Round 2 Goal Post

No, this is not a post about one of these. This is that part of the ROW80 where we plan for the next Round. Round 1 is done, over… it can’t be changed, for good or ill. But that’s OK.

We have a beautiful new 80 days coming up to achieve something special with our writing lives, and to do that, we need to start out with some goals. What do you want to do, how do you think it will take get there, what will you get when you reach the end… So set yourself some S.M.A.R.T goals and use them.

The image pretty much says it all. S.M.A.R.T goals are:

Specific — work daily on The Greatest Magnum Opus Ever as opposed to write every day
Measurable — do 10 pages of revision each week on TGMOE instead of revising things as they catch your eye
Attainable — set a Test Mile; if you exceed it, great, but plan to do an amount of work you can guarantee to do. I’m a big fan (of course!) of Those Five Sentences, but maybe you’re working on queries or line edits… you can use the same strategy there with a bit of tweaking
Relevant — if you’re trying to write an article on hippos, you may not want to spend your ROWnd researching the craft of iron smelting in Industrial New England (though, with enough time and effort, I’m sure there is a story there!)
Time-based — because our Rounds of Words go for 80 days, there is already a built-in time-frame to your goals, but not everything you do will need that long. Some things might need a day or a week… some might need all year; the point is to make sure you give yourself a time to get those things done

So… now you’ve done it… you’ve created some goals, and you’re ready to ROW80. Well, then add yourself to the linky and share your intentions with your supportive fellow ROWers. That way we can all help you meet those goals… and you can help us meet ours. See you in a week for the opening of Round 2.