---
name: quarterly-planning-review
description: "Run a quarterly review and plan for a person or small team: goal scores with evidence, wins, misses and root causes, an agent-prepared time and energy audit, keep, stop, shrink and start decisions, next quarter's objectives, a 13-week plan with milestones, a capacity check, calendar protection and risks. Use whenever someone wants a quarterly review, to plan the next quarter or 12 weeks, to reflect on what worked, to reset after a busy period or to set team quarterly priorities."
license: CC-BY-4.0
metadata:
  author: Afeez Adebayo
  author_url: https://afeezadebayo.com
  author_linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afeez-adebayo/
  author_x: https://x.com/za_icon
  source: https://afeezadebayo.com/skills-md/productivity/planning-tasks/quarterly-planning-review/
  category: productivity
  subcategory: planning-tasks
  version: "1.0.0"
  created: "2026-10-10"
  updated: "2026-10-13"
---

# Quarterly Planning and Review

A week is too short to see direction and a year is too long to steer. The quarter, about 13 weeks, is long enough to finish meaningful work and short enough to keep urgency. Yet most people never stop to ask what the last quarter actually achieved, which projects should end, or what the next 13 weeks are for. Work rolls forward on momentum, and goals set in January quietly expire. Approaches such as Brian Moran's The 12 Week Year argue for treating each quarter as a full planning cycle for this reason. [Reference, The 12 Week Year]

This skill runs a half-day (or two-hour) quarterly review and plan for a person or small team. It reviews results against goals, looks at where time actually went, keeps, stops or starts projects and commitments, sets the next quarter's objectives, maps them onto a 13-week plan with milestones and protects the time needed in the calendar.

## Operating principles
1. **Evidence first.** Start with what happened, using numbers, calendars and notes, not memory.
2. **Stop before you start.** Every new commitment needs something to end, shrink or pause.
3. **Few objectives.** One to three for a person, three to five for a team.
4. **Plan in weeks.** Milestones by week make a quarter concrete.
5. **Protect the plan.** Time for priorities goes into the calendar before the quarter begins.

## Inputs
- Last quarter's goals or OKRs and scores.
- Weekly review notes and lesson log.
- Calendar for the quarter (meeting load, travel, holidays).
- Project list and task list.
- Upcoming fixed dates: launches, deadlines, holidays, events.
- For teams: each member's capacity and the wider company goals.

## When to use, and when not to
Use it at the end of each quarter, at the start of a new role or business year, after a major change, or when work feels busy but directionless.

Don't use it for weekly planning (`weekly-review`) or for company-wide strategy across many teams (the Product Management category).

## Workflow

### Part 1. Review the quarter (45 to 60 minutes)
1. **Score goals:** each key result from 0 to 1.0, with one line on why.
2. **Wins:** the five most important things finished, including unplanned ones.
3. **Misses:** what slipped and the root cause (too many goals, poor estimates, dependencies, energy, priorities changed).
4. **Time audit:** the agent summarises the calendar: hours in meetings, focus blocks, travel and the share of time on goal work.
5. **Energy and wellbeing check:** what drained and what energised; any signs of overload.
6. **Lessons:** three lessons to carry forward.

### Part 2. Decide what to keep, stop and start (30 minutes)
| Decision | Questions |
|---|---|
| Keep | Which projects and habits clearly moved goals? |
| Stop | Which meetings, projects or commitments added little? Who needs telling? |
| Shrink | What can continue with less time? |
| Start | Which new opportunities matter most next quarter? |

### Part 3. Plan the next quarter (45 to 60 minutes)
7. **Objectives and key results:** use `goal-setting-okrs`.
8. **Fixed dates:** holidays, launches, travel and deadlines on a 13-week view.
9. **Milestones by week:** what must be true by weeks 4, 8 and 13 for each key result.
10. **Capacity check:** hours needed against hours available after meetings and fixed commitments; cut if over.
11. **Calendar protection:** recurring focus blocks, the weekly review slot and key milestone check-ins.
12. **Risks:** the two or three things most likely to derail the plan, with a response for each.
13. **Share:** with a manager, team or accountability partner, if useful.

## 13-week plan template
```
| Week | Dates | Fixed events | Milestones | Focus blocks |
| 1 | 6-10 Jan | Team offsite | KR1 baseline measured | Tue, Thu am |
| 4 | 27-31 Jan | | Case study 1 published | Tue, Thu am |
| 8 | 24-28 Feb | Conference | 50% of KR2 | Mon, Wed am |
| 13 | 31 Mar-4 Apr | Quarter end | Review and score | |
```

## Agent preparation
Before the session, the agent prepares:
```
Goals and scores so far: KR1 0.8, KR2 0.4, KR3 1.0
Completed projects: 6 | Slipped: 3
Calendar: 41% meetings, 18% focus blocks, 6 days travel
Weekly review lessons (top recurring): late inputs from design; Monday overload
Upcoming fixed dates next quarter: 3 holidays, 1 launch, 1 conference
```

## Output format
```
# Quarterly review and plan: <person or team>, <quarter>
## Scores and wins
## Misses and root causes
## Time and energy audit
## Keep, stop, shrink, start
## Next quarter's objectives and key results
## 13-week plan with milestones
## Capacity check and calendar protection
## Risks and responses
## Lessons to carry forward
```

## Monthly check-ins
A 20-minute check at weeks 4 and 8 keeps the plan alive: compare milestones with reality, update key result confidence, move one focus block if a goal is at risk, and drop or shrink anything that no longer fits. Small corrections at these points prevent a surprising score at quarter end.

## Annual view
At the end of each year, review four quarterly summaries together. Look for goals that repeated without progress, time that kept going to meetings and the projects that produced most results. Use those patterns to set one or two themes for the year, then let each quarter choose specific objectives within them.

## Where to keep the plan
Save each quarter as `quarters/<year>-Q<n>.md` beside `goals.md`, so the agent can prepare the next review from real history instead of memory.

## Edge cases and judgement calls
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| No goals were set last quarter | Review wins, misses and time use, then set goals for the first time |
| Quarter was disrupted (illness, job change) | Score kindly, record the context and plan a lighter quarter |
| Meetings take over half the week | Make reducing meetings a key result |
| Team members have very different capacity | Plan by person, not by average |
| Company goals change mid-quarter | Run a short re-plan; drop goals openly |

## Handoffs to related skills
- Writing objectives and key results: `goal-setting-okrs`
- Weekly execution: `weekly-review`
- Breaking initiatives into steps: `project-breakdown`
- Protecting time: `time-blocking`
- Routines for the quarter: `habits-routines`
- System problems found in the review: `productivity-system-audit`

## Worked example
A head of content reviews the quarter. The agent's summary shows scores of 0.9, 0.5 and 0.3, 46% of time in meetings and a recurring lesson about late inputs from design. Wins include a research report that drove most new subscribers. The review stops two low-value weekly meetings, shrinks a social project and keeps the research programme. Next quarter's objectives focus on two research reports and a newsletter relaunch, with milestones at weeks 4, 8 and 13, a design hand-off agreement to fix the late inputs and two protected writing mornings each week. The plan fits after cutting one smaller key result.

## Common mistakes
- Planning without reviewing.
- Adding goals without stopping anything.
- No weekly milestones, so the quarter drifts.
- Ignoring holidays and travel in capacity.
- Leaving the plan out of the calendar.

## Running it with a team
Give each person 20 minutes to review their own quarter first. Then meet for 90 minutes: share scores and lessons, agree team keep, stop and start decisions, set three to five team objectives with one owner per key result, and map milestones. End with each person's personal objectives linked to team key results and a date for the first monthly check.

## Self-check before you answer
- Were goals scored with evidence and root causes named?
- Did something stop or shrink before new work started?
- Does the plan have weekly milestones and a capacity check?
- Are focus blocks and reviews in the calendar?

---
Created by Afeez Adebayo, Marketing, SEO & Growth Expert
Website: https://afeezadebayo.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afeez-adebayo/
X: https://x.com/za_icon
Source: https://afeezadebayo.com/skills-md/productivity/planning-tasks/quarterly-planning-review/

Licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). You may copy, share and adapt this skill, including for commercial use, as long as you credit Afeez Adebayo and link to the source URL above. Keep this notice in any copy or adapted version.