How to track a goal across several projects without hiding the math

“Improve the business” is hard to use as a weekly decision. “Prepare the autumn launch” is easier to connect to projects: the website, the customer email, and the launch materials. Write what finished means in the goal notes, then connect only the projects that contribute to it.

A project progress bar measures recorded work. Completing the launch checklist does not prove the launch earned revenue or satisfied customers. Keep the outcome measure in your review alongside the work measure, rather than treating 100% as evidence of success by itself.

• Equally: each counted project has the same share. This works when each deliverable deserves the same influence.
• By size: shares use the number of counted tasks and subtasks. Larger recorded work trees contribute more; this is a count, not an estimate of hours.
• By importance: give each project a rating from 1 to 9. A rating of 3 has three times the share of a rating of 1. Renaming the rating does not change the calculation.

Use one interpretation consistently. If you choose importance, agree on what a high rating means before adjusting it because a percentage looks disappointing.

Suppose the website is 50% complete and the launch email is 100% complete. Count them equally and the goal is (50% × 1/2) + (100% × 1/2) = 75%.

Now give the website an importance rating of 3 and the email a rating of 1. Their shares become 75% and 25%. The result is (50% × 75%) + (100% × 25%) = 62.5%, displayed as 63% after rounding. No task changed; the goal now gives more influence to the unfinished website.

Each project still uses its own Linear or Weighted progress setting. Goal weighting decides the share of a project, not the weights of its tasks.

You can create an undated goal. With both dates present, expected progress uses the fraction of calendar days elapsed between them. That is a straight-line reference, not a forecast of effort or delivery.

“Leave pending projects out” redistributes shares among counted projects. Pending means the project is explicitly marked Pending, or every unfinished top-level task is paused or blocked. Seven or thirty days of inactivity does not qualify. A mixture of active and paused tasks does not pause the whole project. Completed projects remain counted.

1. Check the projects included and the counting method.
2. Inspect each project’s share and its recorded progress.
3. Review the suggested next move against your real constraints.
4. Write the decision or change in goal notes.
5. Check your actual outcome measure separately.

Archiving or excluding a project can change the denominator. Explain a large percentage change before interpreting it as a burst of productivity. The same goal calculation feeds the goal view, Analytics, and OREN; none of those turns a work percentage into proof of an outcome.