December 20, 2010

With less than two weeks before the new year, goals are on my mind. Yesterday I took a deep breath and reviewed my 2010 list of goals. I wanted to see if I’d accomplished what I set out to do last year.

While I’d finished a few projects on my list, many things were barely touched. Other projects not on the list–like five work-for-hire nonfiction books and two e-booklets–had been written.

Still…my “first loves”–the three unfinished novels–hadn’t progressed much at all.

Why Not?

What were my downfalls? I could identify two big ones that plagued me probably four days out of five: (1) most days I didn’t do my novel writing first, and (2) I wasted way too much time on the Internet.

What did I do first instead of novel writing? A variety of things: email, blogging, dishes, lessons, studying, work-for-hire writing, and exercising.

How did I waste time on the Internet instead of writing? In a variety of ways: junk email, reading newsletters and blogs, checking weather, studying vacation sites in England, reading Facebook posts, checking my bank balances, paying bills, and tweaking my website.

Every one of those things was a not-very-cleverly-disguised way of not working on my novel.

Doing Something Different in 2011

So…I’m thinking seriously of trying something new for my 2011 goal setting. I may make a short list of book title projects I want to finish. And then I will give myself only two things to do every day in 2011: (1) work on my current novel first, and (2) stay off the Internet till noon.

If I can do these two things consistently, I suspect it will make a huge impact on accomplishing next year’s writing goals.

I think I will try it for a month and see how it impacts my writing output, my enjoyment of writing, and my overall emotional satisfaction with life. Anyone want to join me for this month-long experiment?

13 Comments »

1. 

   Hi Kristi, I will join you, I waste too much time on the internet. I will also attempt to organize my space before the new year to be ready.

   Comment by Maria — December 20, 2010 @ 7:53 am

2. 

   Maria, getting organized NOW will be a big help when the new year rolls around. I have to mentally organize and prepare too–hence the posts this month on goals. Hope we can both cut down on wasted time.

   Comment by Kristi Holl — December 20, 2010 @ 9:16 am

3. 

   I really need to join you in the staying off the internet until noon. But even the thought of being that disconnecting sends tremors up my spine. I am also seriously going over last years goals to figure out what I will do differently this year and what my goals will be.

   Comment by Angelia Almos — December 20, 2010 @ 11:13 am

4. 

   Angelia, I know what you mean about being disconnected from people. While my daughter was in Iraq again this past year, I got into the habit of checking email and Facebook any time of the day I happened to be awake, just to see if she’d posted anything. She’s home now, safe and sound, but I still have the habit. I need to break it! I REALLY don’t need to be checking things so often! Today I started slowly and stayed off until 10 a.m. (I had the blog set to post early this morning without me.) It made a slow, quieter start to the day–and I got some good writing done for a change! Tomorrow I’ll stretch it to 10:30!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — December 20, 2010 @ 12:21 pm

5. 

   Hi Kristi,

   Yes, I’m in! I need to really organize myself this year! I have to, no, I MUST, stay off the internet until noon! Could we do this as a group and stay committed and responsible to this goal together? I would lOVE that!

   Irene

   Comment by Irene — December 20, 2010 @ 4:55 pm

6. 

   Irene, I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one who has trouble with this! Finding an accountability partner would be a great idea, someone to check in with. I’m not starting an official group, I don’t think, but I think it’s a great idea!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — December 20, 2010 @ 6:09 pm

7. 

   Just got my copy of 2011 Children’s Magazine Markets in the mail today. Yippee! A whole new level of organization! My goal is to focus narrowly on one or two stories/markets. I’m still a newbie so I don’t feel like I can spread myself out that much. Do one thing and do it well, and all that.

   Comment by Yvette — December 20, 2010 @ 9:54 pm

8. 

   Yvette, you’re wise not to spread yourself too thin in the beginning. Focusing on doing one or two things well instead of the scattershot approach is smart. I’m narrowing things down myself this year, and just the IDEA of it feels great!

   Comment by Kristi Holl — December 20, 2010 @ 10:11 pm

9. 

   I did better than I thought with goals this year – but I have to admit that several big ones came with deadlines imposed by other people!
   If it was all up to me, I wonder how well I would do.
   One thing I did notice when I looked at my year – a lot of blogs and newsletters that I used to read regularly all went by the wayside. When I had to get something finished for an editor, some of my internet time wasting went away by itself.
   Now if I can take this forward to a new year when I’ll have to make my own deadlines again…

   Comment by Sherryl — December 21, 2010 @ 1:50 am

10. 

    Sherryl, that is so true! This past year of NOT writing a series to a bunch of tight deadlines has shown me how much I’d grown to depend on outside pressure to get to work. I felt like a slug, then would get a short work-for-hire assignment, shift into high gear with no problem, and promptly go back to slug status when the deadline was met. There’s something wrong with this picture!

    Comment by Kristi Holl — December 21, 2010 @ 6:14 am

11. 

    I want to join you — I love the idea of choosing just two things that you can do to be better at reaching your goals! BUT… (yes, there’s always one of those)… I shiver at the thought of not getting online first thing every day! LOL. It’s become such an ingrained habit to wake up, get my coffee, and then sit down to check email before getting on with the rest of my day.

    Mind you, I have to say that I don’t feel completely “addicted” to my Internet any more… I get on there for 1/2 an hour every morning, but then walk away from it and do other stuff for most of the rest of the day. I will get on it a time or two later on, given I have the chance, but usually it’s not for long, any more. It’s rare when I actually waste a major part of my time online, any more.

    And, yes, I know… it seems like I am “protesting too much”. LOL. But I only speak the truth. LOL

    ~MizB

    Comment by MizB — December 21, 2010 @ 7:32 am

12. 

    MizB, you’re doing better than I am. I think part of it is being in the same room with both computers most of the day. I only walk away from my office here to make lunch or do my exercise. Today it was 12:30 before I got online, and I have to admit it was lovely–and I got a lot of new words written. But no, not everyone is addicted, I don’t think.

    Comment by Kristi Holl — December 21, 2010 @ 5:17 pm

13. 

    I’m just catching up on this week’s post. I like your experiment, and think I’ll try it with you for a month Thanks for the idea.

    Andrea

    Comment by Andrea — December 24, 2010 @ 11:59 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website