Goals
Griply connects your big ambitions with the daily actions that make them happen. Goals are at the heart of this system. They turn your vision into actionable steps and help you track meaningful progress over time.
If you’re completely new to Griply’s structure, start with Creating & Planning Your First Goals first.
Creating a Goal
To create a new goal:
Go to the Goals tab in the sidebar.
Click + Add goal in the top-right corner.
Give your goal a title. Start with an action verb for clarity, e.g. “Run a marathon” or “Write my first eBook.”
Select a life area to link your goal. This keeps your big picture balanced across work, health, learning, and more. Learn more in Setting Up Your Life Areas.
(Optional) Add a description to define what success looks like or remind yourself why this matters.
Choose a color and icon. By default, your goal inherits its life area color, but you can override this to visually group related goals.
Set a start date and, if relevant, a deadline.
Choose a goal metric to track progress (explained in detail below).
Using Goal Plans
If you need inspiration, Griply includes goal plans: pre-built templates with example tasks, habits, timelines, and suggested metrics.
For example, the “Run a Marathon” plan might include:
Tasks for researching training programs and buying equipment
A habit to “Run 4 times per week”
Subgoals for Base Training, Speed Phase, and Race Prep
A Distance metric to track weekly mileage
You can fully customize a plan after adding it.
Goal Metrics
Goal metrics determine how Griply tracks your progress. You set them when creating a goal, and you can change them later. Metrics update automatically as you complete linked tasks, habits, or subgoals, and they’re visualized in the Insights Dashboard.
For more, see Tracking Your Progress.
Metric | When to Use It | Example Goal |
|---|---|---|
Completed tasks | Track progress based on finished tasks | “Write my thesis” |
Subgoal progress | Track progress via milestones | “Expand into 3 new markets” |
Numeric target | Count completions manually | “Meditate 100 times” |
Money | Financial outcomes | “Save €10,000” |
Percentage | Measure relative improvement | “Grow revenue by 15%” |
Weight | Fitness-related goals | “Lose 5kg” |
Distance | Travel or fitness | “Run 100km in 3 months” |
Time | Hours spent on something | “Study 100 hours for an exam” |
Pages | Reading or writing | “Read 20 books” |
Chapters | Structured learning | “Complete 10-course chapters” |
Custom | Anything else | “Build 3 prototypes” |
Pro tip: Each subgoal can also have its own metric. Subgoal metrics appear alongside goal metrics in the Insights Dashboard and inside the goal detail view with their own progress charts.
Breaking Goals Down
Big goals can feel overwhelming until you break them into smaller, trackable parts. Griply supports four breakdown types:
1. Tasks
Tasks are single, one-off actions that move you forward.
To add a task:
Open the goal detail view.
Scroll to the Tasks section.
Click + Add task, give it a name, and optionally set a due date or priority.
Example:
Goal: “Launch a new website”
Task: “Write homepage copy”
Task: “Send draft to designer”
Task: “Schedule final review meeting”
Learn more about creating and managing tasks.
2. Habits
Habits are recurring actions that build consistency.
To add a habit to a goal:
Open the goal detail view.
Go to the Habits section.
Click + Add habit, name it, and set the schedule.
Example:
Goal: “Run a marathon”
Habit: “Run 4 times per week”
Habit: “Stretch after every run”
Tip: Each habit has its own progress chart and can use a different metric than the main goal. You’ll find this inside the goal detail view.
Learn more about habits.
3. Subgoals
Subgoals are milestones within a goal.
To add a subgoal:
Open the goal detail view.
Scroll to the Subgoals section.
Click + Add subgoal, give it a title, set an optional metric, and add tasks or habits under it.
Example:
Goal: “Write my first eBook”
Subgoal 1: “Complete research”
Subgoal 2: “Write first draft”
Subgoal 3: “Prepare for publishing”
Pro tip: Subgoal metrics not only appear in the Insights Dashboard, but they’re also displayed directly inside the goal detail view with their own progress charts.
4. Sections
Sections group related tasks inside a goal.
To add a section:
Open the goal detail view.
Click + Add section under the tasks list.
Give it a name and start adding tasks into that section.
Example:
Goal: “Start a YouTube channel”
Section: “Research” → brainstorming, competitor analysis
Section: “Production” → filming and editing
Section: “Launch” → uploading and promotion
Planning Your Goals
Deadlines
Start dates and deadlines aren’t just reminders, they’re visible across Griply in your Timeline, Upcoming calendar, and daily planning views. Setting clear timeframes keeps your goals realistic and helps you plan ahead.
Timeline
The Timeline is the second view on the Goals screen, showing every goal and subgoal as a bar running from its start date to its deadline. It's where you see what overlaps and what you've stacked into the same few weeks, and you can drag a bar to reschedule a goal without opening it.
Zoom between month, quarter, year, and five-year ranges depending on your planning horizon. It's a premium feature, available on Desktop and iOS.
See Timeline for the full guide.
Focus Blocks
A focus block reserves calendar time for a whole goal rather than for one task, so the hour belongs to the goal and you pick the work once you're in it. These were previously called goal timeblocks.
The quickest way to create one is to drag across an empty span on any calendar and pick Goal or Life area from the create menu. Clicking the block opens the goal with its linked tasks and subgoals.
A block can also point at a life area, a Smart List, or a tag.
Setting a Goal's Impact
Every goal carries an Impact level of High, Medium, or Low, describing how much it contributes to its life area, or how much a subgoal contributes to the goal above it.
Impact is what separates the goals that move your life from the ones that merely occupy it. Once set, you can filter tasks by goal impact anywhere in Griply, so a busy day full of low-impact work becomes visible rather than just felt.
Set it when you create a goal, or from the goal's edit dialog later. See Filters for filtering by it.
Organizing the Goals Screen
The Goals screen has controls for making a long list readable.
Grouping has three modes: none for a flat list, by life area for checking balance, and by deadline for quarterly sections that show what's coming due across every life area.
Filtering narrows by life areas, active goals, goal impact, start date, and deadline. Your filter is saved and re-applied the next time you open the screen.
Sorting by any column breaks ties by deadline, earliest first. Two High-impact goals appear with the more urgent one on top. Goals with no deadline sort after the ones that have one.
On Desktop you can edit progress, impact, start date, and deadline straight from the goal list without opening each goal. On iOS the Goals screen is a card list with the same grouping, sorting, and filtering, and you can unfold a goal to see its subgoals without leaving the screen.
Editing & Managing Goals
Edit a Goal
Open the Goals tab → Click on a goal → Click the 3-dot menu (top-right) → Choose Edit goal. You can change the title, description, deadlines, metrics, or linked life area.
Favorite a Goal
Go to the Goals tab → Right-click a goal → Click Add to favorites. Favorited goals appear in the sidebar for quick access.
Duplicate a Goal
From the Goals tab or goal detail view → Click the 3-dot menu → Select Duplicate goal. This creates a full copy, including tasks and structure.
Complete a Goal
Open the goal detail view → Click the Complete goal button at the top. The goal moves to your completed list but remains visible in Insights.
You can complete a goal whether or not it hit its target, and Griply keeps the progress it actually reached rather than rounding up. A goal completed at 72% reads 72% everywhere afterwards, which is the honest record of where it landed.
Move a Goal
Go to the Goals tab → Right-click the goal → Select Move to life area and pick the new area.
You can also change which goal a subgoal sits under directly in its edit dialog, without the separate Move step.
Archive a Goal
From the goal detail view → Click the 3-dot menu → Select Archive goal. Archived goals disappear from active views but stay stored.
Delete a Goal
Go to the Goals tab → Right-click the goal or open the 3-dot menu → Click Delete goal. Confirm your choice to permanently remove it.
Warning: Deleting a goal is permanent. Goals do not go to Trash and cannot be recovered. Tasks linked to the goal are not deleted, they just lose the link. Archive instead if you might want it back.
Pro Tips for Achieving Your Goals
Focus on fewer goals → Three to five active goals per timeframe keeps you sharp.
Link planning with goals → Use the Daily Planner and Weekly Planning to stay aligned.
Review weekly → Regular check-ins prevent drift. Use recurring reviews or habits to stay on top of progress.
Celebrate milestones → Subgoal completions are key motivation boosts.
Stay flexible → Life changes; goals evolve. Archive, adjust, or delete whenever needed.
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