone do anything to address them. And, since only the half the year is up, there is plenty of time to deal with them.
3. Recreating that New Year’s feeling. There is something so positive and hopeful about starting the new year with new goals. However, the newness of it can quickly wear off, and you may be feeling stagnant about your goals by this time in the year. By setting a mid-year review, we can get some of that enthusiasm back and place our focus back on a hopeful future.

Now is a great time to review your goals.

We are approaching mid-July, and that means there is plenty of time to try a mid-year goals review. If you have not reevaluated your goals at the halfway point of the year, it’s not too late. If you use a goal planner, see if there are any worksheets already built in to do a mid-year goals check-in.

PowerSheets planners (more on that below) include quarterly check-ins that run with the seasons. And, this year, they provided a printable Mid-Year Refresh worksheet that had a few questions to prompt you to think about your goals for the remainder of the year.

However, you don’t need to have a fancy worksheet or goal planner to reevaluate your goals at the mid-year point. In fact, even if you do have those at your disposal, the suggestions below will still be a helpful addition to your mid-year review.

8 Steps for an Effective Mid-Year Goals Review.

1. Schedule a time for your review. When companies perform reviews- either of their employees or their own business practices- they set time aside to have the meeting. And, just because this is something you are doing for yourself doesn’t mean that you should not make it a scheduled event. You don’t want to rush through your mid-year review and not give yourself time to make it a meaningful review. So, break out your planner, figure out when you have an hour or two to devote to your goals review, and add it to your calendar. If you treat it like you would an appointment, you will be more likely to see it through and not dawdle your way through the process.

2. List your current goals. See what you wrote down in January and any other goals you have set throughout the year. If you do quarterly goal check-ins, jot those down as well. You want to list out both the goals the areas of your life that you’ve decided to work on through those goals. Then, place your goals in categories that make sense for your life. They can include anything, but here are some examples of categories: fitness, career, family, relationship, finance, home, faith, etc.

3. Evaluate your current goals. Once you have your goals categorized and listed out, assess each one and ask yourself the following questions:

• Do these goals still resonate with you?
• Are any of your goals tied to long-term dreams or bucket-list items?
• Will you be keeping these goals on your list for the rest of the year? If not, is it time to let some of them go or perhaps table them for next year?

4. Measure your progress. With each of the goals that you intend to keep, determine how far off you are from achieving that goal. If the goal is to save a certain amount of money, how much do you have left to save? If it is to lose weight, how many more pounds do you have left? Being half-way through the year, it is important to figure out what is a realistic time frame for reaching some of your goals, particularly if you have set the end of the year as your benchmark for reaching the goal. If it is a longer-term goal, measuring your progress can still be a worthy exercise, since it may inspire you to change your deadline for reaching the goal to be either sooner or further down the line. The timing does not matter as much as being intention about the pace you set for yourself to reach your goal.

5. Identify successes and failures. With each of your goals, determine if you were able to accomplish any thus far. Are some progressing well? One thing that has been helpful for me is to track my daily “wins.” A win is anything that I accomplish during the day, bit or small, that feels like a victory, especially if it helps me get closer to achieving a goal. Lately, I have been tracking my wins in the monthly calendars of my PowerSheets planner. Just writing down one or two things a day not only reminds me to fill out the habit trackers in the planner, but it helps me to see what I am motivated to do and what I consider to be fulfilling.

On the other hand, are there any goals that do not seem to be working out? People often worry about admitting their failures and see them as something negative or shameful. However, failure is a necessary part of success. Any inventor, engineer, or scientist will tell you that you cannot make progress without first making mistakes. Mistakes and failures are the best teachers. So, see what did not work and learn from it! It’s possible that admitting a failure in one area will lead you to see not only what went wrong, but how to change your habits and routines to make you more successful later.

6. Determine if you took any detours. So, you had a list of goals at the beginning of the year and worked on them diligently until the pandemic hit. Then, you started working on a whole different set of goals that you hadn’t anticipated in January. It’s a detour, but that doesn’t mean you got off track. Just be intentional about the direction you wish to take. If looking at your original goals for the year reminds you that those are what truly speak to your heart, and they are still realistic goals given all that’s changed these past few months, it may be time to get them back on track. However, if the detour goals reflect your true desires, or your values have changed and these new goals speak to them, it may be time to replace some of your old goals with the newer ones. As long as you will not be overwhelmed, it may be possible to just add these to your original goals.

7. Reprioritize your goals. Once you have listed all of the goals that you intend to focus on for the second half of the year, ask yourself if it is realistic to try to accomplish all of these goals by January? Should you keep them all on your list or will it become overwhelming (and self-defeating) to try to get all of these done? Figure out which of the goals are the more pressing ones for you for this next half of the year. Then, show yourself a little grace and know that it’s okay to let some goals go or set them aside until you are better able to work on them. It is better to have fewer goals on your list that are doable and lead you to feel proud of your accomplishments than to spread yourself thinly with too many goals and not make progress on any of them. Remember, it’s making progress on our goals that will motivate us to finish what we’ve started and prepare to tackle new ones.

8. List out a new goals plan. Once you have narrowed down your goals to the ones that make sense to take these next few months, determine which routines, habits and tasks it will take to accomplish them. I appreciate that my planner encourages me to break these down into monthly, weekly, and daily tasks. So, for goals that require doing a little something each day to make progress (learning hand-lettering or training for a 5K), keeping a daily habit tracker makes sense. Other goals may only require a weekly tracker (for me, that includes writing a blog article or having a family movie or game night). Finally, for long-term goals that just require a little progress each month, I include them in a monthly action list (for example, working on a particular room in my home or engaging in a creative outlet). Just be sure to keep your list manageable, so you maintain your willingness (there’s that word again) to keep going.

Motivating tools for a mid-year review.

If I’m being honest, a big reason why I stick with goal planning, even when I feel like my progress is slow, is that I have fun tools I use to keep me motivated. This is how I got into planning in the first place- I found that if I used fun notebooks, pens, stickers, and other accessories, I would be more likely to stick with the process. Sticking with the process had the added benefit of me not missing appointments.

Obviously, the first tool I will recommend is the one I use myself, a PowerSheets Goal Planner by Cultivate What Matters (CWM). I purchase the year-long dated version every fall and get started in January. However, just in time for a mid-year review, CWM releases a 6-month, undated version in the spring (20% off as of the date of this post). This means, it’s not too late to order one and get started.

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I wrote an article reviewing the full-year version of this planner. However, as many of the features are the same as the undated, feel free to check it out as it will show you the basic layout and guided worksheets that can help you goal plan.

That said, you don’t need a goal planner to do a mid-year goal review. All you need is some paper and a pen. Below are some office supplies that can help you plan out your goals and monitor them throughout the year:

If you just want the ability to do some serious habit-tracking, without all the worksheets and prep of a traditional goal-setting planner, this Habit Tracker Calendar may be just what you need:

For a more visual model of a habit tracking notebook, check out this fun option:

Of course, just a plain notebook will do for simple goal planning and brainstorming. I like to use notebooks with covers that say a little something about the book’s purpose. This one has plain lined pages inside, and a goal-themed cover:

Or if you’d like more room to write and prefer a spiral-bound notebook, this one is a cute option:

If you are looking for plain book with lots of planning options, try this Moleskine Pro notebook designed for project planning:

I find goal-planning (or any planning, really) is more fun when I can decorate my planner. Theses goal-themed stickers should do the trick:

Color-coding your goals is a great way to make to-dos and routines stand out in your planners. Zebra Mildliners (highlighters) are known for having great colors while being easy on the eyes:

You can also use small dot stickers for color coding. These are the ones I use in my daily planner to keep up with may various tasks. They would work equally well for a goal color-coding system:

Goal planning is a rewarding way to think about your future and keep yourself motivated to making positive changes in your life. Fortunately, you can alter your goals based on whether your circumstances have changed or if your goals no longer suit your values. There is no right or wrong way to goal plan.

Have you tried a mid-year goal review? What tips can you share about your process? Leave a comment below!

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**Image credits- Business meeting, “set goals,” goals list, detour sign, and “Plan C” images found on Pixabay.