My 2023 Writing Goals

“You will always struggle with not feeling productive until you accept that your own joy can be something you produce.”

- Hank Green

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In the past few years I haven't really focused on goal setting or productivity the way I used to pre-pandemic times.

I don't regret giving myself the rest I needed, but I have to tell myself all the time not to feel guilty, because sometimes I feel like the past two years of my life were wasted and have set me back so much in my progress towards all of my life goals.

But I also don't really want to be "productive" like I used to, either. I've been so much more balanced and happy when I haven't been pushing myself so hard.

That doesn't mean that I can't challenge myself or try to get better at things. I think I just have to rethink the way I set goals and work towards them.

I instinctively want to set huge lofty goals that seem impossible, because I used to think it was better to set high goals and achieve 10% of them than to set low goals and fail those, too. But why even assume that I would fail?

Focusing on productivity made me feel like the absolute worst writer/human in the world, and it made me rush things and stop enjoying everything I did. Nothing was for fun anymore, everything was a goal, a challenge, a step outside my comfort zone.

So, I don't use the word productivity anymore. At least when it means anything else than producing joy. If something doesn't make me happy, I want to stop doing it and do something else.

My goals list is long this year, as always. I just have too many things I want to do, and too little time. One year simply isn't enough time to do anything!

But I'm not stressing too much about it. This year's goals are not set in stone. They're not there to make me do lots of things, nor are they based on what I think I should be doing to be successful.

They're simply reminders of what makes me happy, and that's it.

The process of working on my goals daily, sometimes very slowly, sometimes more quickly, in small increments, is what produces joy for me. And I don't need to produce anything else.

Although it's nice to finish a project, it's not what matters most anymore.

Here are some of my writing related goals for this year:

1. Write every day

2. Finish the first draft of my current WIP temporarily titled Project Sea Legs, which I might tell you more about later...

3. Finish (and maybe self-publish) my children's book.

4. Write a short story in the Project Sea Legs world.

5. Start posting on my social media, writing blog posts, and making youtube videos again.

I'll keep you updated on my different projects as I make progress! My instagram (linked above) is where I post most often, so go follow me there if you want to get daily posts containing quick writing advice, general writing feelings and thoughts, and weekly updates on my projects!

I hope you're having a wonderful February so far!

// Em 🌼