2026 and your goals. Let's try to set them for Q1.
Since I haven't been able to meet my work goals very well in the last few quarters, I now plan to approach them more systematically and not push myself too hard on work goals, as that ultimately led to problems that made my plan less sustainable.
So here is my structure and list:
Work goals:
👉 Edit min. 15 pre-recorded YouTube videos
👉 Remove inactive newsletter subscribers, which will be in the hundreds (this will be mentally difficult)
👉 Product launch on Product Hunt (this is a specific product, not a random product)
Personal goals:
👉 Stay consistent in exercising
👉 Learn 4 languages (+ read lessons from textbooks I ordered), ideally every day
👉 Eat less sweets
👉 Go to bed before midnight more often (and not at 2, like I did before)
What are your goals for the first quarter of 2026?
Replies
Happy new year! Great to put the goals into writing here:
Work:
✦ Grow my empathy platform (launching this month on PH) to 200 users
Personal
✦ Keep my fitness consistent, daily exercise, one day off per week
✦ Create more in general, just started using Substack for my writing
✦ Keep learning Japanese so I can finally hold a conversation with my partner's parents
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@matthias_biehl How does the empathy platform work?
@busmark_w_nika At its core, it is a platform that provides random, but intentional one-to-one conversations between its users. Each month users receive a new person, that may be anyone from anywhere, and a conversation starter in their inbox. The rest is up to them.
My goal is to break down barriers, spark conversation and help people build empathy by meeting and chatting with people that are outside of their usual circles.
If you are interested in finding out more, I am always open for a chat :)
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@matthias_biehl So is it something like "connecting/social media platform"? Wouldn't be better to connect them with therapists?
Great question and I like that your goals seem achievable (maybe except the learn 4 languages, at least I would struggle hard with that :) ).
Here are mine:
Work goals:
create and improve an AI solution for my team at day job so that it becomes actually useful, in the end
launch a SaaS on product hunt and grow it during 2026
Personal goals:
more quality time with my family and friends (more daily and at least 2 vacations, better 3), if possible reduce work time on day job a bit to achieve this and my SaaS goal (eg. take every second Friday unpaid leave)
get fitter (exercise more, eat less...)
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@mitja_martini Learning languages is definitely a struggle for me, but I feel so proud when I upskill myself, it is a long-term project :D not only for this one year.
Which two vacations do you wanna accomplish? :)
@busmark_w_nika : We have already planned a ski trip and maybe visit a friend in Portugal. Hopefully one more, maybe to the Canary islands.
Which languages do you learn? I know German, English, a little bit of Spanish, and had Latin in school. I needed to learn Spanish in an apprenticeship and even get a certain degree. I struggled until I went for 3 weeks to Spain to attend a full-time language school. I lived with a family that spoke only Spanish. Immersing really works for me. Unfortunately, I haven't used it since then and forgot most of it.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@mitja_martini That sounds adventurous! Have a safe trip! :)
When it comes to languages – I am trying to learn DE, FR and ES. :) I know that some people studying law and medicine had Latin. Did you study something like that?
Pretty Prompt
Beat 7.94% weekly growth 🙃
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@ilaiszp There is needed another post on how you want to achieve that :)
Pretty Prompt
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@ilaiszp What can I do in terms of that? :DDD
Pretty Prompt
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@ilaiszp Can we schedule one via LinkedIn?
i always try to keep my goals more measureable, adding either time-limits or quantitative indicators, so:
personal goals:
- consistently exercising 4 times/week
- run my first half marathon
- reach 3hrs of screen time/day on my phone or less. that's honestly the most difficult one
work goals:
- launch our isFake.ai successfully
let's put in the work this year!
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@yellow_yetti I have my fingers crossed for your goals! BTW, 3hrs per day is a real challenge :D
Personal
👉 Continue learning Turkish and switch to real usage (movies, audio)
Work
👉 Find my first real bug through a bug bounty program
👉 Make @Memorizer: Learning Assistant easier to use and clearly explain spaced repetition and its benefits
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@azamat_valitov I was in Turkey for a few days, I think the language is quite difficult to learn. Good luck! :D
Dirac
Hey Everyone
Work Goals -->
Scale my startup Dirac up to 200 users
Reach 1000 followers on instagram
Personal Goals :)
Gain weight (+5kg) and Muscle
Get down to 1.5 handicap in golf (currently 2.3)
Read for 30 minutes every night (~4 nonfiction books)
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@peterz_shu What do you read? :)
BTW, why have you decided on Instagram primarily?
Dirac
@busmark_w_nika Well right now I'm reading a book called Breath, by James Nestor.
Its got a wide userbase, and is not as time consuming as youtube, and its algorithm is not as unforgiving as Tiktok. And also I already have some 400 followers
My 2026 goal? Finally getting a thread accepted!
It feels like only “popular” folks like you end up having real discussions, while the rest of us are mostly here just upvoting, testing, and buying products.
I swear, when I try asking questions via email, I often get replies that sound like a very polite robot. So here I am, hoping my thread survives moderation!
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@mrpop Maybe the first step is showing up in the comments. :) You can earn followers also this way :)
Yeah, that makes sense 🙂 I’m trying to be more active in comments now.
To be honest, all the threads I’ve tried to post so far got rejected (I’ve tried a few times), so I’m probably doing something wrong.
Out of curiosity — have you had threads rejected by moderation?
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@mrpop Do you mean by a real moderator? Probably yes, because it was disapproved after several hours and then contacted the support and had a talk with them.
bugstack
Personal:
- Ski Saudan's Couloir
- Make Nigiri that doesn't fall apart
- Train my cat to stop waking me up at 6am
Professional:
- Scale past 1000 users (Never cracked 4 digits with any of my ventures)
- Product launch on PH!
- Better myself as a community member
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@masebuilds When is the launch? :) PS: What is Nigiri? :)
bugstack
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@masebuilds I should update it :D aaaa, is it sushi? :D I ate my first 2 months ago (29yo) :D
Tbh, my main goal for Q1 was:
Launching my first product ✅
And I'm happy to say I will be ticking it off successfully from my list, as PostGod is launching this Wednesday (excited and nervous at the same time)!
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@tudor_moldovanu Feel free to message me on LI so I can support :)
@busmark_w_nika thanks, Nika, will do! That's super kind of you 🙌
@busmark_w_nika For Q1 2026, I am keeping it pretty simple.
On the business side, the main focus is launching Curatora on Product Hunt, then bringing in early users and scaling it in a way that actually makes content creation easier for marketers and creators.
On the personal side, I just want to stay consistent. Reading more books and showing up for my workouts.
Nothing fancy. Just steady progress.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@imtiyazmohammed I think that for 2026 it is enough, especially if you want to do these things on a regular basis.