Writing Goals
Get Things Done, Set Goals
Every writer that has ever written should set goals for themselves. Whether they be daily goals, weekly goals, yearly goals, or lifetime goals doesn’t matter. Above all, a writer should have some type of writing goal in mind as they pursue their writing. For example, here are my writing goals:
Daily Goals:
- Read – 1 hour
- Write – 1,000 words
- Manage Social Media – 1 hour
- Blog – 1 hour
Weekly Goals:
- Post at least 1 blog post
- Finish at least 2 scenes in writing project
- Finish reading at least 4 chapters in any book(s)
Yearly Goals:
- Complete writing project
- Publish at least one poem/short story
- Read at least 3 books
Lifetime Goals:
- Publish a novel
Why do goals matter?
To be honest, they don’t, unless you stick to them. I could have forty-five daily writing goals, but none of them really matter unless I act on them. However, goals do matter in that they give your life a framework. Before I started keeping lists around with my daily goals, my days were often unproductive and chaotic. I’d get to the end of the week or month and wonder why I wasn’t achieving anything.
By keeping a list of goals, you can at least keep track of where you’re succeeding and failing. Furthermore, when you have a physical way of assessing your growth, you can then determine whether those goals are attainable in the time you have allotted, whether or not they actually line up with your lifetime goals, and if you need to reassess your plan of attack. Write down every goal you’d like to achieve in your specified time period, see if you can complete them all. After that, you can cull out any of the goals that aren’t quite lining up.
Again, the key is to actually keep up with your goals. You will inevitably fail. You won’t complete your entire list because life got in the way. That’s fine, but when you fall off the horse, make sure you get back up and try to make up for that lost time. When you have goals, you start yourself on the path of success. When you work towards those goals, you will succeed.
Lissy