Mid-Year Goals Check-In: 15 Questions to Ask Yourself

A mid-year goals check-in is a short review, usually around 1 July, where you look at the goals you set in January and decide what to do with each one for the rest of the year: keep going, change it, or drop it. It takes about thirty minutes. These 15 questions walk you through it.

Halfway is a good moment for it. There are six months left, which is enough time to change course, and the start of a new month or a new half of the year gives you a natural fresh start. Researchers call this the fresh start effect.

When to do a mid-year check-in

Any day in late June or early July works. Many people pick 1 July, the first day of the second half of the year. If you set your goals later than January, do it halfway between the day you set them and the end of the year.

Block thirty minutes, somewhere quiet. Bring your goals exactly as you first wrote them, not as you remember them. The difference is often the most interesting part.

A 30-minute routine

1. Read your goals as you first wrote them (5 minutes). Notice which ones you had forgotten.
2. Look back on the first half (10 minutes). Use questions 1 to 5 below.
3. Go through each goal (10 minutes). Use questions 6 to 10 and mark a rough percentage: 0, 25, 50, 75 or 100.
4. Plan the second half (5 minutes). Use questions 11 to 15.

Writing your answers down matters. A review of 138 studies found that monitoring progress helps people reach their goals, and helps more when the progress is recorded.

15 questions for your mid-year check-in

Looking back on the first half

1. What went better than I expected this year?
2. What took more of my time and energy than I planned?
3. What changed in my life since January that my goals didn't account for?
4. When did I feel most like myself in the last six months?
5. What am I quietly proud of that isn't on my list?

Looking at each goal

6. How far along am I, honestly: 0, 25, 50, 75 or 100%?
7. Do I still want this, or did I want it in January?
8. What got in the way, and will it still be there in the second half?
9. Is the goal too big, too vague or simply in the wrong season?
10. If I set this goal today, how would I word it?

Planning the second half

11. Which one goal matters most for the rest of the year?
12. What is the next small step for it, and when exactly will I take it?
13. Which goal am I ready to drop or replace?
14. Who could help me, or simply ask me how it's going?
15. What do I want to be able to say on 31 December?

What to do with a goal that's off track

Every goal falls into one of three groups at the halfway point:

• Keep going. It's on track, or behind but still possible. Write down the next step and when you will take it.
• Change it. It still matters, but the original version was too big or too vague. "Run a marathon" can become "run a half marathon in October". Make it something to do rather than something to stop: in a study of 1,066 people, those goals were kept more often.
• Drop it. It no longer fits your life. Letting it go on purpose frees up time for the goals that do. It is a decision, not a failure.

An example check-in

1 July. Read 12 books: I'm at 5, so on track, about 50%. Run a 5k by June: I didn't, but I can run 3k without stopping. Changing it to the October fun run. Learn Spanish: dropped. The new job takes the evenings, and I'd rather run. Call Grandma every Sunday: missed a few, but mostly yes. Keep going. The one that matters most for the rest of the year: the run.

Short, honest and done in half an hour. The note itself is useful in December, when you look back on the whole year.

Make the check-in happen

The hardest part of a mid-year check-in is remembering to do it. Put it in your calendar for 1 July now, with your goals pasted into the event so you can't lose them.

Or set your goals online and we will email you on 1 July with each goal and a link to mark how far along it is, without signing in. If you also wrote a letter to your future self to open halfway through the year, it arrives the same day.

Setting goals for the coming year? Start with how to set New Year goals you'll keep.