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Too Many Goals? Try This Instead

2025-06-21 · Short · Ali · recording, 1:18 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Productivity and time · mode: Explanation and tutorial · tags: Lesson from a book

In a Short, Ali suggests committing to one most important, needle-moving thing for the next 90 days, chosen by asking where a concerted effort would have the most impact if everything else stayed the same, and doing it first each workday.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Commit to one thing for the next 90 days

  • ★★★ Ali argues that people into personal development scatter themselves across many goals at once, such as the day job, a side hustle, health, family, a creative hobby and a personal brand, and so make a tiny amount of progress in each; picking one most important, needle-moving thing as the primary focus for the next 90 days could bring enormous progress in that one area. — 00:00:00

    “if we just picked one thing, one most important needle moving thing, and just focused on that”

  • ★ Ali names books that discuss focusing on one thing: Gary Keller's The One Thing, Greg McKeown's Essentialism and Cal Newport's Slow Productivity. — 00:00:29 · Cal Newport

  • ★★★ To choose a single focus, Ali suggests asking, for a domain such as work, in which one area a concerted effort would have the most needle-moving impact over the next 90 days if everything else stayed the same. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Once you know your one most important thing, Ali advises carving out time to do just that at the start of the workday, and only then turning to the other work tasks on your to-do list. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — The free quarterly goal-setting workshop

Threads in this video

  • refine · How do you decide which work to prioritise? — To choose a single focus, Ali suggests asking, for a domain such as work, in which one area a concerted effort would have the most needle-moving impact over the next 90 days if everything else stayed the same. (00:00:29)
  • refine · How should you plan your day? — Once you know your one most important thing, Ali advises carving out time to do just that at the start of the workday, and only then turning to the other work tasks on your to-do list. (00:00:29)
  • refine · Should you set goals, and how? — Ali argues that people into personal development scatter themselves across many goals at once, such as the day job, a side hustle, health, family, a creative hobby and a personal brand, and so make a tiny amount of progress in each; picking one most important, needle-moving thing as the primary focus for the next 90 days could bring enormous progress in that one area. (00:00:00)

Mentioned

Cal Newport · Essentialism · Gary Keller · Greg McKeown · Slow Productivity · The One Thing

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