The Endgame of Annual Goals

For the last couple of years, I have tried my best to finish all the things I wanted to go for the year in the month of October. There are two reasons for this. The first, I suppose, is that I have never been a big fan of the month of October, so I should spend it doing all the things that I've always liked doing. And I think the other reason is that, at least in the last couple of years, I've participated in NaNoWriMo.

When spending the month of November in the mayhem of writing a single novel, as NaNoWriMo suggests, it's prudent to clear everything off the desk. In this way if everything is done before NaNoWriMo begins, then it should not be too difficult to complete the 50,000 novel in a calendar month. The three times I've participated in these creative challenges I've been able to do it because I have not had other distractions.

If I had decided to write a novel, ten short stories and 100 poems in a given year, there is no way I'd be able to write all of that in one month, the month of October. And I would hope I'd have started the whole process in January. Whatever is left of the annual goals by the first of October, I know I really have 90 days left in the year. I guess I'm saying that whatever the yearly goals are, a sprint in October will get one of two things done: perhaps total completion, or at least it will get a fair portion done and the momentum to carry on through the end of the year.

When goals are made, they must be made on a specific timeline. As working along the timeline, there has to be the planned endgame. What's yours?