Your weekly sub-goals should feel too easy at first

The hardest part of a 13-week quarter isn’t the final push — it’s still having gas in week 8. So calibrate difficulty by aiming for sub-goals that feel 70–80% achievable each week, and intentionally undershoot the first three weeks.

People burn out because they treat Q1 like a sprint. Week 1 they go all out, week 2 they try to match it, by week 4 they’re dragging and the next nine weeks feel like a sentence. That’s not momentum — that’s a debt cycle.

Instead, think of it like progressive overload in training. Start with sub-goals that almost feel boringly easy. Maybe that’s “4 hours of deep work” instead of “finish the whole report.” The point is to get the win early, build the habit, and leave energy for the weeks where