Yearly Wrap-Up (Part 4) Monthly goals

Grr. . . Okay, I think I'm ready to finally sit down and write this blog. It's been one thing after another this morning. And I thought spending four days making candy was hard!

In my previous blogs I discussed in excruciating detail about yearly goals, now I will change it up a little to talk about monthly, weekly, and *gulp* daily goals. I gulp because I'm pathetic at daily goals, so I just might need your help to get me through it!

So the first thing I do is head on over to the free calendars on the Microsoft website. There are a lot of calendars with 'stuff' all over them, but I like the clean and basic calendar for this purpose. Sorry, I have to do links, I don't know how to embed the pictures in my blog. I know there's away, I just don't know how to do it--so there. And since I was there, I downloaded it for next year.

Most months have blank days, since this calendar is on a grid. Click the cells, and merge them. Once merged, you can add GOALS: to the cell. I like bold and dark red as it stands out. Then I arrow down and start bullet pointing my goals for the month. Sometimes I have to tweak and make two columns, depending how extensive my goals are for that month. You can pull and squish the columns and rows as much as needed depending on the month.

For January 2010, I took the large merged area and split them into two to give me enough room for goals without having to put them in an itty-bitty font. Small is good, but sometimes these old eyes have issues with it. Then press enter, and hit your bullet point button and you are ready to set monthly goals. But before you enter January's goals, copy and paste this on every month of the year and save. Now, your months are set up and all you have to do is fill in your goals.

--FYI: in my other merged cell space I put my Tarot card information. This is how remember to go to the calendar every day as I post my Tarot card that I drew. The purpose is to remind me to go to my calendar. Most of the time I forgot to type what I had done the previous day, so this is the perfect opportunity to write it down. And yes, if you spent all day doing errands--put it down. The only way you'll figure out where you waste time is if you document what you did do.

WANDS--Fire/passion
CUPS--Water/moods/emotions
SWORDS--Air/mentality
PENTACLES--Earth/growth/nature/money
MAJOR ARCANA-Spirituality/higher purpose

And no, I don't really believe it, usually because the cards are so very wrong, IE. I tend to have my crappiest days when I'm supposed to be on top of the world. I simply use this technique to remember to enter WHAT I did, just like I type in the books I've read on my yearly goals to remember to look at them and update them as needed.

Onward to setting monthly goals. Tailor your goals to your life. If you work forty to eighty hours a week, you might not get the same goals accomplished that someone who doesn't work outside the home can accomplish. Or even the other way around, because sometimes not having a job gives you more time to goof off, do laundry, clean house, eat, and find excuses NOT to write. Been there, done that, and still doing that--considering blogging isn't 'writing'. When I worked full time and had to be at work at 5 AM. I got up at 3:30 AM, showered and got ready for work. At 4 AM I went downstairs, fed the critters, made coffee and wrote for 40 minutes. Some days I would write a paragraph or two, and other days I'd write three pages.

Figure out what works for you. BUT if something unexpected happens document it on the day on your calendar.

I'll use two months from my 2009 calendar as examples.
January 2009 goals:
--send partial of Demon Spawn to Deb Dixon at Belle Bridge Books--Done
--judge Golden Hear--Done--6 paranormals
--Crit when needed--Done--4 crits
--Start DS1 from scratch--Done 17 pages, 5127 words
MLK Holiday: 1/19/09--kidlet out of school. any writing should be considered icing
Ice storm: 1/27-29/09--kidlet out of school for three days
June 2009 goals:
--Judge WHRWA Lone Star contest--Started
--Edit, edit, edit MOGG--Done
Summer vacation--kidlet out of school, therefore I lighten my monthly goals as I do stuff with her.
Mac Soccer camp 8:30-4:30--one week she was in soccer camp, minus travel time, I had six hours a day back for writing
6/30/09 Delacorte Yearling contest deadline highlighted--which is why I spent all month editing MOGG

I'm tired of writing about monthly goals. I'll hit weekly and daily goals next week.
If you have any questions or comments, ask away.
And if you know how I can take a calendar and put it on this silly blog let me know, 'cause it's ticking me off.

Write on!