The 10 Week Test
As I get older (and wiser, I like to think), I notice a desiring trend to simplify life on all levels. Less clutter and junk in the house, less weight on the body, fewer unimportant things to worry about on a daily basis. I think this is a subconscious (and somewhat conscious) effort on my part to let the insignificant things fall by the wayside and let the more important things surface.
In this vein, I found a really interesting “challenge” to set weight-loss goals in ten-week increments. I’ve been wanting to lose weight since we thought parachute pants and jelly bracelets were a real fashion statement. I joined the blogger who proposed the idea and started last week. It’s working and I’m having fun, so it must have been the right idea for me at the time (ask me in February and we’ll see where we are LOL).
But, on this note of simplifying, I got to thinking…why can’t I do the same with my writing? Ten week cycles aren’t that much different than my usual twelve-week (three month) cycles. It might end up that I’ll do a little bit extra, but I’ll be a little further ahead. Instead of four times a year, I’ll set goals five times a year (10×5=50, 52 weeks in a year which gives me a week or two of vacation, which is when I actually get a lot of work done) and be that much more in tune with what I need to accomplish.
Long story short, I didn’t hammer it out for weeks like usual–I just did it. I took the three big things I want to get done (book for writers, memoir/essay book and getting regularly published in fiction short stories) and chunked them to set reasonable (that’s the key) goals in a ten-week period. For my writing book, I’ll finish five of the 25 essays I need in ten weeks. For the memoir book, I’ll do a read through and start a second draft. And for the fiction, I’ll start submitting, which I did yesterday.
I mapped it all out on my calendar and my next step is to line up the next three months on my wall (that’s tonight!) so the visual impact guides me (or guilts me) into where I need to get going from here. When my time is up–March-ish–I’ll have a playdate with myself, my calendar and a new set of goals toward those ultimate ones. It’s nice to have them facing me daily so I have no excuses whatsoever to say “I don’t know what I”m writing today.”
How about you? How do you set goals? I know, I talk about this a lot–maybe too much–nah. I just think that without a knowledge of where we want our writing careers to take us, we won’t have any idea of how to get there. Too often we get stuck in a rut (a block, whatever you want to term it) but we don’t think that it might be the way we’re approaching our goals that could possibly be the problem. I’ll give it a try–what’s the worst that can happen? I can go back to the quarterly goals. But it’s nice to have both big playing fields of my life (weight loss and writing) on the same schedule to make things simpler.
The proof will be in the pudding..or publishing…lol 
It's pretty simple, really. I'm a writer who loves writing about writing, and sharing all the tricks of the trade with other writers. And when I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing. I have a hunch you know what I mean :)
Jessica Rosen
January 11, 2010 at 5:23 AM
Great system, Beth. It looks like it’s working for you as well, very exciting. I’m mulling the 10-week system and wondering if it can be applied to my three-book series. They’re already roughed out. Hrm. Definitely some potential. I was approaching with much looser goals. This may hold the key.
You will keep blogging about your progress, I hope? I know it will continue to go well. You’re one of the most dedicated writers I know.
Take care,
Jessica
Beth
January 12, 2010 at 4:55 AM
You’re one of the best morning Twitter writing buddies a girl could ask for
And I imagine, in some way, it could be worked for your three-book series. It’s got bits of everything in it–writing fresh work to editing my Nano work to submitting and blogging–which is the key for me.
Keep up the good work–your productivity inspires me