How to Set Clear EOS® Rocks™ Template: Smart 90-Day Priorities That Actually Move The Needle

As we head towards the end of the year, entrepreneurs all over the world are trying to plan ahead for the future. A lot of these plans involve outlining goals and priorities…which is exactly what EOS® Rocks™ are.

The EOS® system is a structured framework for aligning your company’s vision with actionable priorities, ensuring everyone is moving in the same direction , executing the vision day-in and day-out.. When we introduce the SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound), it helps clarify and focus your Rocks™ for maximum impact.

EOS® Rocks™ are the 3-7 most important priorities for a business to achieve within 90 days. An EOS® Rocks™ template is basically a tool that helps business leaders with predictability and focus. 

This tool basically exists to answer the question: “If we do these few things in the next 90 days, will the business be meaningfully better?”  The answer to this question should guide teams to progress towards the 1-year plan.

As a professional EOS Implementer® and business coach, I want to show you how to use a simple EOS® Rocks™ template to set clear 90-day priorities that drive real results and accountability in your business. (P.S if you prefer a video walkthrough, here’s a video of me walking you through the process)

Too many rocks

The biggest mistake I see leaders make is trying to do everything at once. We tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in 90 days and underestimate how long things actually take. 

This lack of discipline leads to scattered focus and underwhelming results. The solution is deceptively simple: narrow your wish list down to smart rocks…three to five company-wide priorities for the next 90 days. Generally, rocks tend to be limited to 3-7 high-impact goals but I tend to recommend just three to five – not too many, but absolutely necessary.

Set these company rocks as quarterly priorities to keep your team focused on what matters most. By doing this, you break down larger annual goals and organizational goals into manageable, actionable tasks.

Start with the Foundation

Before diving into your priority list, establish these three key metrics for the quarter: 

• Due Date – Set a clear end date (e.g., December 29th)
• Quarterly Revenue Target – Choose a number that’s achievable but requires a healthy push
• Measurable Milestone – Something concrete like “close three new clients”

It’s important to set clear objectives and measurable goals within a defined time frame to keep your team laser focused and accountable. Having a clear understanding of your current challenges will help you set effective rocks that drive business growth and improve sales.

Here’s the critical point: if you don’t have an action plan to hit these numbers, they’re just wishes. Integrating SMART goals with the EOS® model ensures all objectives are aligned with your company’s vision and supports business success. Setting achievable company rocks is crucial to avoid frustration and disengagement among team members.

Types of Rocks in your organization

In the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®), not all rocks are created equal. To truly gain traction and drive business success, it’s essential to understand the three main types of EOS® rocks: Organizational Rocks, Departmental Rocks, and Individual Rocks. 

Each plays a unique role in moving your business forward and ensuring your team is aligned with your company’s vision.

Organizational Rocks are the big-picture, company-wide priorities that impact the entire organization. These are the most critical objectives that, when accomplished, will make the biggest difference in your business landscape over the next 90 days. 

Setting effective smart rocks at this level ensures everyone is working toward the same strategic objectives and helps the entire organization stay on the same page. Teams also typically require a level of cross-functional collaboration for execution, while delegating different milestones across core functions. 

Departmental Rocks 

Departmental Rocks are often priorities that strengthen a specific function so it can better support the company goals. They are often in service of company rocks or 1-year plan but they’re really about strengthening that core function of the business. By creating rocks at the departmental level, you empower team members to focus on the most important priorities that will drive their part of the business forward.

Individual Rocks improve execution once the company cascades these systems and tools from top throughout the organization.  They’re not big projects or extra work, but rathers, tasks that improve and sharpen individual roles if you will.  

Sometimes they can be milestones or data/pieces that support the Department rocks: For example “Reduce handoff errors by documenting and using a standard checklist on every client for 90 days”. This type of rock could in essence help team members with documentation, or help them to do a better job and strengthen their skills and effectiveness. 

When everyone has clear individual rocks, it’s easier to track progress, maintain accountability, and make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

By understanding and leveraging all three types of rocks, you create a structured approach to strategic planning that keeps your leadership team and the entire organization focused on the right rocks. This layered system is a powerful tool for maintaining momentum, achieving measurable outcomes, and making real progress on your EOS® journey.

How to go from a laundry list to laser focus

Step 1: Brain dump everything
Now you have a laundry list of goals, you want to get everything out of your head. If you have a leadership team, bring them together for this exercise. Let everyone write down all the things swimming around in their minds. Don’t filter yet, just capture. Encourage team members to identify and share insights about current challenges facing the organization to ensure everyone is aligned and informed.

Step 2: Narrow down ruthlessly
From your laundry list, identify the top three to five most important things. This is where people get stuck because we want to do everything. Resist that urge. Avoid setting poorly defined goals, as vague objectives can create confusion and misalignment. Instead, focus on immediate goals that will have the greatest impact this quarter. Focus is your superpower.

Crystal clear priorities: The SMART Framework

Vague priorities lead to vague results. As a rule of thumb, I like to ask “what does done look like”?

Let’s look at an example:

Setting SMART Rocks is essential for organizational clarity and traction. When you write EOS® SMART Rocks™, you define high-impact, 90-day goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, ensuring everyone is aligned and accountable.

An example of a vague priority is “increase referrals”. This tells us nothing. Who owns it? What’s the specific outcome? What does “done” look like?

Turning this into a SMART priority would look like: “launch referral program by November 15th generating 10 qualified leads per month” 

Now we’re talking. This priority is:

• Specific – Launch a referral program
• Measurable – 10 qualified leads per month (measurable goals)
• Attainable – You have the resources to do it
• Relevant – It supports your one-year plan
• Time-bound – Due by November 15th

SMART Rocks™ are 90-day, high-impact goals that help organizations stay focused by aligning priorities across leadership, departments, and individuals. Rocks should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) to ensure successful completion by the end of the quarter.

Turn strategy into action

A clear priority is just the beginning. You need to break it down into milestones and assign ownership. Effective project management and project tracking are essential for turning strategy into action, ensuring that progress is monitored, dependencies are managed, and resources are allocated efficiently.

Assign one person to lead each priority (or rock). This doesn’t mean they execute everything themselves…they can delegate (milestones and part of the Rock)…but they own the outcome and ensure the rock gets completed on-time. For maximum visibility and clarity, each rock should be documented and accessible to all team members.

Each rock should include fields for Description, Owner, Due Date, Status, and optional Milestones to guide progress.
You can use tools like ClickUp for SMART goal templates, project tracking, customizable views, and AI-powered insights, as well as Manifestly for role-based assignments, can significantly enhance the process of allocating tasks and monitoring progress.

Integrating EOS® SMART Rocks™ into your business with the right tools and software ensures you can track progress effectively. When you have clarity and timing, there are no questions. People get excited. Everyone stays aligned.

The secret sauce: weekly accountability to track progress

Here’s where most businesses fail: they set 90-day priorities and hope they get done. Hope is not a strategy.

In EOS®, we use a weekly meeting cadence called the Level 10® (L10®). This is where the rubber meets the road, where you drive real traction in your business. Weekly meetings and regular check-ins are crucial for reviewing progress, maintaining accountability, and ensuring everyone stays aligned on their Rocks™. 

If you’re not running on EOS® yet, simply set a weekly meeting where your team:

• Reviews progress on priorities
• Tracks milestones
• Solves issues quickly that might create obstacles

Using customizable dashboards allows you to visualize your team’s performance, identify bottlenecks, and adjust strategies as needed. Maintaining a high completion rate on Rocks™ is important…celebrate when your team completes 80% or more of your overall Rocks™. 

This weekly rhythm drives accountability, helps you finish things faster, and creates momentum. At the end of the quarter, celebrate completed Rocks™ and use this milestone to review progress, learn from missed Rocks™, and set new Rocks™ for the next 90 days.

90-Day thinking is powerful

When you get really clear about your 90-day priorities and build the discipline to focus on just three to five key initiatives, everything changes.

The EOS® framework helps align organizational goals and supports business growth by ensuring that every department and individual is working toward the same strategic objectives. You gain visibility across your whole team. Everyone operates from the same playbook. And most importantly, you start making progress and maintain momentum toward your long-term vision, even as you adjust to challenges or changes.

That’s the power of being really clear and setting 90-day priorities that actually move your business forward.

The structured nature of the EOS® Rocks™ template ensures every team member understands how their work contributes to the company’s long-term goals and eliminates distractions by focusing on what matters most each quarter. Achieving quarterly priorities requires continuous monitoring and adjustment to stay aligned with annual and overall company strategy.

Want help implementing this system in your business? I’d love to have a conversation about helping you achieve more, faster. Reach out and let’s talk about how to finish this year