I have a goal for this post. I want to help you to develop and articulate your writing goals for the next three months—that is, 90 days. You can start your three months today, at the beginning of the next week or at the first day of the next month, but don’t put off setting […]

I have a goal for this post. I want to help you to develop and articulate your writing goals for the next three months—that is, 90 days. You can start your three months today, at the beginning of the next week or at the first day of the next month, but don’t put off setting writing goals. It is a prime tim management skill.

Three months is taken from the business model which uses quarters—three months—to implement plans. It is a useful way to set goals for three months. Three months both give you time to accomplish something and is not too long that you get distracted or discouraged.

What exactly is a goal?

A goal is a wish with a schedule and a deadline. If you don’t have a schedule and a deadline, what you have is a wish and not a goal. You are free to dawdle and pine away that your memoir is not getting written!

Let’s work at setting memoir-writing goals and planning to achieve one of these in the next three months.

Since you are reading a Memoir Network post, I can safely assume that your writing goal is to write a memoir.

But “write a memoir” is a BIG goal. For most of us, it is probably too big to accomplish in three months.

Let’s chunk the goal of writing a memoir down to something you can succeed at in three months.

You can zero in on what would feel really good to have accomplished in the next three months.

1. Make setting memoir-writing goals slightly ambitious, slightly a stretch.

• Don’t let yourself off the hook by making your goal too small. You might write that you want to create 200 pages of rough draft. Twenty pages would be too small.

2. Make this goal demonstrable. How will you know when you have succeeded at reaching your goal?

• A goal to write 200 pages is demonstrable. To write excellent prose is not. There is too much leeway about what makes for excellent prose. You can’t demonstrate that you have written excellent prose.

3. Make this something you can do yourself.

• If your goal is to win accolades from major national review media, that is not something you can do yourself. You will need the agreement of reviewers and they are not under your direct influence. You can’t make them review your book. But, a goal to send out ten publicity packets on your book to national reviewers is something you can do. You are the master of that task.

When you have selected a goal, ask why you think you can achieve this goal in three months? Your answer might include:

• The supports you have in place to succeed? For instance, you might write:
  • My spouse is backing me up.
  • My office space is set up.
  • I have more free time to write than I used to.
• How much of your goal is already in place. For instance, you might write:
  • I have already written 50 pages of my 200-page goal.
• What is your motivation like? For instance, you might write:
  • If I were to die, these memories would perish with me! My family would lose them.
  • I already have speaking engagements lined up for a certain time.

Let’s move on to what will get in the way of you succeeding in reaching your goal? These need to be countered with a remedial action.

• Lack of confidence? You might decide to make affirmations daily.
• Lack of skills? You might enroll in a course or buy a book.
• Lack of discipline? You could create a calendar and make yourself follow it.
• Lack of support? You could speak with people from whom you need backing.
• Lack of belief in your project? Again you could create daily affirmations.
• Lack of time? We’ll talk more about that in a minute.

The previous impediment are constrictions that, if not addressed and eliminated, may lead to failure to meet your goal.

Let’s address the “No Time” Problem In Setting Writing Goals

“No Time” is often an energy problem. Are you ready to improve your sleep, your nutrition, your exercise to increase your energy and facilitate your writing?

But “No Time” is also often a problem of lack of discipline.

Keep a time log of your activities for several days. You’ll find you really do have more time than you think!

• Do you make trips into town for a gallon of milk? Grow a longer shopping list before you go into town and eliminate one or two trips per week.
• Do you watch news reports for frequent and extended periods? What’s that about? How well informed do you really need to be? I’m presuming you re not a decision maker in international politics.
• Do you allow yourself to be disrupted? Don’t let that happen. Your time is important. When you allow disruptions you tell others that you do not have good boundaries.
• Do you commute and have much “dead” time. Purchase a voice-to-text program to use to compose your memoir. Start using it on your commute.
• Do you squander your best time for writing on smallish tasks like posting on Facebook?

Now, what can you put in place to eliminate to any blockages I have just mention

1.It is absolutely necessary to create productive writing habits. Productive habits lead us quickly to accomplishing goals.

Examples of productive habits include:

• I will be in my office at my computer at 9 AM.
• I will not do laundry if taking care of it extends into the start of my writing period which is 9 AM. By 9 AM, the wet laundry must be out of the dryer or out on the lines.
• I will not watch news/go on Facebook until I have written 500 words/ 3 pages/ 30 minutes.
• I will write every Saturday and Sunday morning between 9 and 12.

2. To accomplish your three-month goal, you will need to have good habits.

You will need to have habits that support you. You will need a schedule and a deadline forproperly setting writing goals.

Here is an example of a good habit: On my better days, when I have arrived in the evening only to realize that I have not written on my latest project, I have taken out my computer laptop and put in my time—my usual minimum is 30 minutes.

While 30 minutes is not a lot of time, it’s amazing how much you can accomplish in 30 minutes if you do it on any day you do not write for a longer period. Very often, when I show up for my 30-minutes, I continue for much longer.

3. You must eliminate bad habits when setting writing goals.

Here’s an example of a bad habit. Negative thoughts are also a habit—a bad one. Use positive affirmations to replace negative habit

Replace the bad habit of saying: “I’m not good at writing.”

With the good habit of affirming: “Every day I am writing better and better.”

In Conclusion to Setting Writing Goals

Write down a writing schedule that extends over the next 3 months. Use specific dates.

• How many pages do you intend to write per month and per week? Using the month as a time frame also allows you to “pay back” writing time that you have not put in. Always pay back time that you have not met so as to meet your quarter quota.
• Do you need to research parts of your story? When? Where?
• Do you need a coach or an editor? Make an appointment now. See our URL in the video description.
• Will you use beta readers? When is it appropriate for you to reach out to them?
• If you are nearing the end of your book, how will you publish it? Allot time to research options.
• What else do you need to schedule in order to meet your goal(s)?

When you write with a schedule and a deadline and have a precise goal, you are more likely to meet your objective than if you merely write “as much as you can.”

We even have a program called Writer’s Time: Management That Works. It will help you get our time management under control.

This post is also available as a YouTube video.

Remember: “Inch by inch, it’s a cinch; yard by yard, it’s hard.”

Good luck in setting writing goals and keep writing.