It’s a new week and as much as Monday’s kind of suck sometimes, I do enjoy the start of a new week, partly because I get to set new goals. Last week I set four goals and I was somewhat successful. My first goal was to complete three sketches for Minnesota Mermaids, which I did. Sort of. I did three sketches but they ended up being practice sketches instead of final sketches that we can actually use for something. It turns out that the perfect images that I had in my head didn’t translate as well on paper. My second goal was to write 10,000 words for my current WIP and I know that I didn’t make it to 10,000, although I don’t know how many words I actually wrote as most of them were handwritten. My third goal was to read a book. I chose You Are One of Them by Elliot Holt and I am almost finished with it. It’s been a great read, although not what I was expecting. My fourth and final goal was to watch the first lesson for a fashion drawing class that I’m taking online and I did that. It was a great lesson and had some fantastic tips that I know I’ll be putting to use.
Weekly Wishes

This week I might end up painting my room so I’m going to tone down the rest of my goals.
1) Art. I want to complete one final sketch for Minnesota Mermaids… you know, something that we can actually use. I learned my lesson last week. Set specific goals. 🙂
2) Writing. I’ve found that sometimes setting a word count goal can be counterproductive for me because I’m so focused on the amount of words that I’m writing that I become blocked. A friend of mine has started to set a daily time goal for herself after listening to a speech by Tracy Garvis Graves at ALA and it’s been working well for her, so I’m going to try that this week. I will write an hour a day every day this week, so seven hours total.
3) Reading. I will read Overseas, by Beatriz Williams and finish my reread of The Unbecoming of Maya Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin.
What are some of your goals for the week? Be sure to link up over at The Nectar Collective if you’d like to join in.
Oh, setting specific goals is a good idea! Also setting a time for yourself with writing instead of how many words. I hope that works out for you. I always have to do that to make sure I'm not obsessing on one project for too long. I'll always work and rework something if I don't give myself a stopping point. I'm so happy that you find time in the day to read! I need to stop being so lazy and pick up a book more often. I hope you're successful this week! Best wishes!
-Remi
Someone talked about that in a class that I took in high school way back when so I've always made very specific long-term goals. I don't know why I don't always do that with my short term goals. And thank you! So far I have kept on track with things. 🙂
Crystal, I love how this project is shaping goal-setting for many of the people doing it. I know I am refining how I set my goals and what works for me and it looks like it's the same for you. Awesome! I especially love this new writing goal — you're right — it's not necessarily about the words, but spending the time to write. What a wonderful shift and I love that. I think if we could get at what we're really looking for with goals, we'd be more likely (just people in general) to be more successful. 🙂 YAY!
–Erika
http://www.chimerikal.com
I'm glad that it's not just me who has had to refine my goals! It was interesting to set a weekly goal and then evaluate it at the end of the week because I was really able to think about why I hadn't made certain goals and what I could do to make it work better the next week. I've always made my lists but I haven't evaluated them at the end of a week. So it was interesting. 🙂