Time Management Tuesday: Time For The Annual Recapitulation Post

Here it is, the recapitulation post, in which I go over my professional goals and objectives for the year, determining what worked and what didn't, what I want to continue doing, what I want to change. This will set me up for planning next year's goals and objectives, which will go up next week. 

Consider doing some recapitulation, folks. It's incredibly helpful, and you may find it an ego-boost, too. You could have accomplished more than you think you have. Especially if you had goals to work with last year. They were a huge help for me, giving me something to focus on.

My greatest accomplishment in 2020 is, of course, remaining on my feet and as sane as I ever am. Professionally, though, here are my goals and objectives and what happened with them.

Goal 1. Concentrate on submitting completed book-length projects as well as completed short-form work. 

Objectives:

• Submit adult book to agents researched this fall Yeah, I did some of that. Six submissions of one book, anyway.
  
• Continue researching agents for adult book, through Publishers' Marketplace, Twitter, etc. Ah...
  
• At some point in year, switch submission focus to my second adult book Well...
  
• At some point in year, switch submission focus to my children's books Not in an organized way.
  
• Spend more time with essay Facebook group. Those people are publishing and share their work, exposing me to new markets. Which is not stalking them. Nope, I didn't do that.
  
• Seek out markets for a seasonal essay I wrote last fall. May have made a few feeble attempts.
  
• Check the publication history of some essayists I read last year. Don't know what this was about. 

However, I did make 50 submissions overall this year, resulting in publishing the following:

Fears That We May Cease To Be at The Blue Nib Literary Magazine

Dear Pastor Bill at The Haven

And I published the humor piece Well, How Many Masks Have You Made at Medium myself.

That was some progress with my short-form adult writing.

Goal 2. Work on short-form writing, essays and short stories.

Objectives:

• Start some eating essays I did a micro piece about shell macaroni and maybe something else.
  
• Choose an essay or short story from the files or journal to do a little work on every week Nope
  
• Plan to focus short-form reading on different genres each month Did do that for a while
  
• Spend the last week of every month completing something. Anything. Nope
  

However, I took a six-week flash forms workshop this summer during which I wrote some pieces and then last month took part in Flash NaNo2020 during which I wrote nine more pieces. One of them was Dear Pastor Bill, which has already been published. So though I didn't do much with the planned objectives, I am happy what I did for the overall goal.

Goal 3. Work on the 365 story project 

Objectives: 

• Focus on this as short-form writing (see Goal 2)
  
• January reading focus will be flash fiction  Yes
  
• Spend time reading short stories, shorter work in children's literature Nope
  
• Take drafts to writers' group What writers' group? It's 2020.

I did absolutely nothing on this and was planning to ditch it again for next year. However, just this morning I was thinking that now that I have more flash training, I should dabble with this again.

Goal 4. Work on YA thriller that could become an adult thriller

Objectives:

• Work on history background for Character 2 during January and February Yes
  
• Work on Character 3 Yes
  
• Work on blueprinting. Yes
  
• Just work on scenes. Don't worry about connecting things. Not so much
  
• Read YA thrillers. Don't think I stumbled upon many of those this year.
  
• Develop a theme Yes
  

I did a lot with this, and it will be a focus for next year.

 

Goal 5. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding

 

Objectives: 

• Provide social media support for writers/bloggers generating diversity material. I found a nice mix of diverse writers publishing this year and was able to include them in my 2020 monthly books publishing posts.
  
• Continue with writers' group. No.
  
• Pay more attention to community events like Multi-Cultural Children's Book Day  That fell apart, because I was spending so much time on the monthly publishing posts.
  
• Continue with Original Content. Yes.
• Check out NESCBWI spring conference, with possibility of attending. Yes, but didn't attend the on-line conference. Did take 2 or 3 of the on-line workshops it offered for members this year.
  
• Check out NESCBWI-PAL offerings this year, with possibility of attending. There were some regional on-line gatherings, but I didn't go.
  
• Be open to attending events for writers of adult literature. Took that flash forms workshop mentioned above and attended a couple of salons.
  
• Attend other authors' appearances. Went to 2 virtual book launches.
• Continue with promoting Original Content at Facebook communities, Goodreads' blog, and Twitter. Yes.

Goal 6. Stay On Top Of Upcoming Known Events

Objectives:

• Do more planning for the year/particular months Yeah, that fell apart. For one thing, I forgot to check the monthly section of my bullet journal on this.
  
• Check in with goals at the end of each month No
  
• Expect the end of the year to be a disaster Yes. Other parts of the year, too.
  

Goal 7. Continue collecting material and ideas for an adult scifi project, far in my future.  

Funny story on this one. The adult scifi project I was thinking about was called Flu Season, and it was going to be a mystery/thriller set in a world that has recovered from a massive flu epidemic that took out a big percentage of the population a couple of generations back. The flu has never been wiped out, and people have learned to live around it. In addition, the world's population hasn't bounced back, so the world hasn't bounced back, so that makes for a different--though not necessarily bad--kind of life. 

I had a lot to work out with this and hadn't started any writing. But I was thinking about world building. I was thinking about a world where everyone wears masks and gloves in public and makes fashion statements with them. Homes are renovated so people enter through laundry rooms where they strip out of their outdoor clothes and change into clean clothes. Everyone home schools. Takeout meals are a big, fancy deal.

Now, I'm not going to go anywhere with this now, but the thinking I'd done with it had an impact on how I've lived the last 9 months, and probably why, psychologically, I've dealt with this better than I might have. I was somewhat prepared.

 

Time Management Tuesday: How Temporal Landmarks--And Goals And Objectives--Could Help You This Year

Last Thursday, July 2, was the mid-year point, which I'm sure is a relief to many. An official mid-point to a year is what's known as a temporal landmark. Temporal landmarks create fresh start opportunities. "The first half of the year is done! For the rest of the year, I'm going to do A!" Or "For the next quarter of the year, I'm going to do B!" Pick your own unit of time to go forth. As well as your own A and B.

I had planned to check in with my goals and objectives for 2020 at the end of each month, also temporal landmarks. I think I got distracted from that even before this pandemic thing started. Reaching the mid-year temporal landmark, however, jolted my memory. So I took a look at what I had managed to do and considered what I wanted to focus on for the rest of this very, very unique year.

Goal 1. Concentrate on submitting completed book-length projects as well as completed short-form work. I've done 27 submissions of both book-length and short-form work in 2020 to date. I've had one acceptance, resulting in the publication of Fears That We May Cease To Be at The Blue Nib Literary Magazine website.

This next month or two I'm focusing on objectives for this goal that involve submitting a seasonal essay and buckling down on agent/publisher research. 

Goal 2. Work on short-form writing, essays and short stories.  I didn't actually address the objectives I created for this goal. Instead,

• I wrote two humor pieces. After submitting them to a number of places, I experimented with publishing at Medium with Well, How Many Masks Have You Made? I have plans to continue that experiment in the coming months, and you just know a blog post will turn up about that at some point.
• I'm signed up for a six-week flash writing distance workshop that begins tomorrow night. Again, you can expect to hear about that.

During the six weeks I'll be taking part in the workshop, I will concentrate on all things flash--writing and reading. That, my friends, is a new objective, since I had no idea this workshop was coming up back in December when I was creating my goals and objectives for 2020.

Goal 3. Work on the 365 story project.  I've done absolutely nothing on this.

However, one of my objectives for this goal was "Focus on this as short-form writing."  I may be able to integrate the 365 story project into my flash study this summer.

Goal 4. Work on YA thriller that could become an adult thriller. I actually did a great deal more on this than I planned to.

• I have the most extensive blueprint/outline (an actual objective) I've ever had for a book project
• I've done well with developing Character 3 (another objective)
• I'm good with theme (still another objective)
• I've actually written nearly three chapters.

This is going on the back burner for the next six weeks, while I work on flash. I will, however, try to keep up with some reading on history I've been doing in relation to this book (This was not an objective for this year, but I've done quite a bit with it.), as well as adding to that blueprint. 

Goal 5. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding.

• I've switched from maintaining a calendar of Connecticut author/illustrator appearances (because there aren't any) to doing a couple of posts a month supporting new books publishing during the pandemic.
• I was actually registered for the NESCBWI spring conference (an objective), which, of course, was cancelled.
• I've taken part in a few local NESCBWI Zoom gatherings.
• I'm attending a Zoom workshop for the next six Wednesday nights.
• I've been promoting Original Content on social media. 

Goal 6. Stay On Top Of Upcoming Known Events Easy. There are none. Or are there? I could actually be doing more with the objectives for this goal.

• Do more planning for the year/particular months. I could try to plan work projects for each month, as I have for the rest of July into August. (In fact, I will have more to say about this at some point.)
  
• Check in with goals at the end of each month. Yeah, I could make a point of doing that. Look what checking in at the mid-point of the year has done for my planning.
• Expect the end of the year to be a disaster. Some family members have already started discussing the impact of the pandemic on the holidays. It could actually have a...calming effect. We must keep our minds open.

 Goal 7. Continue collecting material and ideas for an adult scifi project, far in my future. Ha, ha, ha. Interesting story. And I'll tell it here at OC soon.

So, what is the takeaway here after you've read this post all about Gail, Gail, Gail? Looking at your goals and objectives for the year (and you do have them, right?) could be a very good use of time. You may find that you've done more than you thought you had, which is always encouraging.  And you can use your goals and objectives to help you make the best use of the rest of the year.

Am I Still Sticking To Goals, February Editon?

My major accomplishment this month was avoiding getting one family member's never ending cold and a couple of other family members' norovirus. This involved moving to the other end of the house to save myself--twice--where I still am because while my husband did not become a norozombie,  he's now on antibiotics for something else. I have spent a big chunk of this past month moving my things around the house, taking the elder visits, cleaning, and then, this past week, washing my hands,  doing laundry, washing my hands, going to the grocery store, and washing my hands. I now have the skin of an old crone. A still healthy old crone.

When I had time to huddle on the bed with my laptop in what I fear is going to become my permanent room, I focused on the following 2020 Goals:

Goal 1: Submitting Work. I made four submissions, two as part of PBPitch, and two to literary journals. I have a couple of agents lined up to submit one project to, and other agents in mind for two others. I registered for the New England Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Spring Conference, which will entitle me to submit to agents connected with that. (There's at least a 50/50 chance I won't be going because of a family event coming up around that time this spring.)

Goal 2: Work on Short-form Writing. I've begun roughing out one new piece. If the last weekend of the month had gone differently, I would have tried to finish it. I made a big effort to focus on reading short stories this month.

Goal 3. Work on the 365 Story Project. The best I can say I've done for this is starting a blog post on children's lit and flash fiction and finding a flash fiction workshop at the NESCBWI Conference that I hope to get into. (Sign up for workshops is tomorrow. Two o'clock.)

Goal 4. Work on YA Thriller. I finished up most of what I had planned for my ultralearning project on historical methodology which was specifically for this book. I have been working on an outline, something I don't think I've ever done this extensively, and brought a few pages of the actual manuscript to my writers' group. And I've just started reading another YA mystery. Oh, and I just finished reading a popular history, which is part of my get my head into history thing for the historical methodology project.

Goal 5. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding. I provided support to Connecticut writers with the CCLC and did two #BlackHistoryMonth blog posts. Went to writers' group this month. Registered for the NESCBWI Conference. Promoted The Bending Genres Anthology in which my creative nonfiction appears on both Facebook and Twitter. 

Goal 6. Stay On Top of Upcoming Known Events. I'm clearly not doing a great job on this, since I signed up for that conference when I know something in the family might be happening then. But I am keeping track of my work time with these monthly goal assessment posts. And I'm about to go look at my bullet journal to see what I've got in it for the month of March. And to set it up for next week, which I never got to for last week.

Last month I was a little discouraged at the goal check-in, because I hadn't done anything big. "Are these little things I'm doing the ground work for something big later in the year?" I wondered. "Or am I just messing around?" This month I am ecstatic that I've done as many little things as I have.

You have to look at the big picture, what else is going on. Given what has been going on, I'm feeling good right now. So I'm going to go put away the groceries I've been buying over the last three days and the laundry I've been washing and try to get some cooking done and maybe get started on a couple more blog posts.

Am I Still Sticking To Goals?

One of my goals for this year is Goal 6. Stay On Top Of Upcoming Known Events. And an objective for that goal is to heck in with goals at the end of each month. The point being to make sure that I'm actually working on goals and not...doing something else. Particularly nonwork related things.

So, have I done anything I wanted to do? I checked last week.

Goal 1. Concentrate on submitting completed book-length projects as well as completed short-form work.  I made five submissions last month, all of them in the last two weeks. Three were book-length projects to agents, one was a short humor piece to an on-line publication, and one was to a regional anthology. That was quite good for me.

Goal 2. Work on short-form writing, essays and short stories.

Objectives: 

• Start some eating essays  I think I tinkered with something
• Choose an essay or short story from the files or journal to do a little work on every week I have done a little bit
  
• Plan to focus short-form reading on different genres each month I focused on flash fiction this month, with some work/thinking on whether or not picture book texts are flash fiction. More to come on that.
  
• Spend the last week of every month completing something. Anything. Ah...no

I did spend two days working on a totally new picture book project that I think I'm going to turn into an early chapter book. So I was doing something on the short-form side, it just wasn't one of my objectives for the year.

Goal 3. Work on the 365 story project The flash fiction reading (above) was a multi-tasker for this goal. I did do some organizing of files. But, no, no real progress on this.

Goal 4. Work on YA thriller that could become an adult thriller. I've been doing research on historical methodology for this one. No real work on the manuscript. But, you know, thinking.

Goal 5. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding. I've done quite a bit with this one, with support for other writers through the Connecticut Children's Literature Calendar, support of Multicultural Children's Day, covering Connecticut writer events. I hope to attend one day of the NESCBWI Conference in April.

I did lots of little things last month, but no work on big projects. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Are these little things I'm doing the ground work for something big later in the year? Or am I just messing around?

Perhaps I'll find out this month.

Time Management Tuesday: Are We Psyched For Our 2020 Goals And Objectives?

Once again I'm going to drone on about how important carefully planned goals and objectives are for managing time. And life, I guess. But what is managing time but managing life, right? Yeah. You bet.

To get everyone on the same page: A goal is something you want to do. An objective is what you need to do to achieve the goal. One goal can have multiple objectives. Objectives do not have goals. They support goals. The words goal and objective do not mean the same thing, no matter how many times my computer guy says they do.

You should plan to check back to your annual goals and objectives on a regular basis to make sure that you are spending your time on them and not other things. If you experience a big shift in your work or personal life over the course of the year, you can change your goals and/or objectives so they represent things you need to be doing in your new world order.

What Are Your 2020 Goals And Objectives, Gail?

 

Why, thank you for asking. Yes, many of my 2020 goals and objectives are similar to my 2019 goals and objectives, indicating either that I didn't reach many of them or they are damn fine goals and objectives. Let's go with that latter thought.

These are also listed by priorities.


Goal 1. Concentrate on submitting completed book-length projects as well as completed short-form work.

Objectives:

• Submit adult book to agents researched this fall
• Continue researching agents for adult book, through Publishers' Marketplace, Twitter, etc.
• At some point in year, switch submission focus to my second adult book
• At some point in year, switch submission focus to my children's books
• Spend more time with essay Facebook group. Those people are publishing and share their work, exposing me to new markets. Which is not stalking them.
• Seek out markets for a seasonal essay I wrote last fall.
• Check the publication history of some essayists I read last year.

Goal 2. Work on short-form writing, essays and short stories.

Objectives:

• Start some eating essays
• Choose an essay or short story from the files or journal to do a little work on every week
• Plan to focus short-form reading on different genres each month
• Spend the last week of every month completing something. Anything.

Goal 3. Work on the 365 story project 

Objectives: 

• Focus on this as short-form writing (see Goal 2)
• January reading focus will be flash fiction
• Spend time reading short stories, shorter work in children's literature
• Take drafts to writers' group

Goal 4. Work on YA thriller that could become an adult thriller

Objectives:

• Work on history background for Character 2 during January and February
• Work on Character 3
• Work on blueprinting.
• Just work on scenes. Don't worry about connecting things. 
• Read YA thrillers.
• Develop a theme

Goal 5. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding

Objectives: 

• Provide social media support for writers/bloggers generating diversity material.
• Continue with writers' group.
• Pay more attention to community events like Multi-Cultural Children's Book Day
• Continue with Original Content.
• Check out NESCBWI spring conference, with possibility of attending.
• Check out NESCBWI-PAL offerings this year, with possibility of attending.
• Be open to attending events for writers of adult literature.
• Attend other authors' appearances.
• Continue with promoting Original Content at Facebook communities, Goodreads' blog, and Twitter. 

Goal 6. Stay On Top Of Upcoming Known Events (a TMT blog post is coming on this)

Objectives:

• Do more planning for the year/particular months
• Check in with goals at the end of each month
• Expect the end of the year to be a disaster 

Goal 7. Continue collecting material and ideas for an adult scifi project, far in my future.  

What You Don't See Here

Notice that you're not seeing things like "find an agent" or "publish" among these goals. Goals and objectives should be things you can control. I can't control what agents do. I can't control what editors do. I can only control what I do. Therefore, my goals are written around me submitting and me writing.