You can do every step by talking to your own AI agent with AimYear connected. Each step has a line to say to it. Your agent asks one question at a time and saves the result in AimYear, so the aim and the path are the same on every device.
Say what you really want
Before any number, write the reason in one or two plain sentences. The number will change while you work on it; the reason is what tells you whether a new number is still the right one.
"All my income comes from one job, and AI can end it any day. I want my own projects to cover part of my living costs."
Make it countable
An aim is one number in one unit, its value today, a target and a deadline within 12 months. "Be healthier" or "grow my business" are wishes: you can't tell on a Tuesday whether you're closer.
Then test the unit against the reason. A number can be countable and still measure the wrong thing.
My first aim was "15 new paying customers by December 31". It had a number and a date, and it was wrong. 15 people on a $49.99 yearly plan is about $60 a month. That doesn't cover anything.
And the other thing I'm building, Worklore, would sell to companies: one contract could be worth more than all 15 customers together. A customer count can't add those two up.
So the unit became money: $1,000 a month from my own projects by December 31, starting from $0.
If one number can't count every way you plan to reach the aim, the unit is wrong. Count what all of them produce: usually money, sometimes time, sometimes people.
Check that each way can reach it
For each way you plan to try, work out what that way alone would need. This is a pace check, and it often moves the target or the deadline.
| Way | $1,000 in one month means |
|---|---|
| AimYear, the app | about 24 yearly plans sold in December ($49.99 minus the store's 15% is about $42.50 each), or about 147 monthly plans. New Year is when people buy plans like this, so December yearly plans are the realistic route. |
| Worklore, a service for companies | one company paying $1,000 or more for a pilot |
Each one can reach the aim alone. That matters for the next steps.
Order the stages by what is possible now
Ask one question: could this number move this week if I worked hard?
- If yes, the stages are steps up the number.
- If no, the first stages are what makes it possible. Nobody can pay for something that isn't for sale yet, so before "paying" come what people get (the offer, the product, the paywall), who they are and where they gather, and the channel that brings them to the point of paying.
Keep the aim big. Make every stage reachable from where you are now.
| Stage | Done when | By |
|---|---|---|
| AimYear: Pro sellable in the stores | the paywall is live, store review passed | Nov 15 |
| AimYear: December launch | 24 yearly plans sold in December | Dec 31 |
| Worklore: an offer a company can say yes to | one page: what they get, the proof, a price | Nov 15 |
| Worklore: 10 company conversations | 10 conversations started | Dec 1 |
| Worklore: first paid pilot | one company pays | Dec 31 |
The app couldn't take money yet, so "sellable" is its first stage. The service had no offer yet, so the offer comes first.
Choose one track or more
Most advice says: pick one bet and push it as hard as you can. Often that's right, and one track is the default in AimYear.
But you may have two ways that are different enough not to fail for the same reason. My app sells to people, depends on December and needs only the paywall finished. My service sells to companies, depends on conversations and doesn't care about the season. I chose to try both. That's the user's call, not the app's.
In AimYear each way gets its own track: its own stages, its own current stage, its own pace, and every track ends at the same aim. The Path screen shows the aim in the centre and each track as a tab, with the other tracks still in view. Pushing harder on any one track can reach the aim. You focus on whichever one you choose that day.
Two tracks cost time, so set a check date. Each track names the sign it must show by then. For me, by December 1: the app in the store, and a company agreeing to talk about a paid pilot. A track that misses its sign gets fewer of your hours. The data decides, not the fear of picking wrong.
Fill the current stage with steps, hard first
Add steps only to the current stage of each track. Later stages change once you learn from this one. A step is an action that fits a few focus blocks and ends in something you can check: "email 10 people from the waitlist", not "do marketing".
Put the hard step first: the one you'd put off, like asking, sending, publishing or selling. Preparation (research, polishing, building one more thing) comes only where it blocks the hard step, and only as much as it blocks.
- AimYear: write the store listings, cut the features that aren't built yet from the paywall, test a purchase, submit to review.
- Worklore: write the one-page offer, send it to 3 founders I already talk to and ask what's missing, then make one sample.
Each day then starts with one main step from any track's current stage. After that, work on whatever is comfortable, without guilt.
Review every week
Once a week, look at three things: where the time actually went, the pace of each current stage, and one question: is this stage still the right one, or is the next one possible now? If a stage keeps slipping, it's usually too big or not really the next thing. Split it, or change the order.
The review is also where the aim itself can change, as mine did. Changing the number isn't failing if the reason stays the same.
AimYear works inside the AI agent you already use, and connecting it is free. The Path screen with tracks is part of the AimYear app, which is coming soon.