Wednesday, January 17, 2018

The 2018 Process part two Setting goals and creating deadlines

This process of setting goals and creating deadlines is something that I visit again and again. I visit it at the onset of my chosen time limit, a year, and I analyze it quarterly, monthly and weekly.

A year is not a long period of time. I feel like it's just long enough to manage and to stay fresh. Quarterly, at least for me, is easily divided up not by seasons but by UFM issues (the 15th of March, June, September and December). I prefer to have quarterly goals more than anything because ninety days is a good sprint.

Weekly goals get a little more intense. I think a week can be planned well in a matter of minutes, and life's schedule is easy to juggle in seven day increments.


For me, when I set my goals, I look at two things: first, how much have I accomplished in my most prolific year? And second, how much do I accomplish in an average year?

If I can write four novels and forty short stories during my most prolific year, but over the course of my entire writing life, I average two novels and ten short stories, then I can create a goal off of that. It really forces me to think about all that I've done and all I can do. So, setting my goals is not arbitrary, it's based on what I do averagely and then bumped up to a third to something just at or outside of my limit. If I do no reach my goal, I know that I have done an appropriate amount of work and hopefully more than average.

Deadlines.

If what I want to do takes a year, I just can't leave it at that. It is not wise to create a superhuman list of goals and not set several deadlines. I cannot say I'd like to write two novels and twenty short stories and say 52 blogposts this year and leave it at that. If I did, it would suddenly be December and I'd have all of this to do in the last 31 days of the year.

Here I have a choice.

Weekly I could say that I'd like to write one blogpost and maybe a short story. Quarterly I should want to write six short stories. And the larger projects? The novels? Write one in the spring, one in the fall. I just have to plan for it.

Self imposed deadlines, much like personal goals are best left to the individual, but they need accountability.

Goals + Deadlines = Accountability. As you schedule and some disciplined practice the process develops and will lead to success.

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