2017 Quarter 3 Goals Recap
I've never really posted all my goals on here like this before, but I figured you guys might be interested in knowing that I started really doing some goal planning this year, and it has become an extremely effective tool for me.
I started a quarterly goal planning schedule as opposed to a daily/weekly/monthly goal schedule for quite a few reasons. I am a list maker, and I like to have lists and cross things off of them. It makes me feel super accomplished. However, when I plan every hour, every day, every week, or even every month, these small periods of time, I find that I give over more time to planning out every moment, and I actually somehow manage to accomplish little of what I have planned in any given period of time.
As I'm sure you know, life never manages to go as planned, and even planning a week in advance is difficult, since I end up getting further and further behind as the week progresses. For this reason alone, planning one day at a time seems the most effective use, and yet that doesn't really seem to work either, because I have to use a portion of every day, and stay on top of doing it, in order to make it relevant.
So I decided this year to try out quarterly goals, and lo and behold, I have been kicking ass all year. The idea is to achieve at least half of the goals you set per quarter. I typically set 10-20 goals per quarter that I simply have to achieve. At the end of the quarter, you re-evaluate your list, make a new one, and continue kicking ass. This is way more effective than any other goal setting method because of the way you need to broadly word things.
Here's an example. With other goal setting methods, you typically make goals that say specific things, for instance, "Write 500 words per day" or "Edit 6 pages per day." With a quarterly goal count, it covers a longer period of time, while still being specific. In this manner, you would say, "Write 60,000 words of my WiP," or "Edit 100 pages." If you can't see the difference yet, let me explain.
There are about 90 days (give or take) in any given quarter. If you make daily goals, you have to count the number of times you reached 500 words every day. No lesser amount will count, even if you only achieved 492 that day. So in this example, in a 90 day period when I was doing daily word count goals, I would have achieved this count perhaps only 50 or 60 times per quarter. Which means that even though I did really good, really often, I still failed 30 or 40 times. In my mind, those are 30 complete failures. If I instead set the goal to write 60,000 words in three months, I win or I lose, and even if I lose, I've only felt like a failure once, instead of 30 days in a period.
This is the method that has really worked for me this year. I don't have all the stats to show you, but I wanted to share with you how I did for this quarter's goals, and set new goals for the last quarter. I tend to break my quarterly goals up into categories, so that I can work on several aspects at once.
2017 Quarter 3 Goals:
Writing 1. Write Multiverse Story
Editing 2. Find 10 Beta Readers
Marketing 3. Setup a Kindle Free Book Promotion4. Finish Setting Up Patreon Account5. Research Websites6. Make a Web page
Publishing 7. Update all eBooks with the latest books, websites, social media, and publishing information.8. Finish Publishing a Hard Copy of 71 Quarter Circle Ranch on Amazon9.Finish Publishing a Hard Copy of The Story of Rachi on Amazon10. Finish Publishing a Hard Copy of Overcoming Darkness on Amazon
Life 11.Transcribe 20 Pocket Items12. Transcribe 40 Pocket Items13. Transcribe 60 Pocket Items14. Upload Pocket Items to Google Drive15. Sort Google Drive16. September Dental Appointment
So for 2017 Quarter 3, I completed 12 of 16 goals which is a huge WIN!
I have made editing one of my stories a huge priority this quarter, though it wasn't originally on my list, so writing has simply been put on the back burner until that is completed.
If you are interested in becoming a Beta Reader, please put in an application. You can find the link to it here: https://goo.gl/forms/Hf1IqPb52NFhsfuC3
As you can see, I now have a Patreon account, with tons of exciting goodies for you all. If you were curious, you can find more information about it on my page: https://www.patreon.com/zoejanecarmina
Many of you know that Kindle Unlimited subscribers can get all my ebooks for free. I have also published paperback versions of several of my ebooks for those of you without a Kindle. You can find those on my Amazon page: amazon.com/author/zoecarmina
Pocket is a cool app that I use to save web pages and review them later. I sometimes forget to look at the pages once they are saved, and often have to make it a goal in order to declutter my life. I copy the text of any informative site I come across, and link the web page I found it on, and then save these to a place on my Google Drive for later use.
Now let me share with you my 2017 Quarter 4 goals:
Writing 1. Write Multiverse Story
Editing 2. Find 10 Beta Readers 3. Finish a Round of Critiques
Marketing 4. Look into Word Press for Websites5. Evaluate the current Social Media Situation6. Find 10 Marketing Opportunities7. Look into making Youtube Videos8. Upload Patreon-Only Content9. Make a Kindle Countdown Deal
Publishing 10. Undisclosed Sales Goal
Life 11. Look into setting up a P.O. Box12. Redo Chrome’s New Tab Page on Laptop
What do your goals look like? Let me know in the comments below!
I started a quarterly goal planning schedule as opposed to a daily/weekly/monthly goal schedule for quite a few reasons. I am a list maker, and I like to have lists and cross things off of them. It makes me feel super accomplished. However, when I plan every hour, every day, every week, or even every month, these small periods of time, I find that I give over more time to planning out every moment, and I actually somehow manage to accomplish little of what I have planned in any given period of time.
As I'm sure you know, life never manages to go as planned, and even planning a week in advance is difficult, since I end up getting further and further behind as the week progresses. For this reason alone, planning one day at a time seems the most effective use, and yet that doesn't really seem to work either, because I have to use a portion of every day, and stay on top of doing it, in order to make it relevant.
So I decided this year to try out quarterly goals, and lo and behold, I have been kicking ass all year. The idea is to achieve at least half of the goals you set per quarter. I typically set 10-20 goals per quarter that I simply have to achieve. At the end of the quarter, you re-evaluate your list, make a new one, and continue kicking ass. This is way more effective than any other goal setting method because of the way you need to broadly word things.
Here's an example. With other goal setting methods, you typically make goals that say specific things, for instance, "Write 500 words per day" or "Edit 6 pages per day." With a quarterly goal count, it covers a longer period of time, while still being specific. In this manner, you would say, "Write 60,000 words of my WiP," or "Edit 100 pages." If you can't see the difference yet, let me explain.
There are about 90 days (give or take) in any given quarter. If you make daily goals, you have to count the number of times you reached 500 words every day. No lesser amount will count, even if you only achieved 492 that day. So in this example, in a 90 day period when I was doing daily word count goals, I would have achieved this count perhaps only 50 or 60 times per quarter. Which means that even though I did really good, really often, I still failed 30 or 40 times. In my mind, those are 30 complete failures. If I instead set the goal to write 60,000 words in three months, I win or I lose, and even if I lose, I've only felt like a failure once, instead of 30 days in a period.
This is the method that has really worked for me this year. I don't have all the stats to show you, but I wanted to share with you how I did for this quarter's goals, and set new goals for the last quarter. I tend to break my quarterly goals up into categories, so that I can work on several aspects at once.
2017 Quarter 3 Goals:
Writing 1. Write Multiverse Story
Editing 2. Find 10 Beta Readers
Marketing 3. Setup a Kindle Free Book Promotion
Publishing 7. Update all eBooks with the latest books, websites, social media, and publishing information.8. Finish Publishing a Hard Copy of 71 Quarter Circle Ranch on Amazon9.
Life 11.
So for 2017 Quarter 3, I completed 12 of 16 goals which is a huge WIN!
I have made editing one of my stories a huge priority this quarter, though it wasn't originally on my list, so writing has simply been put on the back burner until that is completed.
If you are interested in becoming a Beta Reader, please put in an application. You can find the link to it here: https://goo.gl/forms/Hf1IqPb52NFhsfuC3
As you can see, I now have a Patreon account, with tons of exciting goodies for you all. If you were curious, you can find more information about it on my page: https://www.patreon.com/zoejanecarmina
Many of you know that Kindle Unlimited subscribers can get all my ebooks for free. I have also published paperback versions of several of my ebooks for those of you without a Kindle. You can find those on my Amazon page: amazon.com/author/zoecarmina
Pocket is a cool app that I use to save web pages and review them later. I sometimes forget to look at the pages once they are saved, and often have to make it a goal in order to declutter my life. I copy the text of any informative site I come across, and link the web page I found it on, and then save these to a place on my Google Drive for later use.
Now let me share with you my 2017 Quarter 4 goals:
Writing 1. Write Multiverse Story
Editing 2. Find 10 Beta Readers 3. Finish a Round of Critiques
Marketing 4. Look into Word Press for Websites5. Evaluate the current Social Media Situation6. Find 10 Marketing Opportunities7. Look into making Youtube Videos8. Upload Patreon-Only Content9. Make a Kindle Countdown Deal
Publishing 10. Undisclosed Sales Goal
Life 11. Look into setting up a P.O. Box12. Redo Chrome’s New Tab Page on Laptop
What do your goals look like? Let me know in the comments below!
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