My writer productivity skyrockets when I set monthly writer goals, and it’s time to share…
What are Your January 2019 Goals?
January 2019 Goals
Happy New Year!!
I’ll be honest, Monday was a rude awakening for me. I’d been playing catch up on administrative and marketing tasks for five days straight, and guess what? Monday was another full day of it. *waaahh!!* *crying face*
That’s the writing life, though. It’s not all writing!
So how was your Christmas? What did you enjoy the most? Or did you have a hard holiday? Some years are like that.
I was not my optimistic self this December. Sometimes I just get gloomy for no apparent reason. I babied myself. Read a lot. Watched Holiday Baking Championship on Food Network. Spent a lot of time with distant family members (yay!). Oh, and I took the month off from tracking calories. The nice thing? I’m in a good groove with my eating habits and only gained a few pounds over Christmas week which promptly disappeared as soon as I resumed my normal diet. I have noticed my back aches more when I don’t work out at least three days a week, so I’m thankful to be back on track with my DVDs.
Let’s see how I did last month.
Jill’s December 2018 Goals:
- Revise and polish Christmas novella.
- Finish Christmas shopping.
- Take time off after the novella is finished to refill the creative well.
- Create my 2019 Production Plan.
- Workout 4 days/week and stay in calorie range most days until Christmas week, when we have 70-billion parties with decadent food!
How did I do?
- Christmas novella revise and polish? CHECK! Finished it early. Woohoo!
- Finish Christmas shopping: CHECK! Took me until right before Christmas Eve, but I did it.
- Take time off to fill creative well. SORT OF CHECK. I took time off, read, relaxed, but I didn’t really do much to fill my well. It was more like crashing and burning…
- 2019 Production Plan? CHECK! I’ll tweak it each month, but I’m happy with the overall plan.
- Health stuff. NO CHECK. I did NOT workout 4 days/week. My body is scolding me!
Jill’s January 2019 Goals
- Finalize A Meddled Match: Resort to Romance Series to prepare for February launch! This includes setting up promo, sending out ARCs, uploading to Amazon, etc…
- Replot and draft rest of book one in the new Love Inspired series! It’s now going to be a Christmas book releasing this December. Aaah!
- I’m the 2019 president of Maumee Valley Romance Authors, Inc. and need to do several administrative tasks to start the year off right.
- Health: Log calories daily in MyFitnessPal, stay within calorie range, workout for 30 minutes 4+ days/week.
Side note: My health goals are the same each month. I know some of you are trying to get healthy this year. Two years ago I made the decision to stick to a lower calorie diet without drastically changing what I ate. I also committed to exercising 4-5 days per week. Within six months, I’d lost 20 pounds. Ever since, I’ve consistently kept off 15 pounds. Last year my weight fluctuated 3-4 pounds on any given month, but I stayed below the 15-pound loss mark. I’m happy with that!
I’m not telling you this to brag–I’m telling you it CAN be done. I realize we all have different struggles. You may have significantly more weight to lose or you just can’t seem to take off the last five pounds. You might have physical issues preventing you from certain exercises or foods. I get it. I still want to encourage you. Small decisions every day add up to big results. For me, being consistent has made ALL the difference.
How did you do last month? What are your January goals?
Have a terrific day!
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Jill, good for you, sounds like you did really well. Your creative well will be refilled, in its own time. I didn’t “enjoy” Christmas that much either, but I’m learning to manage expectations. I did feed my soul during Advent, which we needed more than ever this year.
I met my writing goals: submit my second book to my current publisher, submit a proposal for another book to two agents who requested it at ACFW in Nashville, started a project with my crit partner, and set some tech and marketing goals that are really too boring (and embarrassing) to go into here. I don’t want to write anything new until I get direction from the Lord, so I’m rewriting and editing a couple of earlier books in light of What I Know Now. I’m doing one of those with my crit partner. Waiting on the Lord for, well, everything else.
Health, meh. Didn’t fall off the diabetic wagon, but leaned over the edge. What keeps me in line is consistency, as you said above. When I got my diagnosis I determined how I was going to live for the rest of my life, and set up a plan then. I haven’t had French fries or mac and cheese in five years. Still eat pizza, but only two slices and a salad, and when I crave pasta I go for spaghetti with plain red sauce, and only one helping. No garlic bread. I have other refinements to the plan, such as I only eat one carb per meal. But the point is, I made a plan and stuck to it. I didn’t go off the plan over the holidays, but where there was wiggle room, I wiggled. Sigh. Also not walking as much because of the weather, but haven’t cut it out completely. Just not as often as I’d like.
Thanks for keeping us on track!
Kathy Bailey
Figuring it all out in 2019
I always love reading your progress, Kathy! It sounds like you have a good plan, and I know what you mean about the advent season. Praying for direction with your writing is the best! Good for you! I pray about mine often!
It sounds like you’re maintaining your health w/diabetes well. I think we can get too hard on ourselves. Winter in NE Ohio is not conducive for walking, either. I always look forward to spring so I can take long walks!
Looks like you did a great job of keeping your goals. Woohoo!! I also do goals, December was good. I have set some for January. One is also health. Calories just don’t work for me. Sigh Time to try something different. Christmas this year was wonderful. It was quiet and fun and relaxing. Happy 2019
I’m so happy you had a fun, relaxing Christmas, Lori! Yay!! As far as health, you have to find what works best for you. Over the years I’ve cut out sugar, white flour, dairy, etc…and those didn’t work for me. By experimenting, I realized I do best when everything is in moderation. But I know other people who this does NOT work for! Whatever works, stick with that!
I am happy to report I continue to promote my children’s book. Local vendor fairs are working great for selling and promoting “Licky the Lizard” and provide opportunity to share about my other stories. I have even been asked for my autograph a few times. 🙂 Thank you for your continued encouragement and inspirations. Hugs!
That’s so awesome, Melissa!! I love hearing this! Good for you!!
The Rancher’s Unexpected Baby sounds like a cute love story.
Doesn’t it??