Intentional How to Finish What You Start

By: Chris Bailey

Published by Penguin Group, 2026-01-06

"A powerful guide to turning ambition into action—by focusing not on willpower but on what matters most."—Charles Duhigg, author of Supercommunicators and The Power of Habit

Setting goals is easy. Following through on them? A whole lot harder.

It turns out, the secret to finishing what you start isn’t sheer willpower or the latest productivity hack. It’s becoming more intentional.

With Intentional, bestselling author Chris Bailey distills a decade of deep research on productivity to deliver a profound, practical, and counterintuitive road map to getting things done. Forget extensive to-do lists and a never-ending workload. To reach your goals, you must structure your daily actions around what’s most important to you—and let go of the rest. This way, getting things done becomes second nature.

Integrating the science of desire, values, and procrastination with the wisdom of Buddhist monks, Bailey lays out step-by-step strategies for intentional accomplishment, covering how to:

• Structure short-term goals to increase the likelihood of completion
• Make unappealing, boring, or frustrating tasks more attractive
• Lower the chance of procrastinating on long-term goals
• Create a system for tracking progres
• Know when a goal isn’t for you—and when it’s time to let it go

What matters most to you? Intentional shows that the answer has the power to unlock not just greater productivity but a deeper and more satisfying sense of accomplishment.