Time Management Tuesday: Goals and Objectives for 2026

I very much enjoy thinking about what I'm going to do. I like it a lot more than actually doing what I thought about.

First A Word About Using Goals and Objectives with Done Lists

Usually, I introduce my goals and objectives post with a few sentences about the difference between a goal and an objective, a goal being what you're going to do, an objective being a task you do toward completing your goal. Oh, look. I did it again.

What I want to do instead/additionally, is say a bit about the significance of done lists. Done lists are often considered jokes, but they aren't. You aren't creating some kind of scam by writing down what you did to make yourself look good. You are keeping track of what you've done so you can decide what you need to do.

If you keep regular done lists, connecting them to your goals and objectives, you can also ensure that what you are doing has value because you are working on objectives and thus goals.  But it all starts with having goals and objectives in the first place.

Here are my goals and objectives for 2026. 

Goal 1. Write And Publish Adult Short Stories, Essays, and Humor

This was the main focus of my time last year, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Objectives:

• Work on the starts made during December.
• Also, continue revising the chapter in my adult scifi book into a short story.
• Make two submissions a month. Anything. Anywhere.
• Resubmit the last two pieces that were rejected in 2025. I have places in mind
• Limit my reading of publications on the Medium platform to those I have followed and actually like. I waste a lot of time looking at articles directed to me by Medium that for the most part aren't of interest to me and aren't well written. This will be a timesaver, at the very least.
• Continue adding to the short-form marketing research spreadsheet that I may or may not have written about here before. You know, just because I haven't blogged about something, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. 
• Take workshops on short-form writing. 
• Work on the yogurt essay, which involves baking. And eating. I like to write about eating.
• Work on one final Heritage Month essay to submit to Books Are Our Superpower.
• Begin The History Project. This will involve reading history, promoting it here, and perhaps revising blog posts for submissions, just as I did with last year's The Heritage Month Project.

Goal 2. Build Community/Market Work/Brand Myself and My Work

I'm turning this one down a bit, since it didn't do me a lot of good last year.

Objectives:

• Keep the short-form publications features on website updated.
• Attend virtual events for writers.
• Attend local events for local writers.
• Continue supporting local writers on Facebook by sharing their local public events.
• More writing for Original Content that can become the first drafts of submittable work.
• Dip into Original Content archive to update some topics that are still of interest to me.
• Look into whether I should be paying attention to Pinterest again, especially in relation to my publishing about food and children on Medium. I haven't touched my Pinterest account in years.
• There is a one-hour video for me to watch about Pinterest. Yikes.

Goal 3. Submit Book-length Work to Agents and Editors 

Not much activity with this one, either.

Objectives:

• I have two leads on agent submissions for early in the year. They are somewhere on my desk.
• Use info I found in a Medium article to research Manuscript Wish List for agents. 
• In the event I find anyone through MSWL, submit 

Goal 4. Begin Some Writing on the 19th Century Novel Idea

Objectives:

• One of the main chachters in a nineteenth century botanist. Get serious about research in that area in order to define him.
• Get the characters seriously defined.
• Stop collecting research and start reading the research I've already collected.
• Read more historical fiction.

I Have Fewer Goals These Days

I noticed how few goals I've had the last couple of years. Certainly, I have fewer than I did when I first started creating formal goals and objectives thirteen years ago. In part this is due to cutting back on book-length writing and submitting. In part it's probably due to the recapitulation posts. Those make clear that many goals spread me too thin. I get more done when I plan to do less.