Q1 90-Day Sprint: The Day 60 Reality Check (What's Broken and How I'm Fixing It)
Okay so I've been running my Q1 90-day sprint for 60 days now, and I need to report back. First 30 days: worked great, I was totally locked in. Days 31-60: I hit a wall and everything derailed.
Here's the honest 60-day retrospective nobody asked for, what actually broke, and the exact changes I'm making for Month 3 to save the quarter.
The Q1 Plan (What Was Supposed to Happen)
When January started, I set three Wildly Important Goals (WIGs) for my 90-day sprint:
- Work: Launch the new Q1 product marketing campaign
- Growth: Grow the Career Goals email list to 4,000 subscribers
- Learning: Read 10 business/career books
The Reality Check: Where I Am at Day 60
Real talk: I'm currently 1 for 3.
Goal 1: The Product Campaign (Win)
I shipped the campaign. It went live last week, the sales team loves the collateral, and engagement numbers are solid. But getting it out the door took way more hours than I planned.
Goal 2: The Email List (Behind Pace)
Currently at 3,200 subscribers. I needed to be at 3,600 by now to hit the 4k goal. My publishing cadence fell off when the product campaign heated up.
Goal 3: Reading 10 Books (Total Failure)
I've finished exactly two books. I'm currently halfway through my third. I vastly underestimated how much mental energy the product launch would drain. By 8 PM, I wasn't reading Cal Newport; I was staring at the wall.
What Broke: The Autopsy
So why did the system break down in February? I did a quick time audit of my calendar, and the problem became painfully obvious.
My time blocking completely fell apart.
In January, I ruthlessly protected my 90-minute deep work blocks. In February, I let "quick syncs" and "urgent questions" completely shred those blocks. I was context-switching 15 times a day. You can't do deep work when you're anticipating a Slack ping every 6 minutes.
When the deep work blocks disappeared, everything took twice as long. The campaign launch consumed my evenings, which killed my reading time, which meant my morning writing sessions were sluggish because I wasn't getting enough sleep.
The cascading failure of bad boundaries.
The Fix: What I'm Changing for Month 3
The beauty of a 90-day sprint is that 60 days in, you still have 30 days to course correct. You don't have to throw the whole year away just because February was a mess.
Here are the specific, structural changes I'm making for March:
1. The "Nuclear" Calendar Block
I'm no longer just blocking out deep work—I'm putting it in an untouchable spot. Every single morning from 8:30 AM to 10:00 AM is now hard-blocked as "Focus: Do Not Book." I have set my calendar to automatically decline any meeting invites during that window. If it's truly urgent, someone will call me. They never do.
2. Dropping the Book Goal
Here's a lesson in prioritization: if everything is important, nothing is. I am officially abandoning the "Read 10 books" goal for Q1. I'm accepting the L. Instead, I'm reallocating that evening energy strictly to resting and writing, so I can catch up on my newsletter cadence to hit the 4k subscriber goal.
3. The Friday Weekly Review is Non-Negotiable
In February, I skipped two of my Friday weekly reviews because "I was too busy actually doing the work." That was a massive mistake. The weekly review is the steering wheel. If you don't use it, you drift into the ditch. My Friday 4 PM review is now a locked-in meeting with myself.
Try This Week
If you set Q1 goals back in January, you are exactly 60 days into the quarter. Do an honest audit this weekend:
- What's actually on track?
- What's completely derailed?
- What is the ONE goal you need to drop so you can actually achieve the others?
Cut the dead weight. Protect your deep work blocks. Let's finish Q1 strong.
What system are you using to track your Q1 progress? Drop it in the comments.