The ONLY 3 Business Goals every Web Designer Needs this Quarter and 5 Steps to Actually Get them Done
Introduction
Whether it’s the end of the year creeping up or a fresh new quarter, the temptation to fill your calendar with tasks, goals, and projects is real.
Ideas for new offers, business automation, and digital products are dancing around in your head as you begin to imagine where they will go over the next year or five. This quarter, you think, will be the one that skyrockets my business. This quarter will be different.
Because if you're honest, you can look back over the last year or two and see a pattern. One where you lose steam part way through or you end up with 8 half-baked ideas but never truly move the needle.
But before you overwhelm yourself with an impossible list, let’s dial it back. It’s time to focus on how to finally accomplish that business goal in the next 12-13 weeks—without burning yourself out.
This blog post will guide you through five key steps designed for web designers to streamline your work time and focus in order to hit meaningful goals and feel confident in the process. We’re talking about clear, focused action steps you can take, starting today, that’ll help you finish the year (or quarter) strong.
Let’s dive in.
Step 1: Identify Your Key Goals
Setting goals is the easy part, right? You probably have a laundry list of things you want to accomplish—launch a new website, overhaul your client onboarding, increase social media engagement, hire a team member, and update your portfolio. Sound familiar?
But here’s the kicker: when you try to do everything, you end up doing nothing well. The solution? Choose just three goals: one for your client work, one for business maintenance, and one for growth. That’s it. No more, no less.
1. High-Level Client Work
This is your bread and butter. What’s one goal that will improve your client experience or the quality of your deliverables?
If you have a fully stacked client roster for the quarter, this goal might be: "Complete all client work on-time and to my high standard". Thats it. This doesn't have to be a time-sucking, mind-blowing goal.
If you have a slower quarter planned, you can think of a way to increase your clients value by improving their experience via a workflow, building social templates that help them announce their new site, or something else that falls in the 'surprise and delight' category.
2. Business Maintenance
These are the non-glamorous but essential tasks like managing your email, keeping up with invoicing, and updating systems like Dubsado or ClickUp. Depending on the quarter, this goal might be completing your year-end checklist, or it might be cleaning up your lead tracking system. This one needs to be focused but not something you'll complete in an hour.
3. One Business Goal
What’s one thing you want to focus on for growth? Maybe it’s creating a new template or revamping your SEO to boost your visibility. Keep it realistic, and make sure it’s something within your control. A goal of 50 new Instagram followers isn't a goal within your control but posting 2x per week and showing up daily on stories is. Make sure whatever goal you select can be actions taken by you, not actions someone else has to take.
Consider the time you have available to work on this goal. If you only have an hour a week, make sure you're setting a reasonable goal for the quarter. You can always have a related goal the next quarter to continue your progress.
This might be a shock, but yes, these are the only three goals you should have each quarter. By narrowing your focus to just three, you’re setting yourself up for success rather than overwhelm. And trust me, when you accomplish those three goals, you’ll feel more progress than if you had half-heartedly tackled ten.
Step 2: Create a brutally Honest Time Budget
Here’s where the optimism trap gets us every time. We think, "Oh, I can knock out that client revision in an hour," but three hours later, you're still tweaking fonts. If you’re finding yourself running out of time at the end of every day or constantly juggling deadlines, it’s time for a reality check.
Track Your Time
One of the best ways to get a true sense of how long things take is to actually track your time for a week or two. You’ll be surprised at how often things run over the time you budgeted in your head. Use tools like Toggl or Clockify to track specifics. This will not only help you assess how much you’re cramming into your day but also help you see patterns in how you spend your time. Maybe it’s not the big projects that are eating up your hours but the smaller, unplanned tasks.
Use Hour-Long Timers
If you aren't going to use a tool like Toggl or Clockify, set an hour-long timer for each task. This isn’t about finishing everything within that hour but getting a feel for what’s achievable in that time. Maybe you thought you could bang out a blog post, but after 60 minutes, you’ve just made it through the outline. That’s okay! You’re starting to see what’s reasonable for you—and that’s a game-changer for scheduling your week.
Pro Tip: Be honest with yourself when factoring in personal commitments, downtime, and even the unexpected. Once you have a realistic view of your time, it becomes easier to plan effectively without hitting that dreaded burn-out wall.
Once you have a better idea of how long tasks take, you'll be able to schedule your time and your goals.
Step 3: Break It Down
Now that you’ve got your goals and a clear picture of your available time, it’s time to map out your plan of attack. There are a few ways to go about breaking down a goal into actions. One might feel better to you than another.
Option 1: step-by-step
This is the traditional way most people start. Think about the end goal and begin writing down in sequential order what you'll do to achieve it. Once you have all the steps you'll be able to figure out how many to accomplish each week for the rest of the year.
Option 2: back out of a date
You might have a goal that needs to be done before the end of the year. Let's say you want to host a black Friday sale. In this case, you'll do the opposite of the first option and think about what needs to be completed the day before the sale starts, the week before, etc.
Option 3: Split the difference
Often there is a date in the middle that indicates a big milestone but it's not the end goal. This works well for launches. You'll have a Cart Open date that you can use to identify all the steps before it and all the steps that occur after it.
The biggest hurdle for any of them? The dreaded paralysis by analysis. Don't be held hostage by the unknowns.
You don’t need to know all the steps before you start.
So many designers get stuck because they can’t see every detail of the path in front of them. The truth is, you only need to know the first few steps, and once you start moving, the rest will reveal itself. Imagine you’re driving at night—you don’t need to see the whole road, just the next 200 feet. Same goes for your goals.
If you're looking at your goal and have no idea where to start, start with what you do know. Slot those into your plan and know that the next steps will reveal themselves. For example, if your business goal is to launch a template, start with just the first few actions: researching your market, creating the template, drafting a sales page, and identifying the tech tools you’ll need.
You can always adjust and refine your plan as you go. It’s about getting the momentum going, not having everything perfect from the outset.
Step 4: Schedule like a Pessimist
Our human minds believe we can do so much in very little time AND we think we can work long hours day after day. I like to blame corporate America for these flaws but I'm sure other things contribute.
To counteract this, we must schedule our time like a pessimist. Plan for days when your energy is low, the kids are home sick, the internet is knocked out, or any number of other things that might disrupt a perfectly planned day.
Here are a few tricks I've found to plan with flexibility.
Flexible Time Blocks
Instead of rigid blocks of time, we're going to create flexibility within your calendar. Life happens, and you need the space to adjust. Block time, in 60-90 blocks for the high-level chunks of work, but don’t overdo it. Leave yourself some flexibility to move things around if, say, a doctor’s appointment comes up or you’re just not feeling it one day.
Your time blocks should also reflect categories, like “Client Projects” or “Marketing Tasks,” not specific tasks. That way, if you’re scheduled for “Client Work” but don’t feel like jumping into a branding project, you can pivot to another client-related task without throwing off your whole schedule.
The Power of Breaks
Taking breaks might feel counterintuitive when you’ve got a to-do list a mile long, but breaks are essential to staying productive. Regular breaks can help you avoid burnout and keep your creativity flowing. Give yourself a 30 minute gap between any of your Time Blocks. Whether it’s a walk outside or a lunch break without your phone, stepping away will recharge your mind and body.
“This is what ultimately matters: where you end up, not the speed at which you get there or the number of people you impress with your jittery busyness along the way.” - Cal Newport
Movable Blocks
Identify the best place for your time blocks during a typical week so you have a starting point. Each week, look ahead to the next and make any necessary changes. Move a time block to avoid a doctor's appointment or call. If you're having a low energy day or wake up sick, you can move a time block to a different day, shorten the block or just delete it for that week.
Delete the Unnecessary
We create stories for ourselves on all the things we should do. Begin to ask yourself why: Why can't you remove this from your schedule? Removing busy work tasks from your workload can free up time and allow you to fully focus on the deep work. Checking your inbox every hour (or even every day) is usually unnecessary but drains so much energy. Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.
Step 5: Define Good Enough for Now
Let’s get real: perfectionism is just procrastination in disguise. If you’re waiting for your work to be flawless before you hit “publish” or send it to a client, you’ll never get it done.
So, stop overthinking it. The first step is to take any step.
Get the First Draft Done
Your first draft doesn’t need to be perfect—it just needs to be done. You can always come back later to revise and tweak. If you have a goal of writing more blogs or finally launching that new digital product - do it! It can always be revised. Most great work goes through multiple iterations before it becomes what you envisioned. But none of that can happen until you get the first draft out of your head and into the world.
It’s far better to have a rough draft in hand than to have the idea of perfection in your head. "The first draft of anything is shit." - Hemingway
Pro Tip: Launch before you're ready. I'm not saying to put a terrible version out in the world, but become comfortable knowing future revisions will be required. That can be next quarter's goal. Taking action is the only way you’ll see progress.
3 Goals in 5 Steps Summary
These five steps are your roadmap to cutting through the noise and focusing on what really matters over the next quarter. You don’t need to overhaul your entire business or hit every possible goal. Instead, focus on what’s achievable and meaningful.
If you spend this time focusing on your clients, your business, and one momentum goal I can guarantee you'll be looking back three months from now satisfied with your progress.
And remember—if all of this feels overwhelming, I’m here to help. I can support your journey with my monthly operations membership! We can identify and break down your three goals together. Learn about how we can work together to design a calmer, more efficient business for you within the SOS Crew.
