Tuesday, November 14, 2006

The Hours (Or Setting Goals - Part 1)

Last night I finalised my writing goals. These goals form the foundation, the support if you will, of my ultimate short term goal - finishing my first novel (sick of me saying that yet?).

Goal number one is "Commit to 14 hours of writing a week." This equates to 2 hours a day.

There are a number of reasons why I chose 14 hours. Firstly, given my work commitments and numerous household duties, 2 hours a day sounds about right. I've tried many variations on the theme of hours per week and have failed to maintain any of them. Funnily enough, all of those previous targets were less than 14 hours a week. I have adopted the "If you can't reach your goals, set them higher" school of thinking.

The other reason is: about 15 weeks ago, I set myself a goal of writing 310 hours over 31 weeks (roughly 10 hours a week - how about that, I didn't even need the calculator for that one; you see, I'm an accountant). Horrifically, I have only reduced that target down to about 280 hours with 16 weeks to go. Even though 14 hours a week wont get me there, it's a start. I feel pretty proud that I haven't altered this goal even though I have had holidays, slack weeks and injuries to curtail my success. Hooray for me.

Without going through the reasons in too much detail, I really struggle to write effectively after work. Therefore, I plan to try and knock off my 2 hours first thing in the morning. To facilitate this, I am about to approach my boss and see if he will let me start at 9.30am every morning, thus allowing me to squeeze in those 2 hours without having to get up at 5am to the tune of sparrows farting. Actually, sparrow fart is more like 7am in London at the moment, but the local sparrows are known to let a few early ones out now and then.

So to summarise: Goal 1 = 14 hours of committed writing a week.

BTW - only did half an hour this morning - lots of catch up weekend writing for this little black duck methinks.

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