Year in Review

It's my end of year, beginning of the new year (winter starts for me Nov. 1) so it's time for the annual did-I-meet-my-goals post.  Bleh. 

LOL. It's a pain in the ass and I hate it every year because I just KNOW I've done awful (and am usually pleasantly surprised, there's that only-remembers-bad-stuff brain for you) but it also helps so much in prepping for next year's goals, so ... here it is.

I wanted to simplify my goals this year because I was getting waaaay to wrapped around doing and tracking a bazillion things and it felt like I was tracking more than I was doing. Which continued somewhat, but I also identified a different problem this year, which I'll get to in my 2019, eventually. 

My past year's goals 

(with my top-of-my-head reaction to how I did)

- Read more, track better  (which worked BEAUTIFULLY some months and Horrifically others)

- Write better -- improve skills (meh)

- Take classes to increase motivation  (dunno how I did on this)

- 20/hrs writing a week or better (such a damn low bar. Sigh) 

- Send Purpose to agents by Samhain (Falls off chair laughing)

- Be more collected and sane, i.e. -- 

  -- more single goal weeks, (eyes ceiling)

  -- more forest, more river: kayaking shape (winces)

  --Stay on top of budget, house and personal time (seriously winces)

-Stop Nazis. (blows a gasket)

What I actually accomplished (Nov 2017-Oct. 2018)

75,000 new words (or 1500/week for 50 weeks) A drop from last year, but I didn't hit my NaNoWrimo numbers at all.

336 revision hours. (Wow is does that feel low; but I hit 358 last year and I got a major revision done) 

452 other writing-related hours (drafting, marketing, printing, critting other folks' work, meetings, classes. Reading not included, I can't seem to get myself to track that accurately or consistently). 

That included 27 skill-building sessions (much too low to honestly feel I made much progress on my "write better" goal, but slightly better than last year) and 140 crits for other people (including one novel and one full-length play--similar but slightly higher than last year). Part of the problem is "write better" is a subjective goal. I know I'm a better writer than I was five years ago, but last year? That's harder to quantify.

At any rate, that's a combined 788 hours -- only about 20 weeks of full-time work. *sigh*  It is about 60 hours more than last calendar year, and close to two hours more a week in a 50-week year. So... slight improvement. But it's still 4.25 hours a week shy of my 20 hrs/week goal. I need to boost the annual number by more than 200 hours just to hit what I'm calling a low bar.

Read 24 books and more than 93 short stories  (blink. blink. Same number of books, but I hadn't tracked short stories last year. And I KNOW  I read more short stories this year. So that's good.)

Submitted work at least 16 times. (that's... more than double last year's number. Blink blink. cool!)

Sooo the numbers are a trifle skewed because I'm comparing a Nov.-Oct year with a calendar year (last year I didn't get this done until January) but I think it holds up okay. I'll do a "non-writing things I accomplished this year" post later; most of my monthly records are buried on my desk halfway across the state.

Okay. So where I missed my goals entirely:

Getting Purpose to agents (it's... close... but I've stalled, which tells me I've got a major issue I'm avoiding)

Physical health -- I started up with Pokeman Go to get walks in, and that has helped. But my weight has stabilized at a bad (high) place and I've ceased doing any of my PT exercises, so my shoulder is increasingly unuseable -- I had trouble cutting a hamburger on a plate today.

Mental health -- Like many creative and empathetic folk, I am high anxiety central over the state of the country right now, and I've not been meditating, exercising or taking sufficient mental health breaks. 

I have been doing SOME things--singing lessons, singing with the choir, taking breaks and mental health days and doing what I can on the political front. But my writing, my focus, my ability to contribute, my body and my creative capacity have all suffered.

 Moving forward into Samhain, into 2019

So... I'm trying a new Goal-setting process, this one with only four to six annual goals, which I'll rotate through the months. Each Goal has its own page with why, how, and "what would success look like." So far for Nov. 2018-Oct. 2019 I have:

Break the electronics habit

Regain and feed resilience and equanimity

Be a better writer

Be a better citizen (country and planet)

Breaking the electronics habit came from realizing part of the reason I'm not getting more work hours in is ... well... Facebook, Twitter, Plants vs Zombies and all the other electronic distractions. It's not all bad, obviously -- I use a computer to write, I'm using a work tracker, focus app and timer/alarms on my phone to help keep me on track. But I need to give up some screen time in order to have more USEFUL screen time. 

I'm still filling out the "Why," "How," and "Success Looks Like" but it's interesting that Success in one of these goals feeds and bleeds over into the others. 

I can't control the outcome of the election, and no matter what happens, we're likely to have two more years of 45, so. Maintaining my health and sanity so I can contribute in a positive way -- and then making that contribution -- is going to be key. So. Onward.