2011 Goals

Two days on schedule is too soon to say it has sunk in. Since I promptly broke my track record today, I think I've proved that point. Still I got fifteen minutes of writing in yesterday morning for the first time in weeks. So something is working.

Fun exercise: After so badly missing the mark on 365,000 fiction words written in 2010 and then seeing a remark on how you don't write well until you have written over a million words, I got curious over what my lifetime total is. So I made a spreadsheet of all the totals I could easily get. 85 finished stories, but I was able to get totals on all but five for a grand total of 1,067,144 words. Best year was 2009 in which I wrote my second longest novel, finished what I wrote the year before for NaNo, and two short stories sprinkled in. I didn't finish any fiction in 2007, but a look at DUF shows I was busy with writing and the Educator's Guide. But most obvious is that 365,000 words was a huge jump that I wasn't ready for. My yearly average computes to be 46,398 words. Oh and I discovered that I had made this great detail sheet to record things like date I finished and word counts when I finished a story and stopped using it a decade ago. Oops.

I'm supposed to be working on my goals for 2011. So now I'm wondering why I'm trying so hard to distract myself from the making the vague concrete? Well, my monkey brain hates when I want to change things for the better. The biggest change I want to implement is to use SMART technique so instead of wondering what I meant by "get serious about paying off debt," I have a plan.

What do I want to accomplish in 2011?

• Show progress on paying off debt load
• Take health seriously
• Write 182,500 fictional words
• Submit enough stories to get rid of the anxiety over it.
• Remodel house.

Lovely and vague, that's where my brain goes first. Now to bread each of those with SMART so I have action steps to take.

Show progress on paying off debt load

• Specific: Follow budget every month
• Measurable: Update Quicken every day
• Action-oriented: Find a part-time job to increase income.
  • Bring all bills current by Jan. 28, 2011
  • Put the budgeted amount into savings out of the first check every month. If there is overdrawn issues to pay for, it comes out of what should be saved.
• Realistic: Pay off what I owe Mom, Dad, and Republic Finance using the debt snowball method by Dec. 31, 2011.
• Trackable/Time-based: Update my NetWorthIQ badge and show the progress
• Save $1000 emergency fund by March 25, 2011.

Take health seriously

• Specific: Follow Primal guidelines on food and exercise
• Measurable: Weigh every morning
  • Take body measurements once-a-week
• Action-oriented: Exercise every day. Use outside play with Atticus
• Realistic: Lose 4 pounds by next check-up with Dr. Miller
• Trackable/Time-based: Keep a food diary and measurements at FitDay.com
  • Fill out the workout log book every day I exercise and show progress at Joe's Goals

Write 182,500 fictional words between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2011

• Specific: Write at least 500 words every day
• Measurable: Post the weekly total every Saturday at DUF using the Writertopia progress bar
  • Keep track of daily progress with a marathon spreadsheet
• Action-oriented: Finish Stellar Gift of Death by March 20, 2011
  • Finish a 5000-word short story for Triangulation submission by March 31, 2011
  • Finish steampunk mystery
  • Finish another story in the Piper of Shadows universe
  • Finish the "Blue Man on the Porch"
• Realistic: Finish four original stories before any fanfiction
• Trackable/Time-based: Each story has a marathon tracker of its own, and metrics are posted daily at DUF

Submit enough stories to get rid of the anxiety over it

• Specific: Submit to six markets by Dec. 31, 2011
• Measurable: Find a tracking method that I can update without fuss.
• Action-oriented: Look for 12 markets
• Realistic: Send out at least one story in February, April, June, August, October, and December
  • Have conversations with the Fear Monger; it helps
• Trackable/Time-based: Honestly note the anxiety over each submission on tracking method

Remodel house (Good Lord and Lady, can I get any more amorphous that that?)

• Specific:Replace roof and exterior walls of back half of house to have a level ceiling.
  • Demolish sheet-rock walls in bathroom and rebuild one between hall and bathroom with a pocket door. Put new sink in a new spot. Repair floor. Buy cabinets and shelves for storage. Move hot water heater to another location.
  • Enlarge kitchen to add more storage and eating area
  • Enlarge back bedroom or add more rooms to separate functions: exercise, sewing, storage, guest room
  • Build an office desk from cabinets to function as a built-in
  • LaGrange Consulting audit to make house energy efficient and switch over to cenralized AC and heat

Excuse me for a moment.

HOLY FUCKING HELL! There is no way to do ANY of that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need a new roof. The current roof is probably over twenty years old and we've tried every sealant product to stop the leaks to no avail. But what happens is I replace the roof and then reconfigure the back half of the house next year? New roof again? I haven't even figured out how I want to do the extensions! And I want a profession to go over those plans once I decided! Can I put the roof over and just not demo? ARGH!!!!!!

Okay, I think I'm better now. Remodeling is a project this is so not ready for prime time. Consider it tabled until after I have paid off Republic Finance.

Now I made this list pretty for the sidebar. Eight days before the end of the year to practice these goals.

Read Free!
The BookWorm