Let's Set Goals: January 2020 jillkemerer.com/blog

Let’s Set Monthly Goals {January 2020}

I’m big on setting goals. By listing them and breaking them down into manageable chunks, I accomplish more than I could imagine. My process is to set monthly goals, then at the beginning of each week, I create daily goals that will work within my current schedule.

It’s really satisfying to check off my list each day. Last year I took the extra step of reviewing my week. I like to do this in a small journal on Sundays. The added bonus? It’s now a little time-capsule I can refer back to when I moan that I’m getting nothing done!

So now that the new month, new year, and new decade have arrived, are you feeling confident? Ambitious? I am! Let’s go back to December and see how I did.

How Did I Do? Jill’s December 2019 Goals:

  • WRITING:
  • Polish the third book in the Wyoming Sweethearts series and send it to my editor. CHECK
  • Revise/polish proposal and send to agent. NO CHECK
  • HEALTH:
  • Exercise 5 days/week. CHECK
  • Log calories using MyFitnessPal. CHECK
  • Attempt to implement homemade chia pudding as a snack. CHECK. (It’s kind of gross, though.)
  • OTHER:
  • Christmas shopping!! CHECK
  • Check out Christmas lights somewhere. The Toledo Zoo has an amazing display, but the crowds and traffic make me iffy! NO CHECK. I couldn’t handle the crowds this year!
  • Watch Hallmark Christmas movies and read the Christmas novels I bought! CHECK

I also took TWO WHOLE WEEKS OFF from work and social media! It was fantastic! The first week was all things Christmas and extended family. The second week was relaxing and cleaning out the scary closets in our house.

Jill’s January 2020 Goals:

  • WRITING:
  • Expand the plot, write the long synopsis, and draft the sample chapters of the fourth book in the Wyoming Sweethearts series.
  • Revise/polish proposal and send to agent.
  • Continue gathering ideas for new series.
  • All the first of the year business tasks.
  • HEALTH:
  • Exercise 5 days/week.
  • Log calories using MyFitnessPal.
  • OTHER:
  • Prepare presentation for speaking engagement at the end of January.
  • Read fiction for a minimum of 20 minutes every weekday. (I read tons of nonfiction and want to get more novels in!)

I love the new year! I hope you have a healthy, successful beginning to 2020! Please leave your goals in the comments!

JillKemerer

Jill Kemerer is a Publishers Weekly bestselling author of heartwarming, emotional, small-town romance novels often featuring cowboys. She hopes to encourage readers through her books the way so many books have encouraged her. Jill's essentials include coffee, caramels, a stack of books, her mini-doxie, and long walks outdoors. She resides in Ohio with her husband and two almost-grown children. For more information, visit her website, jillkemerer.com.

Comments (6)

  2. Great job on your December goals, Jill! Those January goals are wonderful too.

    I’m trying a new writing schedule this month. Four days a week, 10-1 in the morning. This is before my tutoring job with a small break in between to reset my mind. I also take a lunch break in there (or sometimes I eat afterward as I’m not a huge morning-meal person). It worked great this week, and I garnered over 11,000 words in character development. I’m hoping to get a lot more character development done next week, and then I can start brainstorming plot points for the new story.

    Reply

  3. Well, at least YOU got your health goals, guess who didn’t, combination of malaise, holidays and lousy weather, but back on track now I think.
    WRITING goals were met, but then I didn’t have many for December, I know better.
    For January 2020:
    Draft four chapters in “Redemption’s Hope,” the third novel in my Western Dreams series. Continue to research “Redemption’s Hope,” which is more challenging than the first two books.
    Get back into speaking engagements and blogs for my first release, “Westward Hope.”
    Do prepublication tasks for the second book, “Settler’s Hope, to be pubbed this fall.
    Support other fiction authors with reviews. WAY behind on that.
    Try to wrap up the nonfiction book I’m working on, “Exeter NH Then and Now,” for Arcadia Publishing. This in its way is wayyyy harder than fiction because I have to depend on other people to come through. With fiction it’s me, the computer, caffeine and Google.
    Health: Walk five days a week and eat salads for lunch three days.
    House: Put away the Christmas stuff. Go through unused stuff and take it to Goodwill or the dump already.
    Spiritual, Reach out to more people and don’t “hide” behind my writing. It is a solitary business, but God put other people in the world for a reason.
    Thank you, Jill, for helping me to clarify this.
    Kathy Bailey

    Reply

    1. Research can be tricky. I’m glad you recognize you’re going to have to take extra time with this book. And good job for scheduling in the promo! It’s awesome you have another book coming out in the fall. Yay!

      I just laughed at your “or the dump” comment. I did the same thing. Trashed a lot of stuff I should have long ago and took the rest to Goodwill.

      And, yes, it’s easy to hunker down with our writing, but we need other people, too!
      Best wishes to you!

      Reply

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