I don't know about you, but I realized during my Sunday Meeting that I will be giving my last final exam 30 days from today! As we head into the late-semester sprint, I want to encourage all of us to pause, review our semester writing goals, and assess the probability of completing them in the next 30 days. If the probability is high that you will meet your goals, congratulations on your ability to create reasonable goals, sustain your daily writing habit, and stay on target! For the rest of us, it's time to formulate Writing Plan B.
Developing Attainable Writing Goals
One of the most difficult time management skills to learn is how to develop writing goals that are attainable in a specific period of time. The difficulty is that many of us create writing goals based on what we hope (or even dream) of accomplishing in a given time frame. This is done by pulling numbers and end-products out of thin air without the slightest idea HOW or WHEN we will do the work to achieve such lofty goals.
As yet another manifestation of academic perfectionism, we often set audacious writing goals, because making reasonable ones seems so...uhm.... small and uninspiring. But when we create unrealistic goals, we are setting ourselves up to feel disappointed, discouraged and demoralized. I often see people set unattainable goals and they tend to result in one of two outcomes. Some faculty set such big goals (i.e. "finish my book"), that they never start writing because it all seems too much to do in 30 minutes a day. These same faculty find themselves at the end of yet another semester with unmet goals, unfinished projects, and the feeling that they aren't moving forward. Others are incredibly productive, but because they have set semester goals that are literally unattainable, they don't meet them. Then they end the semester with feelings of failure and frustration, despite having made significant progress.
Consider a PLAN B That Connects Your GOALS To TIME
I want to encourage you to start your Sunday Meeting this week with a review of your semester writing goals. I know it's difficult, but let's take an open and honest look at our goals without criticism, judgment or guilt. Instead, start by appreciating the optimism that you felt when you wrote your goals and acknowledging all the work that you HAVE completed this semester. I am inspired by the progress many of you have made in:
Developing Attainable Writing Goals
One of the most difficult time management skills to learn is how to develop writing goals that are attainable in a specific period of time. The difficulty is that many of us create writing goals based on what we hope (or even dream) of accomplishing in a given time frame. This is done by pulling numbers and end-products out of thin air without the slightest idea HOW or WHEN we will do the work to achieve such lofty goals.
As yet another manifestation of academic perfectionism, we often set audacious writing goals, because making reasonable ones seems so...uhm.... small and uninspiring. But when we create unrealistic goals, we are setting ourselves up to feel disappointed, discouraged and demoralized. I often see people set unattainable goals and they tend to result in one of two outcomes. Some faculty set such big goals (i.e. "finish my book"), that they never start writing because it all seems too much to do in 30 minutes a day. These same faculty find themselves at the end of yet another semester with unmet goals, unfinished projects, and the feeling that they aren't moving forward. Others are incredibly productive, but because they have set semester goals that are literally unattainable, they don't meet them. Then they end the semester with feelings of failure and frustration, despite having made significant progress.
Consider a PLAN B That Connects Your GOALS To TIME
I want to encourage you to start your Sunday Meeting this week with a review of your semester writing goals. I know it's difficult, but let's take an open and honest look at our goals without criticism, judgment or guilt. Instead, start by appreciating the optimism that you felt when you wrote your goals and acknowledging all the work that you HAVE completed this semester. I am inspired by the progress many of you have made in:
- prioritizing your research and writing
- developing a consistent daily writing habit
- learning to say "no" often and without guilt,
- identifying what is holding you back,
- ceasing habits of self-flagellation
- starting to think about your career as a book with many chapters
- interrogating your perfectionism, and
- releasing yourselves from the need to be super-professor
As you revise your semester goals, try a new strategy: map your writing goals onto your calendar. Go through the next four weeks and block out all of your classes, meetings, and daily writing time. If you don't have a calendar, download my free one to get started. Take a long, hard look at your remaining goals and try to map the tasks necessary to complete them onto your calendar. If you planned to draft a new article, figure out what specific days and blocks of time that writing will occur. The truth is that if you are unable to find the time, then you are unlikely to achieve the goal. If you are not sure how long it actually takes to complete various tasks, take your best guess and then multiply that guess by 2.5. Still can't find time for all the work necessary to complete that new article? Then it's time to get real and prioritize. I know it's painful, but doing this now beats feeling like a failure at the end of the semester. You will feel better having scheduled and completed several tasks that move you closer to drafting the article then you will avoiding the whole thing and starting the new year with no progress. Patiently and lovingly ask yourself: what can I realistically accomplish in the next 30 days? Then carve out the time in your calendar to accomplish the tasks that will move you towards reaching your goals. This is your Plan B, and I will be very proud of you for accomplishing it!
This Week's Challenge
This week, I challenge you to:
- Hold a Sunday Meeting
- Review your semester writing goals (if you posted them in the discussion forum, they are just one click away!). If you still haven't written any, then go ahead and take the time to draft goals for the last 30 days of the term.
- Honestly ask yourself: can I complete these goals in the next 30 days?
- If the answer is "no," patiently revise your goals based on what you CAN realistically accomplish by writing every day for 30-60 minutes.
- Go through the remaining weeks of the semester in your calendar and block out your daily writing time.
- Re-commit yourself to 30-60 minutes of writing every day this week.
- Try paying yourself first by writing in the morning before you do anything else.
- Consider joining the November Writing Challenge for support and accountability. The writing challenges happen every month on my discussion forum.
I hope that this week brings you the courage to assess your semester goals, the creativity to revise them, and the discipline to write every day!
Sincerely,
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