Goals, Not Resolutions
I stopped setting resolutions at New Years. I never keep them and usually did not have a good way of tracking any of them. On the other hand, goals can be set up for proper tracking.
I already do this well with my writing. Adjustments have to be made, but that is because I keep learning things that help me or I hit a season where I need to change things up. One such change occurred with the Thanksgiving holiday, including my husband retiring from his driving job and moving to a volunteer position at another agency. He loves what he does, so did not want to give it up entirely. This totally changed how things flow around here now. On a good note, he has a sign carving hobby and plans to have some ready for local events where I’ll have an author table setup as well.
To accomplish all of this we both have to set goals of what we want ready, how we will go about financing it, and how to mesh what we do for each other into our time. December was a proving ground for how this would work. We have had some challenges, but we are sorting them out.
For my writing, I’ve started using a tracking sheet where I can track my progress each week for a quarter. When I’m editing, I track by chapters and base it on timing of what I’ve done before for my goal. I need more time for my initial self-editing than I do for fixes found by beta readers and editors. I do also track it by word count for a tracker used by one of my writing groups.
Draft writing is always by word count. There is no better way to track it. For book three of my Light series, I aim to see if I can do 10,000 words a week, which is less than what you would have to do for NaNoWriMo that has the aim of 50,000 words in a month. I have a couple of weeks for outlining and notes at a high level and then I dive into writing. The aim is to have a draft by the end of March. April will be a rest month for this project and then self-editing will be in May. If all goes well, I could be ready for beta readers during the summer. If not, I’ll know how to adjust based on what derailed my measurable goals.
The best thing to do is to have a larger goal and then break it down into measurable pieces like I did for a novel I plan on releasing in October or November. Each day, note what you accomplished on that goal and at the end of the week assess if you achieved the goal. If you fell under 75% complete, what happened and why? If it continues the same for a month, you will know if it is simply because of trying to over achieve with how your life schedule truly works or if something else is sabotaging your efforts. I can usually tell within a month if it is me sabotaging myself or I misjudged the time I had to work with.
Whenever you are setting up a big goal, it is important to have an accountability partner that you trust and who will nudge you hard when you need it. Without accountability, you can wander off on some other path and feel the frustration of not meeting the goal. I know I do this easily, so have figured out what I need to stay on track, at least with my writing. I’ll let you know when I work on health regularly around the unpredictable multiple sclerosis. The health goal is a lot harder for multiple reasons and most of them are my own issues to overcome.
Let’s make 2024 a success by meeting goals that are measurable or, at the worse, learning how to set them up properly, so we stay on course. I know I will have some more adjusting happening as we head into a new season of life together with far different time schedules than last year.