Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash
Hello Family, Friends, and Fans!
As promised, I will discuss my goals and the methods I use to finish and meet those milestones this week.
To be clear, I am not getting paid or compensated in any way for the promotion of the products and books. I am suggesting them simply because they have helped me, and I want to share resources that might help you!
Goals
My goals are as follows:
- Write 2 chapters of my current work in progress
- Write a blog post weekly on the 3rd; 10th; 17th; 24th; and, if applicable, the 31st of each month
- Do all of my homework assignments for the week
- Read ahead in the school textbooks
- Keep track of my word counts every day
- Do at least one Spanish lesson every day
- Read for fun and to learn every day
- Hang out with friends at least once per month
Productivity Tools:
The first tool is a book. I read The 12-Week Year for Writers by Trevor Thrall et al. It’s available on Kindle Unlimited, and I found it immensely useful.
The basic premise is setting deadlines in shorter lengths of time throughout the year, which will help motivate the writer and help with procrastination. It offered a 12-Week deadline, 4 times per year, with a break week to evaluate and plan the next deadline sessions.
While this structure is beneficial for me, I had to tweak it. 12 weeks was too far away for me to really fathom how close I was to my goals, and I am on 8-week terms for school. So I decided to make my deadlines every 8 weeks and have six of these in an annual year with four weeks of rest.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be more productive. There’s a best-selling version that is geared toward the general public if writing isn’t your cup of tea. But the basic premise is the same.
It even suggests a way to make sure you’re focusing on your goals daily and making progress, which was invaluable for me. Feel free to tweak this method to fit what you need, with weekly check-ins and setting aside time for your goals.
The second and final tool I will suggest is the “Go Girl Planner and Organizer for Women” This planner is uniquely suited to working with the first tool because they are set up much the same way. The “Go Girl” phrase is not stamped anywhere on the outside of the planner, and a simple stamp of two “G”‘s is stamped on the cover. Please keep in mind that this planner is not just for women and that men can use it, too.
Thanks for taking the time to read this!
Until next time, F3’s!
Fiction Author Hayley Green 