Every 3 months or so, I take a look at the goals I’ve set for the year and then write about how little progress I’m making on them. Here’s the update for this summer.
1. Better time management.
This year, I’ve been tracking how I manage my time. I can’t say I’ve gotten more productive, but I can definitely see how I’m wasting my time – or maybe not wasting it, but spending it on things I shouldn’t be spending it on.
Homework can wait – this crocheted princess needs crocheted dating options!
Part of my problem is that without deadlines and a full schedule, I tend to drift. I think I have all the time in the world, and then bam – I haven’t done anything I intended. I’ve been keeping a to-do list, and now the next step, I think, is to impose deadlines. And find a way to make them meaningful, since I know they’re arbitrary.
2. Publish to Medium at least weekly.
I’m at 19 for the year, not counting two table of contents posts. I should be at about 25-30, to meet my goal. Still an achievable goal.
3. Publish a stand-alone novella or short story collection quarterly.
Still hasn’t happened – see goal #1 for why. I have a month until school starts up and I hopefully start working in a school again, so if I can get my time management under control, I can still crank out a couple longer works this summer.
4. Grow my reader base, whether on social media, my newsletter, or Medium, by at least double. So, 600 followers on Facebook, 1500 followers on Twitter, 200 followers on Medium, and 3000 mailing list subscribers.
Facebook: 309.
Twitter: Still hovering around 864-868. It seems like for every follower I gain, I lose the same amount.
Medium: 235! Let’s up this to 400 for the year.
Mailing list: 10 new subscribers this year, but nowhere near that 3000 mark.
5. Post to my blog at least twice a week, and promote those posts to get more traffic here.
I’ve posted once since the last update. Gonna have to up my game here.
6. Read 100 books.
58 so far this year, which is 6 ahead of schedule. I just got home this week from a month in Thailand and southeast Asia. Between the flights, overnight train rides, and that day spent just chilling in a hotel room in Kuala Lumpur because my stupid bank wouldn’t let me use any ATMs and we had no money to do anything, I’ve been able to read a ton.
Overall
At this point, it’s just a matter of finding the willpower to meet my goals. There’s nothing standing in my way and keeping me from writing, except myself. Any suggestions for imposing discipline on yourself are much appreciated!
If you’ve set goals for yourself, how’re they going so far this year?
