5 Planning Tips to Reach Your Goals

Hello and welcome back to the simulation!

We’re in the thick of January 2021 and things are looking...well for me, not so different from a month ago but with less Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and more Bridgerton - so things are great *wink wink nudge nudge*.

Here are some updates from me on what I’ve been working on:

1. Completed the first draft of my young adult (YA) fantasy novel.

2. Completed a speculative fiction short story.

3. Currently drafting a short memoir piece for a contest.

4. Currently editing the first draft of the young adult novel in item 1.

5. Currently working on a new music/writing project.

It’s good to look once a month at what my goals are and what I’ve accomplished to make sure we have a forward momentum going as much as possible. I’ve planned and executed a lot of projects over the years and have worked as a project manager in electrical design, so with that experience in mind, I want to share some useful tips with you to help you in reaching your goals.

Fresh Starts

Did you ever wonder why new years, the first day of the month, or birthdays seem like a common time for people to make new habits or try something new? There is a theory called the “fresh start effect” where people tend to take action during a landmark day, as opposed to any other random day. These temporal landmarks cause us to view ourselves as “past self” versus “present self” and allow us to see more clearly what we need to change and provide motivation to change. Those moments of reflection can inspire us and give us a kick in the pants to get started.

Consider this post your kick in the pants. Let’s go!

5 PLANNING TIPS TO REACH YOUR GOALS

1. Lists

Make lists. Be it a 6 month, 1 year, 5 year, 10 year goal list, make a list. I suggest making a separate list for dreams/wishes. Goals are things within your sphere of control.

Example:

My goals for this year:

• Finish writing the fantasy trilogy.

• Write at least five more short stories.

• Release at least one new album and a few singles.

• Get my professional designation in electrical engineering.

• Write at least one new blog post per month.

My dream list:

• Get my book traditionally published.

• Get my short stories published in magazines like Clarkesworld and Asimov’s.

• Do a song with Ed Sheeran.

• Host a gallery show with my visual art.

You can see that one list is well within my control and the other list, while awesome and inspiring, has many factors outside of myself that will affect if they will happen. I don’t want to discourage making a dream list or setting intentions because those are important to do. Don’t write your big dream off as a “never going to happen”. Lots of crazy things happen, and every success story has a moment where the person achieved the impossible. Don’t tell yourself what you can’t accomplish, especially when it means a lot, even everything to you.

That being said, don’t get too lost in your dreams that you forget reality. Reality is tangible; we can transform it with our hands if we know where to channel that power. The goals list is where you channel your power. What is within your sphere of control? Probably more than you think.

Everything in my goals list in the above example is something that I should be able to accomplish this year. It’s just a matter of writing the damn books and singing the damn songs. Focusing on what is actionable allows me to keep the fire burning and not become exasperated on why “I’m not successful” yet. Success is a different metric for everyone. To some, completing the goals list is a success. And to others, hitting one of those dreams may be a success; find out what success means to you.

So, remember the distinction, and make some lists of your dreams and your realistic goals!

2. Manage Your Time

This one is easier said than done. We have heard the words “time management” repeatedly, from our angry parents knocking on the door at 4:37 in the afternoon asking why we still haven’t done the laundry (it’s been a month) to our less but still angry managers when we missed a small deadline (those laundry habits caught up with you didn’t they…). Time management is something so widely talked about, but what does it really mean?

Obviously the first step is making time to do things. If you don’t put in the time for something, then it will remain unfinished. Okay, cool. Then what?

From an online writing and editing course on Coursera from the University of Michigan, there are a couple of great phrases I would like to share. These phrases come from various sources, but professor Patrick Barry presented them together in relation to time management.

The first phrase is the “Animal Farm Principle”. If you have read the book, Animal Farm, then great, but if not, all you need to know is that there’s a quote in the book: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” This is a satirical expression commenting on an unfair societal system. However, Barry alters this saying to be: “All hours are equal, but some hours are more equal than others.”

In terms of time management, this means that while all hours are essentially 60 minutes long, some hours are more valuable than others, and this entirely depends on what type of person you are. For example, the hours between 6AM-11AM may be far more valuable to a morning person than a night owl. Perhaps you are most productive and energized on Wednesday afternoons rather than Friday afternoons.

Figure out your “more equal” hours and organize your time efficiently. Maybe save the low brain power tasks for when you don’t have a lot of attention span left and save the high brain power tasks for when you are at your most focused. There are pockets of time that I carve out depending on my schedule, but for me, mornings are best for writing and evenings are best for singing.

If you’d like to read more on the Animal Farm Principle, then check out this link.

The next phrase mentioned by professor Barry is from a book by William Ury, called “The Power of a Positive No”.

Every time you say “no” to something, you are saying “yes” to something else. This leads us to thinking of saying “no” positively, because we’re not just rejecting something but also making room for another commitment.

I’m people pleaser (woo hoo), and so I understand the struggle to say no to people. It’s important to figure out your priorities and know that while you may do a lot, you can’t do everything - nobody can. Therefore, we must carefully pick what to say “no” to, in order to say “yes” to something else. Everything has an opportunity cost (loss of potential gain from the opportunity not taken), so decide what to reject and what you are rejecting it for.

Last, calendars are your friend! Story time: When I was working as a designer, the calendar was a vital part of my schedule. I planned out drawing review times with senior designers, meeting times with clients, and even blocked out mornings or afternoons when I needed an uninterrupted session to work on a lighting layout.

Unfortunately, I got laid off a few months ago because of the pandemic, but during this “in between jobs” time, I made a schedule in Google calendar which saved me. Without a work schedule, I was floating in the ether as a freelance artist, with no manager to tell me what I needed to do. After a few weeks of Netflix and YouTube binging, I realized I needed to get my shit together. That was when I went on the calendar app and started planning my weeks. I specifically mention Google calendar because the colour coding is awesome!

Here’s a brief screenshot of my current schedule as an example.

Side note: My normal operation for many years has been: working all day and then doing my creative projects either on my lunch hour, commute to work, or evenings after dinner. These last three and a half months have been my first time getting a more open schedule. Everybody has a unique set of responsibilities and obligations to deal with. If you want to progress in something, find your windows of free time, no matter how big or small they might be, and use them. You just might need to bust open a wall with a sledgehammer and make the damn window yourself.

So, with this all being said, I hope you can wrangle your days and let them work for you!

3. Track Your Progress

Planning is fine, but it's the execution that is hard. When you look at a goal, sometimes it feels like you are at the base of an unscalable mountain, it can be daunting, even paralyzing.

But splitting up hard tasks into smaller mini goals is the way to go; divide and conquer! Here’s a quote:

“A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.” - Anthony Trollope

You don’t need to be a Hercules and try to lift mountains, you just need to take little steps consistently. Which seems much more doable. To keep this consistency, I enjoy tracking what I get done. There are so many apps and programs out there, here are some I’ve used:

• For writing: Write on Track (app), NaNoWriMo project tracker (website), Scrivener (computer program)

• For health: MyFitnessPal (app)

• For projects: Strides (app), Asana (app)

• Other: Notes (app on phone), Google docs, a physical journal

When you have something to look back on and track your progress, it will encourage you to keep going. You’ll be at the peak of that mountain before you know it!

Special Note: There's an announcement at the end of this post - a free thing for you! Hehe, that’s all I’ll say, so either read the rest of this or skip it and scroll down to see...

4. Create Checkpoints + Rewards

This one is quite fun, especially if you are someone that loves crossing off things on your list. That feeling of a ballpoint pen sliding across the paper in a straight line, no ruler...oh baby. Bridgerton is great, but have you crossed off the last item on a to do list?

The good thing about dividing your tasks is that it automatically creates mini check points. These, combined with your progress tracking, will move you step by step to carrying out the goal. The checkpoints are there to keep you both motivated and organized. The bigger your goal or task is, the more I recommend having these mini goals in between. And, within moderation, reward yourself for completing a checkpoint!

Here’s an example for when I release an acoustic song. The primary goal is to release the song, but the in between checkpoints are:

1. Practice the song, rewrite parts that need work.

2. Edit the lyrics and melody as needed.

3. Record a rough version of it, play it back a few times.

4. Schedule evenings to record the guitar and vocals, play it back, and re-record if needed.

5. Once happy with the recordings, start editing the arrangement, add other instruments, etc.

6. Mix and master the song.

7. Album art, launch plan, photoshoot, marketing, etc.

8. Release it!

For simplicity’s sake, I condensed the above into a small list. One could easily divide up each of those mini-goals even further, which I do a lot. It takes time and effort to create a song, and even more work to release it. Keeping track of the details helps me stay organized and driven to take it one step at a time. Facing a multitude of tasks can be paralyzing. The checkpoint method really helps combat this issue.

5. Set Reminders

So, you have your calendar, you’re tracking your progress, and you have your checklist. There’s a million things you should do this week. How do you keep track of it all? Reminders. Oh, bless reminders. Also hate them, but also bless them. It’s like a weird “With or Without You” U2 moment with those things.

My calendar events send reminders to my phone about when my next task begins. I could be knee deep in the trenches of my story, frantically typing away, but when it hits 12PM, I must eat lunch. I even set reminders for menial tasks like laundry. There’s a joke about how artists have their head in the clouds and it’s kind of true in some ways, at least for me. Most of the time I have my thoughts swirling between my current story, song ideas, painting projects, or thinking about what I need to fix in chapter 17. While this is okay, it can be very annoying to those you have made promises to. Reminders help me set boundaries to how much time I dedicate to projects. I could easily lose an entire day in the throes of passionate art and completely forget I was supposed to have chicken parmesan ready for dinner and now everyone’s hangry AF at me. Reminders can keep you in check when you can’t always depend on your brain to remember everything!

Another reason I like reminders is to see if I’m taking on too much. If I’m at a point where I keep “snoozing” every reminder that comes my way, I know I need to take a moment and re-evaluate my week because something needs to get cut.

Besides calendar reminders, there are some apps I have used to remind me to do basic things like drink water. Yes, that sounds kind of crazy, but I’m just awful for remembering to drink water. Having a little water reminder pop up on my phone every two hours has saved my skin...literally.

There are a lot of reminder apps out there, but the one I’m currently using is Any.do (the free version).

There it is, my five tips to reach your goals for the new year!

Now for the gift:

I’m excited to announce that I created Google sheets to keep track of our habits for this year of 2021! I’ve made two types: one for anybody looking to track their habits throughout the year and another for writers to track their words per day.

The Habit Tracker is linked here: [LINK]

It’s colour coded, customizable, and has an inspirational quote for each week!

The Word Tracker is linked here: [LINK]

This one shows a maximum of four projects, but you can add rows to it. It adds up your weekly totals for projects automatically and shows you how many words you wrote in 2021 at the end of the year!

I really hope these can help you and if you have any questions, comments, even thoughts on how to make it better, please let me know by either commenting or sending me an email at admin@fprezwan.com.

We can’t do everything and things don’t always go to plan, but I hope these tips were encouraging and can help you complete what you need to do to accomplish your goals.

I said before; I don’t believe in rigid routines, but flexible ones. Life is a mess sometimes, but if we do our best to stay organized in a way that fits our lifestyle, then when things go awry we have something to hold on to and work with.

One last tip: I plan only about 1-2 weeks ahead, because knowing me, things go off course if I plan too far. For large-scale projects, I’ll have soft deadlines months ahead, but that’s about it. While planning is fun, it can also be a form of productive procrastination. Try not to plan out your next 6 months right to the minute details straight away. My suggestion: plan and do, plan and do, make it a cycle, make it a chant. But don’t drink the kool-aid.

Wishing you all the luck to reach your goals this year and also have fun along the way. =)

That’s all folx!

Love,

FP