Amanda Smith is a freelance journalist and writer. She reports on culture, society, human interest and technology. Her stories hold a mirror to society, reflecting both its malaise and its beauty. Amanda's work has been published in National Geographic, The Guardian, Business Insider, Vice, News Corp, Singapore Airlines, Travel + Leisure, and Food & Wine. Amanda is an Australian living in the cultural center of gravity that is New York City.
The energy and momentum at the turn of a new year is palpable. Think of goal setting as a roadmap, rather than just new year resolutions. Nothing magical happens on Jan. 1 that wasn't available to you on Dec. 31. It's all a matter of perspective and priorities.
I like to use the Wheel of Life graph to guide my goal setting and ensure I have balance across all important categories. I always get outside my usual environment for this step to open my mind. My favorite coffee shop is my go-to.
In previous years, I got stuck because my goals felt too fixed. I also didn't turn my goals into a plan that I could put into action and track. Here's where I thought artificial intelligence could assist. It can be a great thought partner, so I wanted to try out a tool to get actionable advice and a personalized plan. I chose ChatGPT, simply because I have the most experience with it, but Claude could work well, too.
ChatGPT is part of a larger AI chatbot landscape, and OpenAI has brought it a long way since its launch in 2022. There's a free version, which usually does the job, or a paid version for $20 per month. The paid membership will give you unlimited priority access, the latest models, Dall-E image generation and custom GPTs. Recent major updates include advanced voice integrations.
Could ChatGPT coach me to achieve my goals? It was worth a try.
First up, I did my coffee shop goal-setting session, where I outlined my perfect year and reflected on what did or didn't work in 2024. Don't go straight to AI for this step, because you don't want to outsource your thinking. The more context and depth you can provide ChatGPT with, the better.
You can either prepare a one-page document with your vision for the year ahead, what you want to achieve, your main areas of focus and what held you back last year, or feed in your goals if you've outlined them.
I put all my goal notes in a Word document, removed some sensitive information that I didn't want in the chatbot and added some extra context.
I opened a new project in ChatGPT.
First prompt: "Act as a goal setting coach. Review my goals and break into daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly actions. Then, generate a table that I can use as a goals tracker to guide my progress throughout the year. Here are my goals and priorities for the year: [insert goals]"
What ChatGPT generated was pretty generic. It just repurposed and reorganized what I provided:
It lacked specificity, personal advice and nuance. For example, one of my goals is to land regular commissions in a business publication and ChatGPT advised me to "submit at least one pitch for a big byline." That's likely not going to land a story, let alone secure a column.
What works better with AI tools is to take it one question, one conversation at a time. What I was looking for was ChatGPT to offer strategies to help me achieve each goal and spot opportunities or problems.
I decided to ask questions about my three big goals to see if ChatGPT can reveal any insights.
Follow-up prompt: "Focus on helping me with my three big goals:
Again, the responses were pretty lackluster. ChatGPT said that if my monthly expenses are $5,000 and I want two months off, I need to save $10,000. I didn't need ChatGPT to tell me that.
I responded by asking what the average maternity leave length for freelancers in the US is. It provided handy information to help budget my future maternity leave and gave me confidence that eight weeks was on the mark for me.
Follow-up prompt: "If I get pregnant in April 2025, create a savings plan for 2025 to build up 8 weeks of maternity leave. I need to save about $4,000 for business expenses and $4,000 for personal expenses."
Again, its answer was pretty disappointing, simply suggesting I save $1,000 a month from May through December.
ChatGPT did, however, provide a couple of handy tips, like creating a separate "maternity leave" bank account -- CNET would recommend a high-yield savings account, so you can earn interest on what you're saving -- and to prepay annual software expenses to avoid the monthly subscription costs. (You can read more of CNET's expert savings tips and budgeting tips here.)
In terms of the weight loss goal to improve my IVF chances and egg health, I did like how it displayed the calorie calculation. I wasn't sure if it was correct, though, so I questioned the total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).
Follow-up prompt: "For the calorie calculation, my daily activity is 7,000 steps. Is my TDEE correct? It seems too high."
Always challenge ChatGPT, because it revised my TDEE when I gave it my daily step count. I did find this little graph helpful, though:
ChatGPT did help me confirm my daily calorie intake and weekly weight loss target to reach my yearly goal. I can use this information to pre-set my tracking app more confidently. I can even use this table ChatGPT generated and put it on my fridge for more visual cues. (Read more of CNET's weight loss tips here.)
But while ChatGPT can be a good guide, always remember that it's best to consult a medical professional to ensure the safety of any plan it comes up with, particularly if you're someone with an underlying condition. There could be health risks involved in using AI without consulting a doctor.
Was ChatGPT a good goal setting coach? Not for me. It lacked a deep understanding of my psyche and how to approach tackling goals. Maybe, if I was starting from scratch and wanted AI to generate goals based on my vision and priorities for the year, it might provide useful direction.
I found it the most helpful answering specific questions and using it as a research partner. This was a good reminder that there are no shortcuts to doing the work.