Thursday, December 9, 2010

On Goal-Setting

I've been thinking about my writing goals for December, and thinking about how I'm going to fit them in since my kids' week home from school with croup has kind of derailed things for a while.

And then I realized: I have writing goals for December. Concrete ones. Achievable ones, even now that I'm down a week, if I really put my head down and get to it.

I never really did that before.


I mean, I used to have ideas about what I wanted to achieve, but they were usually a little unrealistic and not really that defined anyway, and I never really felt that bad if I didn't meet them.


I think doing NaNo, which had a clear goal with a defined deadline, and taking a class, which had an assignment due every week, helped me develop my writing habit into a goal-setting habit. I like this change; I'm getting more done.


How about you? Do you have clear writing goals? Does it help or hinder you?

6 comments:

  1. yes, i set dates that I want certain things or stages of my novel completed by. otherwise I'd never get there. ;)

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  2. Yes, my goal is to line edit my manuscript and get it out to my readers sometime in Dec (of course I don't expect the readers to get back to me til sometime in January due to holiday craziness)

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  3. After my experience with NaNo, I've realized I could benefit from some writing goals!

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  4. I definitely do better when I have a deadline.

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  5. For setting and track goals, I've been using a web-based app called GoalsOnTrack. It's not only helps with setting SMART goals, but also keep you on track by updating your goal progress when you complete a task towards goal completion. Worth a try: http://www.goalsontrack.com

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  6. I always set a "finish by" date, usually one I can't achieve, but it's always good to have some expectation to reach for.

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