By Christen Krumm, @christenkrumm
Yes, I know that it is March, and “New Year Resolutions” are generally talked about in January. However, I’m here to say that you can make resolutions (*cough* goals *cough*) at any point in your year — in fact, I recently read somewhere that January and February is the new “week between Christmas and New Years”. If you’re finally feeling like shaking off the holiday sludge, March can be the start of your new year!
Preface. I am not a big “New Year Resolution” person. I try to be, but I always feel that I set myself up for failure more than anything. I am the 90% that falls off the resolution wagon by the third week of January. Goals, however, are my thing.
I remember my dad teaching me the importance of goals growing up. While I can’t exactly remember what he said I do know that he was always letting us know the importance of goals. And not just big goals but breaking down the big goals into smaller goals.
There are always a few things that I do when creating my goals to make sure that I am successful in completing them.
Choose Your Time Frame
Are you looking at creating goals for a week? Month? Three months? The first step is to decide on your time frame. I like to break my yearly goals into quarterly, monthly, and weekly. It really depends on how many steps, and how small, you need to break your big goal in too.
Make Reasonable Goals
Write down every step you need to get done. Many times, my writing goals consist of word count for whatever novel I’m working on but could also include the number of articles I need to write, newsletters, pages edited, or novel prep work — everything that has to do with my personal writing life gets thrown on the list!
Once you have all the steps written down, look back over your list and your calendar. Hopefully, you already have outside commitments mapped out on your calendar (if not, hit pause and do that). Make sure your goals match up with the time frame you have. For example, My goal for this past month was to write 25k on my current WIP. Knowing that I wanted to use Saturdays as catch-up days and wanted to take Sundays completely off, I had to create goals that reflected that. Also, knowing that I’d most likely only have time to work on drafting, I needed to slim down my to-do list to only what was the most important (for example: in addition to drafting, making sure I wrote only one article a month instead of two or three).
Recruit Friends
Ask your friends to keep you accountable. Ask them to bug you about your goals, check in with you, and will do writing sprints (or editing sprints) with you or “grow trees” (which takes me to my next point).
Productivity Apps
There are so many great productivity apps out there, but my current favorite is Forest. Forest is an app that “grows” trees on your phone — while locking your phone. If you leave the app (say to check Instagram, Twitter, or e-mail) your tree will die. Added bonus (at least in my opinion) is that you can grow trees with friends. A group effort. If you kill your tree, you kill your friend’s tree as well, so there’s the added pressure not to kill the trees. If you already have the app, hit me up — I’d love to grow trees with you! If you don’t have the app, and want to learn more, click here
Reassess Often
For those long-term goals, reassess often. Take time to look at your goals. Figure out what is working and what isn’t working and get rid of anything that isn’t working (believe me … at the beginning of the year, I want to do it all, but by May I realize I can’t do it all and there are things I need to get rid of. Just know that if you need to prune your goal list to make room for other things on the list, this is okay!
Don’t Beat Yourself Up
If you don’t meet your goals, don’t beat yourself up. Use it to grow. Why didn’t you meet your goals? Did you over-commit, or were you more invested in Netflix binging than you were in crushing your goals?
By making reasonable goals, breaking them up into smaller goals, recruiting friends and using productivity apps, and making sure you reassess often, will put you on a path to successfully crush your goals this year.
Your turn: what are some tips you use to crush your goals and cross them off your list?
Lyla Taylor has built a social media empire around her Ruby Rose brand. Yet, one wrong post causes her carefully constructed world to collapse. With no other options, Lyla agrees to a six-week reset in rural Montana in what she believes will be a high-end spa. Lyla couldn’t have been more wrong. When her first night on the Milner farm is interrupted by unwelcome guests of the raccoon variety, Lyla is ready to throw in the towel and head back to civilization.
Amishman Reuben Milner may crumble if one more thing is added to his to-do list. After the passing of his dat, Reuben has stepped up to be the man of the family. Reuben has no time to rest with his mem and four sisters still living at home. Not to mention, his secret career as a novelist isn’t exactly in line with a devoted Amish lifestyle.
Reuben doesn’t see any way out of his double life when the elders start pressuring him to join the church. And while the rental of their dawdy house brings in much-needed funds, it soon becomes evident that their high-maintenance guest will add to his workload and stir up fond affections that Reuben must squash down.
When the Milners need help sprucing up their rental, Lyla is quick to jump in, taking her mind off the problems she left behind. But the more Lyla works on the rental with Reuben, the more she wonders if her former life is worth returning to. Yet is it the simple life that Lyla’s heart longs for or a particular guarded Amishman with secrets of his own?
Christen Krumm is the author of the YA romantic comedy, It Happened at Christmas, and her adult fiction debut On the Golden Cliffs. She probably drinks too much coffee and creating stories is her favorite. During the day she runs CK Productions — a virtual assisting business specializing in author assisting and podcast production. Her favorite color is green (or black). She likes big glasses, happy mail, and pretends she likes to run (she doesn’t). She lives with her husband and three wildings in a small Oklahoma town. Connect with Christen at christenkrumm.com and on Instagram @christenkrumm.