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 PHers! Wishing everyone a great 2026. This year for me is about clarity, freedom, health, and shifting focus toward what truly matters.
Work goals
Have my youth healthcare waiting list platform reverse-engineered and future-proofed
Gradually reduce my responsibilities in my company
Make myself replaceable so my company can run independently
More freedom, less daily operational work
Personal goals
Full focus on my Nusa Ceningan resort dream
Shift from tech-driven to pleasure-driven life
Enrich my social circle with inspiring, interesting people
Enjoy more, worry less, stay healthy
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@paul_van_der_meer Having my fingers crossed for your growth! :)
Oh same thing with languages! I definitely want to improve my English, I want to finally start learning Georgian, and unfortunately I feel like there's no room for Spanish anymore :)
A good reminder to finally make plans systematic, thanks!
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@alexyas Do you live in Georgia? I need to say that one seems to me impossible to learn, especially those characters seem to be complicated to write :D
@busmark_w_nika Yes I do and must tell that it is pretty hard and feels like learning a language as a baby :) The alphabet is unlike anything else and it's difficult to write, which makes me feel like I'm learning something truly new!
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@alexyas yeah, that's true, if you want to feel young, always learn :)
Zawa
I love the focus on sustainability, Nika. I’m afraid I’m taking the exact opposite approach for Q1—loading up the queue to see what breaks. Here is my list:
Work
Designkit: Push for global PMF.
Cutout.Designkit: Validate PMF (trying to replicate the success).
Day Job: Lay the foundation for the internal globalization project.
Personal
Learning: Japanese AND Spanish (might be overkill, but why not) + PMP certification.
Physical: Tennis lvl 4.0 + PADI Open Water & Freediving.
Side Hustle: Get early adopters for My brand-Lunalumos.
Writing it all down makes me realize I might need your "go to bed before midnight" rule just to survive this schedule. Good luck with the channel!
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@tony_hsieh2 Thank you, it seems that my channel will not see those 15 videos. Priorities have changed :D
How do you approach language learning?
My personal goals would be
1.Get my first clients
2.Develop more with AI
3.Focus on my business
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@dragos_marincas I have my fingers crossed for you.
@busmark_w_nika thanks! Appreciate your support
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@dragos_marincas You are welcome :)
I’ve been in a similar spot with my own work goals. For me, the big shift was getting more systematic (and less “push harder”) with my SEO goals for rivieraproduce.com.
Instead of trying to do everything at once, I’m focusing on a simple, sustainable cadence: pick a few priority pages each week, improve them (intent match, internal links, on-page fixes), track visibility/keyword movement, and then iterate. It’s basically “small, consistent optimizations” over heroic sprints.
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@ursula_schultz Probably I should refocus on a few things rather then trying to complete everything. :D
Great list, Nika! I can totally relate to the "systematic approach" – pushing too hard usually backfires. Good luck with your Product Hunt launch!
For my Q1 2026, I’m focusing on a mix of scaling and finishing chapters:
📚 Reading: Read more books (I have some favorites in mind, happy to share/chat about them if anyone is interested!).
🚀 Business: Continue building my website and scaling my new Shopify app business.
🎓 Education: Finally finish my degree in E-Commerce.
✨ Life: Simply enjoy the beautiful things in life (balance is key).
Let's make this a great quarter! 💪
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@noel_dario_andres1 Thank you, Noel :) What books do you want to read? :)
Don't drink alcohol for a year (4health)
Run 100 Miles
Cycle 400 Miles
75 theProgram workouts
Water therapy: 50 cold plunges + 50 heat sessions
Monthly date night
Host a friend’s game night
Own a Gun (home defense)
Learn a skill: Gun safety
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@trackslife These are pretty useful for health. Are you planning launch them all here? :)
@busmark_w_nika Yes, still testing with a small group of users at the moment but excited about how its coming together.
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@trackslife Then lemme know about the launch ;)
Hey! Love seeing this structured approach: scaling back the intensity to make it sustainable is smart. I've been there with burnout from over-pushing work goals, and that "less is more" mindset really helps long-term.
My Q1 goals lean into that same vibe:
Work goals (Focido-focused):
👉 Ship core accountability features: get real people witnessing daily tasks, no more solo grind.
👉 Hit 500 early users who stick around (testing that "why bother without witnesses?" hook).
👉 One solid Product Hunt launch (fingers crossed, no forum blocks this time!).
Personal goals:
👉 Morning walks 5x/week - clears the head for coding sprints.
👉 Read one non-tech book/month (starting with something on intrinsic motivation).
👉 Bed by 11pm, because 2am regrets are real.
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@vladimir_solovev How your bed time is going? :D I am trying my best, but I go to sleep after midnight LOL :D
@busmark_w_nika I have the same thing. But it can be fixed. I just need to be stubborn.
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@vladimir_solovev Stubbornness is my core character trait :D
Seeing this only now, hope I'm not too late to the party! One of my goals for 2026 is to play more with AI, let it bring my ideas for products to life - as a goal, I'd love to bring 1 product / Q to life (of course, to Product Hunt as well).
Let's see 👀
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@ruxandra_mazilu you can join literally anytime :D What product do you want to launch? :)
Super late to this party, but here goes:
Work Goals:
>> Ship our company's AI product this month - get real world feedback and scale that product
>> Ship a 1 solopreuner product and see if I can get anyone to pay me something for providing them value - any money, is my first step.
>> Find and befriend other solo/small team founders builders who will keep me on the good and straight path (see above)
Personal Goals:
>> Go ham with my Meta Ray-Bans just have fun creating content for no other reason than fun (sample - https://x.com/Bingeljell/status/2018381164596408751?s=20)
>> Get my kids to build stuff - got an FPGA board and a R-pi at home, want them to get familiar with tech
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@nikhilshahane You are not late to the party. Parties start later anyway :D
What products do you want to finish? :)
@busmark_w_nika True that! :D
I spent Jan thinking about what products might have some market and monetization potential; shortlisted a few and got planning. But life is funny...
I run a Strategy + Creative agency in India and had to send out some proposals for new biz in early Jan. Absolutely hated our old word doc format and manual approach of doing stuff.
So I started building a tool to help automate it. Shipped a few proposals for work and kept adding stuff I wanted. 2 weeks later and I've built out a full proposal suite that's AI Agent first, fully encrypted and can work as a pipeline tracker with user analytics, templates, a wizard to guide you through the proposal and of course a bunch of templates.
Figured, I'd just go for it! I want to launch it this week and see where it goes.
That's one reason I ended up here too.
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@nikhilshahane Cool! How big is the agency? (I mean the number of employees or so) :)
@busmark_w_nika We're at ~80 I think - all inclusive. The general trend across agencies (at least in India) is that - we're dying a horrible slow death :P - (I wrote about it last year - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/death-thousand-cuts-implosion-advertising-industry-nikhil-shahane-l5byf/ - and given all the mergers in the last few months I think I got it right. I wish I hadn't though :( )