A simple enough concept, right? Not so much when you have quite a few tasks piled up on the docket. Setting goals is essential to keeping pace with the business of writing. Sticking to them? Well, sometimes we all need a little help in that regard.

Scheduling

Setting goals is all about sitting down and scheduling your time. I try to make this a weekly routine. Every Sunday morning I figure out my week.

Social media calendar. Blogs to consider. E-mail newsletters to send. Drafts to edit, outline, write, publish. Wherever I am in the process. All get added to the list.

And then I set my goals.

Start small

I typically end the list with anywhere from ten to fifteen items. Some are long term. Some are as simple as clicking a button or updating a profile page.

Knocking off the small tasks is key to healthy goal setting. It scores you an early win and motivates you to keep pushing, keep working until every item is crossed off.

At least, that’s how I look at it.

Falling into traps…

Long term planning is crucial to your business, to writing in general, but it can be a detriment when trying to stick to your goals. Broad stroke thinking, higher order mapping, tends to be more about sketching out ideas for the future than actually working on something tangible.

I’m not judging at all. It needs to happen. Knowing where you MIGHT be in a year can be a great motivator. It can also overwhelm you and cause you to buckle under the pressure of something that is only a possibility and not set in stone.

I’ve been in this trap lately. With Greystone finished on my end, I’ve been looking ahead to 2019. The next series of books is much larger in scope than Portents. More characters. Conspiracies and twists around every plot. Deeper mysteries. More books, in general.

It has me locked in place. Thinking about each and every piece of this ever-growing puzzle. From conception to marketing. From drafting to publishing schedules. Each aspect demands more time leaving me precious little to focus on tangible goals.

And sticking to them.

Hit those goals.

How do you snap out of it? Start small.

For me, it was centering the new series on a single character. Who is he? Why does he matter to this story? Where does he start and end?

A small piece of a larger puzzle but one able to be solved in the now, rather than the nebulous future.

Maybe it isn’t that simple. Maybe you need to walk away for a bit. Set a different goal. A different mission for the week.

Last week I updated my Amazon Sales Pages and worked on keyword/category shifts. I’ve been telling myself to do it for months but never found the time or the motivation to accomplish the task. Now it’s done. A tangible goal achieved and I can get back to work on what I should be doing.

Getting ready for 2019 to be a kick ass year.

Set your goals and stick to them. Crossing them off the list is a pleasure unto itself and will lead you to the next great challenge.

Thanks for reading.