Writing | Productivity

Writing Accountability Challenge

Increase productivity by focusing on writing goals for the month ahead

“Accountability breeds response-ability.” — Stephen R. Covey

The goal of setting goals

The calender is our guidepost for setting goals. Monday is a reset. The first day of the month is a reset. The first day of the year. These resets days allow us to spend some time focusing.

I have ideas floating on my desk, on little square pieces of paper, in my journals, on digital files, on receipts in my purse (yes really)!

I hate that feeling of 100 open tabs in my head.

As each month comes to a close, I sit down with my writing planner and set my goals for the next month. I need this ritual to stay focused as my brain is high wired with ideas. Should I go this way? Or should I go that way? Too many options cause a breakdown in momentum.

Accountability in the form of posting my goals, via Medium and social media, helps me to keep focused on the merry-go-around of ideas.

It’s okay to concentrate on one focus for a month and then switch gears to another writing goal. For example, one month I focused on setting up a simple website, a central location of my work. While in another month, I focused on my fiction writing. Another month learning the ropes here at Medium.

The Monthly Challenge

I invite you to post your writing goals (not just for Medium, all your writing goals) for September. Write out your goals and pin that post to your Medium page. Keep it out and center as a reminder for you. You can submit your goal article to Flint & Steel; see submission guidelines below.

Extra credit

Post it on your social media for further accountability. For example, let’s say my goal for the month of September is to write 500 words each day. In my Instagram stories, I will post my daily outcome. It keeps me on task and connects me to other writers who are doing the same.

Types of writing goals

I’ve experimented with different goals over the last 2 years, word counts, time spent writing, number of stories, etc. Be creative, but decide what works best for you.

• Word count: Examples, write 500 words of your book. Write 1000 words for the day. Write 20,000 words for the month. A convenient website to track word count goals is NaNoWriMo. You can use the site to set up a project and add your word goal there. Each day, log your word count under your project. I use this for when I work on my book and my short stories.
• Time spent: Decide to devote one hour per day or 30 hours for the month. Be realistic about what time you have available for September. My kids are going back to school, which allows me more time now to devote to writing. Woohoo!
• Number of articles/stories: For example, you will write 15 stories in September. Outline what stories you will be writing. What are the projects you keep putting off? What are you dying to write?

Write it out

No matter what type of goal setting you will use, spend some time deciding what stories you will write and what your focus is for the next month. Last month, my focus switched to working on this publication. I will continue that focus but also make sure I work on my fiction pieces as well.

I invite you to do the same. You can submit your accountability post here at Flint & Steel or any other publication (make sure to tag me and this post and as always follow publication rules).

Read my September writing goals

Post your results

You can edit your accountability post each day, or once a week (whatever works best for you) about your progress. It’s a great way to keep yourself accountable.

Flint & Steel submission guidelines

• Once you are added as a writer, submit your draft by using the “add to publication” feature.
• Must follow Medium guidelines (see above).
• Add the tag “writing accountability.”
• Proper photo citation.
• Use Title/subtitle format.
• Please allow 24–48 hours for submission review. Once published, I will also tweet your article.
• If publishing to another publication, please tag me and include this post.

Until next time, don’t forget. . .

Take this time for yourself to decide what you need to do to further your larger goals.

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— Ellie Jacobson, editor