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Are You Achieving Your Writing Goals?
By
Mridu Khullar
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At the start of this new year,
like at the start of every other new year, I came across
dozens of articles about the importance of setting
achievable goals, challenging myself to do new things and
fixing measurable standards and working towards them.
But what happens when you mess up the goals from last
year? Where’s the real advice about missed deadlines and
lost goals that all but kill the inspiration to come up
with new ones? I didn’t achieve three out of the ten
goals I had set for myself last year, even though I was
obsessive-compulsive about looking at them each day and
measuring my performance regularly. I’m tempted to say
that life got in the way or blame the shift in priorities
that happened mid-year. But these are things that can and
will happen each year. Instead of putting your life on
hold the year when the strains and stresses get too much,
plan your goals accordingly right at the beginning.
If you didn’t meet some of your goals last year, here
are some questions that you need to answer honestly, so
that you do this time around.
Are you actively pursuing your targets?
It doesn’t work just to look at your goals each morning
and then do nothing about them. Sure, that’s a good
start and it means you’re conscious of where you are in
your career, but if you want to move further, you need to
create an action plan. Instead of just making yearly
goals, make monthly, weekly, even daily ones and then try
and meet them.
Also important is to work towards what you want to achieve
step by step. One of my goals last year was to get
published in Reader’s Digest. Guess how many query
letters I sent them?
Two.
You’re laughing, aren’t you? I’m cringing. That’s
because I know that two queries just doesn’t hack it if
you’re targeting such a high-level publication. Two
queries wasn’t even enough to get into my local
newspaper; how’s it going to land me a national
assignment? If I had been serious about getting into RD, I
would have read every issue, sent a query each month and
built a personal relationship with the editor. Yet, I did
none of those things. Not surprisingly, my goal remained
unfinished at the end of the year.
Are you being honest with yourself?
In my first year of freelancing, I earned over a 100
published credits. That’s because my aim was to reach
this number, without caring about the money that came in.
That meant that I wrote for low-paying publications,
publications that paid in kind instead of cash, and on
topics that I had absolutely no interest in. The next
year, I shifted my focus to cracking the nationals and
making a decent income from my work. But here’s where I
went wrong: I assumed that since I had already proven that
I could write a 100 articles in a year, I’d be able to
do a repeat performance. But national magazines require
much more research, very specialized queries, and a great
deal of more effort per article. So while my goals of
getting into national magazines and increasing my income
were met, my goal of getting another 100 credits wasn’t.
Are the goals really yours?
I think almost all of us get sucked into aping the tactics
of someone we admire at one point or the other. The
thought process then works something like this: If she
could write two children’s books, pen twenty greeting
cards, author three non-fiction titles and syndicate a
humor column in her third year of freelancing, why can’t
I? Never mind that I’m not really that into children’s
writing and I haven’t said anything remotely funny since
I was 10.
I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve been guilty of doing
the above. It’s easy to look at goals of other writers
and think, “She’s got so many goals for the year and
I’ve got only five. Let me increase mine, too.” But
“she” doesn’t have your life, and you don’t have
hers. So set goals that are appropriate for your career
and your ambitions, not hers.
What’s your life like?
If you’re a new mom, don’t expect to be able to work
80-hour weeks like you did before you gave birth. If you
have a full-time job, don’t try to take on same-day
deadline assignments. You need to set goals that are
suitable to your life, your speed and your talent, no
matter what anyone else may do or say.
It’s also important to incorporate life changes into
your goal-setting. I lost two grandparents this year,
which not only forced me to take a physical vacation from
work, but an emotional one as well. I needed to give
myself time to heal in order to get back to work refreshed
and with new vigor. If you’re going through stressful
times, don’t expect yourself to be as productive as say,
when you’re having a great year. Cut down on your goal
list a little and be easy on yourself. Making yourself
work too hard when you’re not physically or emotionally
ready to, will not help you meet your goals; instead
it’ll detract you from them.
Are you confusing your long-term and short-term goals?
Writing a novel is my long-term goal. A “someday.” But
I’m not there yet. And I know I’m not going to be able
to work on my dream novel this year, next year or maybe
even the one after that. If I do, I’ll be taking time
away from the non-fiction work that pays the bills and for
the next couple of years, I can’t afford to do that.
Putting “write a novel” on my list of goals for the
year isn’t going to make me feel too good about myself,
especially as this goal gets carried forward year after
year. Instead, I’m putting it on my “to do before
I’m 30” list. That way, it’s not too near, and
it’s not so far away that it becomes a distant dream
instead of reality.
Once I’ve cracked a good number of national magazines,
finished and published a couple of non-fiction books and
can afford to take time away from non-fiction, I can
consider taking a risk with fiction.
Are you keeping track?
The biggest problem I face right now is keeping track of
where all the time went. While to an outsider it may seem
like I’m working almost all the time, the truth is, I
waste a lot of time on e-mail, reading newsletters,
networking with fellow writers and well, checking e-mail.
To counter this problem, I started keeping a daily journal
to keep track of where my writing time was really going.
My productivity’s almost doubled since I started doing
this. Keeping an hour-to-hour or even a daily tab of what
I’d achieved for that day kept me accountable and ready
to tackle the next important task on my list, rather than
checking e-mail one more time. And if an entry for a
particular day reads, “Revised article for Wedding
Dresses, conducted research on a new idea,” I’d
immediately know that I needed to increase my
productivity, and by how much. Sure, checking e-mail is
work too, but it’s not bringing in any money. So I make
it secondary work and answer incoming mails only once a
day, unless they need urgent attention.
Are your priorities straight?
Which brings me to my next point. Set your priorities
right and work top to bottom. A technique that works for
many people is to make a daily list of things that need to
be done. Then, in the order of priority, tackle them one
by one, striking them off the list. At the end of the day,
even if you have some work unattended to, it can easily be
transferred to the next day’s list, since it’ll be at
the lowest priority.
Do you have a fixed schedule?
I still struggle with this one, but each time I’m able
to set a schedule for myself, I find that I’m happier,
more energetic and much more productive. Getting up at six
in the morning one day, not sleeping for another two days
and then getting a whole lot of slumber on and off for the
next three days eats into your energy and taxes your brain
much more than it should. It also becomes a cause for
unnecessary delays and interruptions. Instead of
surrendering to your muse whenever it shows up, program
your body to work for a fixed time each day. Your brain
will automatically recognize that as time to work and get
on the job. Make your routine consistent. When our body
gets used to doing something at a particular time, we’re
able to do with ease. So if you’ve decided to write five
pages each morning before the kids get up, make sure to do
it.
Answer these questions honestly and get to work on these
techniques. You’ll find all your goals ticked off your
list by the end of this year.
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