Writing | Productivity
How I will Accomplish and Track My October Writing Goals
Monthly accountability challenge
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
— Walt Disney
A new month is a chance to reevaluate and reset your goals.
Do you to shift your goals? Or stay on the path you are already traveling?
Be realistic. Look over your schedule first, specifically work and family commitments.
Then make time for you. What do you want to achieve this month in terms of your writing?
Spend 10 minutes freewriting a letter to yourself to read at the end of October.
How will you measure the success of your goals?
- Word count,
- Time spent writing,
- Number of pages,
- Number of chapters,
- Number of articles,
- Another way?
You decide the best way for your needs.
My October Goal
For the month of October I’m starting a new term in my MFA program. I’ve been attending on a part-time basis but decided to try full time in this next term which will end at the beginning of December. I’m nervous about this change but excited to get closer to my thesis classes, which is the novel I’m writing.
In October, I will devote 36 hours of writing each week.
My weekly goals
- One blog post for my website (which I have sadly neglected).
- Five to six Medium posts, which will include some short-form articles.
- Prep for NaNoWriMo: In November I will write 50,000 words towards the first draft of my MFA thesis novel. This goal is two-fold as my NaNo project is also for my grad classes.
Tracking goals
I use the Pomello timer app with Trello boards to manage my tasks and time each day. The YouTube video below is a good tutorial covering how these two work programs work together.
In case you’re not familiar with the Pomodoro Technique, I can explain. Back in the late 1980’s, Francesco Cirillo developed this productivity technique using a basic kitchen timer (he had a tomato timer and Pomodoro means tomato in Italian in case you’re wondering). He found he was more productive setting a timer for 25 minutes to concentrate on one task, and ONLY one task at a time.
I only have text/phone call notifications enabled on my phone because of my kids. No checking email, Twitter, Facebook, IG, LinkedIn, or your Animal Crossing island “really quick.”
No multi-tasking!
So I keep my to-do tasks on my Trello board. Then I use the Pomello timer app in conjunction with my Trello board (the video shows it better than I can explain). You can set your timer at any time increment. I use 25 minutes followed by a 5-minute break to refill my coffee, empty the dishwasher, grab a bite to eat, etc. After four sessions then I take a 20 minute break. Trello keeps track of the number of sessions I take to finish a task. Then I move on down the list.
Accountablity
Last month I failed to update my goals each day as I mentioned in my September challenge post.
This time, I’ll keep a draft going for the month and post a results post at the beginning of November.
I invite you to post your writing goals for October here at Fleet & Steel. Read over the accountability challenge post I created last month.
You can either update your monthly goal post throughout the month or post a new article when the month is over, whatever works best for you.
If you’re not a writer yet for Flint & Steel, read over the general submission guidelines. You can ask to be a writer on that post or in the comments for this article.
Raise your glass (or coffee/tea cup) to a new month of writing goals!
@2021 Ellie Jacobson
“Cheers to a new month and another chance for us to get it right.”
— Oprah Winfrey
