Setting goals is never a problem for me. What is a problem staying focused on them and taking the small but necessary steps to reach those goals. (I talked more about this last month — see the full post here.) In the past couple weeks I’ve been part of several conversations where we touched on goals, and I thought you all might benefit from some of the tips I shared.

Setting Goals

The first step in setting goals is to figure out what you want to accomplish. You probably already have ideas knocking around in your head, so WRITE THEM DOWN. It doesn’t matter if these goals feel too lofty or aspirational or impossible. If it’s what you want, make it a goal. Want to learn to knit? Get it on paper. Got a hankering to play the guitar? You know what to do. Need to lose the quaran-fifteen? Set down the Cheezits and add it to the list.

The next step is a bit harder. Break your goals down into manageable tasks. I mention knitting a lot when I’m talking about aspirational goals because I would LOVE to knit, even though I know I don’t have the time right now. Even so, I know there are a lot of steps I’d have to take between buying a set of giant needles and gifting my knitted masterpieces to friends. (Huge thank you to my talented friends who’ve gifted me their knitted projects. You amaze me.) Every goal can be broken into smaller tasks, and that’s where you need to focus.

Let’s use writing a novel as an example. There are a lot of ways to write a novel, all of which are correct. I like to outline and create a character bible before I begin, but a lot of writers just dive right in. But that’s not what I’m talking about. Those steps can be lumped into research, which is all an important part of writing a novel, but it’s not actually writing.

The goal of writing a novel has to be focused on actually writing.

I like daily word count goals. Others have a weekly goal, and it doesn’t matter how much they write on a particular day as long as they reach that goal on day 7. I find I work best when I build upon my habit of putting my butt in my chair every day at roughly the same time for roughly the same duration. Not everyone has a home situation that allows this, so do what works for you.

Managing Goals

Once you’ve set your goals, it’s time to stop procrastinating and actually tackle that first task. If you’re writing a novel or short story or blog post, often times the hardest part is actually sitting down to write. There’s always one more load of laundry to fold, or episode to watch, or lunch to make. I’m here to tell you that all of that can wait. (Except the lunches. You should probably feed your children in a timely manner.) Writers are fond of the phrase BIC (Butt in Chair) because you can’t write without it.

I’ve found it’s helpful to give yourself parameters. When I first started writing novels, my goal was 100 words per day. 100 words is nothing. It’s a paragraph. But it keeps your story moving forward, and more times than not, I would write beyond those 100 words. After a few years, I found I could write 1000 words in about an hour—sometimes even faster—but after that I needed to stop. Some people can write thousands of words every day and I envy them, but my brain doesn’t work that way.

A few years ago I wrote my darkest book yet. It’s emotional and intense and took a lot out of me. But as much as I was loving the story, I was frustrated because for the first time in several novels, I wasn’t hitting my word count goal. It didn’t take me long to realize that I needed to adjust my expectations. I was writing differently—editing as I wrote instead of blazing through the first draft—and that meant I needed to manage my original goals. I cut my daily goal to 500 words, and finished the book.

Then the pandemic hit and pretty much every goal in existence went out the window. I was editing Chasing the Sun last March, so not actively writing, and it wasn’t until I started the next book in the series that I realized that expecting 1000 words per day wasn’t just unrealistic, it was impossible. I floundered for two months before I was struck with this:

There are no guarantees that life will go back exactly as it was before. Continuing to wait for that day feels like it’s doing more damage than good. Sure, I’ll still cut myself some slack on bad days, but if I want to maintain my big goals (like publishing one book per year), I need to stay focused.

I set a new goal for myself: finish the first draft by my birthday in mid-March. Then I did the math. I divided 60,000 words by the number of days until my birthday, then crossed my fingers that the total would be manageable. And it was! It came out to 650 words per day. A step up from the dark book’s goal, but enough of a step down from 1000 that I felt confident I could reach it. Let me repeat that:

I was confident I could achieve the goal.

This is really important. Because no matter what it is you’re trying to accomplish, if you set unattainable goals, you’ll get frustrated and give up before reaching it. It’s normal to have an off day. Life guarantees that. But if you find you’re unable to maintain your new goals, take a step back and reevaluate. There’s a difference between a stretch goal and one you cannot reach, ever.

I wrote at least 650 words every day in January except for three days. One of those I anticipated because I took part in an 8-hour virtual writing conference, but I doubled my word count the following day. And it felt GOOD.

Be Kind to Yourself

You may wonder what being kind to yourself has to do with setting and managing—and achieving—goals, but if you don’t allow yourself the occasional bad day, you’ll give up. Life is going to do its best to get you off track. It’s up to you to stay focused on the big picture and keep at it.

No one knows you better than yourself, so find small ways to motivate yourself. The beginning of the year is a great time to steal great ideas from others find tricks you may not have considered for yourself. Some people reward themselves with a manicure or concert when they reach a certain milestone (in before times, obviously). For me, lining up a row of Chewy Sprees and eating one per hundred words is excellent motivation. I also added a row to my daily task tracker and on the days I write 650 words, I give myself a gold star. And I gotta tell you, those gold stars feel good.

I’d love to hear about a goal you’re working toward in the comments.