Accelerating Your Quarterly Goals via AI
Most quarterly goals don’t fail from lack of effort. They fail from lack of clarity and follow-through. Let's fix that!
Taking another one-week break from the Business Pillars series to share an effective and, dare I say, enjoyable new AI approach I’ve adopted since the year began.
Most new approaches are born of necessity, and often that necessity is to solve a problem. So let’s begin there.
As I entered 2026, I needed some help with my quarterly “rocks.” See, I use EOS (Traction) to run both of my operating businesses, as well as my personal brand and personal life. That means I’m running four Traction programs at any given moment:
The “Scott Monday” personal brand (cringy to write that…)
My private personal life
This means I have around eight rocks each quarter that I want to make progress on, roughly two for each of the four realms above.
As the quarter progresses, it’s easy for me to lose track of each rock, next steps, past conversations, and so on.
(Oh, and please, please don’t read this and suggest, “Why don’t you just do fewer things? Really focus?” I can’t. I’ve tried. I’m like an addict. If I tell myself I’ll only do one or two things, I secretly start working on other things, like that Family Ties episode from the ’80s where Tom Hanks makes a guest appearance as the uncle with a drinking problem and gets caught trying to get drunk off vanilla extract. But I digress…)
So this year, I decided to use ChatGPT (this would work for any major AI platforms) as my Co-CEO to help me execute my rocks. Here’s how I set this up.
Step 1: Establish Your Quarterly Rocks
I won’t dwell on this too much, because I’ve written a ton over the years on EOS (Traction), what it is, and how I use it.
And by no means is Traction the only system that produces quarterly goals (called “rocks” in the Traction ecosystem).
Still, I find it to be the most effective.
If you don’t have quarterly rocks set up, simply choose a personal or professional project or goal you’d like to focus on over the next 90 days. Make sure the goal is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). Also, make sure it aligns with an annual or lifelong goal.
Jot down a title for the rock, describe why you want to work on it, describe what this rock looks like when “complete” in 90 days, and call it done. See? Easy.
Step 2: Generate an Impact Filter for Your Rock(s)
Now let’s take this a bit deeper.
Dan Sullivan has a brilliant framework for properly defining a rock. It’s called an Impact Filter. It walks you through defining the rock’s purpose, importance, ideal outcome, best result, worst result, and success criteria.
You can download it from Dan’s website here, or, if you just want the PDF version, click here.
Either way, fill this document out for your rock. It should only take about 10 minutes. We’re going to use this in Step 4 below, so don’t skip it.
Step 3: Build a Custom GPT, Project, or Gem Called “Co-CEO” (Optional)
This process works even better if your AI knows about you, your business, and your life. It’s called giving your AI “context.”
I created a four-step process a few months back on exactly how to do this. I suggest pausing here and getting this set up if you want to maximize the results of this process.
If not, no worries. This will still work. It may just require a bit more “training” as you move through the steps below. By that, I mean the AI will likely ask you more clarifying questions than it would if you were working with a fully customized GPT.
Step 4: Feed It the Prompt
Now the fun begins.
I wrote a prompt that tells the AI how you want it to behave and the process you want it to walk you through. Download it here. (Google Docs / Microsoft Word)
You’ll notice it gives the AI a role to play throughout the quarter. I’ve found this helps keep the AI focused and prevents rabbit trails.
You’ll also see that it instructs the AI to walk you through two distinct phases: Rock Definition and Ongoing Execution & Dialog. This is critical. It ensures the outcome is aligned with what you want before diving into implementation.
Go ahead and select your custom GPT from Step 3 (again, optional), open a new chat, and copy and paste the prompt. The AI will guide you from there.
Pro tip: I highly recommend immediately naming the chat something like “! – Rock 1 Q1 2026” so you can easily come back to it throughout the quarter.
Step 5: Use the AI Throughout the Entire Quarter
This is where the magic really happens.
Every time you go into rock focus time, open the chat and literally say something like, “I’m back and ready to work on this rock.” The AI will often summarize your current status, suggest next steps, and help you find alternate approaches you may not have considered.
Some things I’ve used it for:
Defining next steps when I’m stuck
Doing deep research on a specific element of the rock
Preparing meeting notes for upcoming conversations with my team
Reviewing meeting transcripts, summarizing them, and rolling insights into next steps
Writing emails related to the rock
Creating documents like guides, spreadsheets, or outlines tied to the rock
The power, for me, is having all of this live in a single chat. It genuinely feels like you have a sidekick working alongside you on the project.
Wrap Up
I’m continually finding my work with AI to be far less about “tell me the answer” or “do this for me,” and far more about “help me think this through.”
The AI is not you. It does not have your industry knowledge. It does not understand your interpersonal dynamics. It does not bring your distinct flavor to a situation.
But it is exceptionally good at logic, production, research, and generating clear communication. That combination is incredibly helpful when navigating complex quarterly goals and initiatives.
So use it, people!
My sister and I launched a podcast for sub-$20M business owners and operators. Episode 6 is out!
We’d be honored if you’d give it a listen! You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whatever platform you prefer!
Things I've Enjoyed Lately: Sticking with the AI theme: perhaps my favorite newsletter these days is Superhuman. It’s a nearly daily run-down on new AI news, tools, and features. I seem to pick up one cool new technique, resource, or factoid in every newsletter. That’s it, just good, solid content!