I have written about my goal-setting process on here before, but as my life has changed and what I wanted out of my life changed, I knew I needed something different…but I wasn’t sure what. So, when one of my favorite AuthorTubers, Sarra Cannon – a brilliant and successful indie author and lovely human being posted about her HB90 Goal Setting Course, I jumped right in.
She taught us how to take our vision for our life and turn that into 90-day goals. Then we took those goals and turned them into little step by step tasks. YES! It felt exactly what I needed. Her last step was to set up a Kanban Board (for more about hers – check out the YouTube video below).
I grabbed baby post-it notes, color-coded my three goals and wrote all of my tasks on individual post-its and put them up on my board. There is a section for To-Do’s, Doing (the tasks I’m focusing on for that day or week) and DONE!
The thrill when I get to move a sticky note down to Done is really amazing. I’m a paper planner girl at heart so having this analog makes me happy, but you can also use digital tools like Trello or Asana or any project management app really.
The idea of only planning in 3-month chunks though was really fascinating. Usually, I plan the whole year and then crash and burn sometime in March or April. Here, you get a total reset every three months. Every quarter you get to evaluate and replan. Seriously, I’m kinda in love with this system.
So, what are my goals you ask?
Goal #1 is about writing my books and self-publishing. So I’m working on Etta in the Outfield, brainstorming ideas for my next book project (which could turn into a trilogy with all the ideas I’m writing down!!), and researching how to take The Art of Lying wide (meaning into all online bookstores).
Goal #2 is about growing my Instagram following and being more engaged and present over there. Creating a real Author Persona and Brand and developing my style. This will also bleed over into other aspects of my social media presence but for right now I’m concentrating on the gram.
Goal #3 is about growing my newsletter list and really forging a relationship with the people that are there — so, if you’re not already on that list, think about joining (you get a free Short Story Anthology when you do!).
Let me know — what goals are you working on? How do you plan out your goals? How do you track them? This fascinates me sooo much, so I would really love to hear from you and how you’re doing this year. Are you planning a vacation? Writing a book yourself? Work-related goals? Health and Fitness goals? I have all of those too and at some point, I want to get a bigger Kanban board so I can have everything up in front of me. For now – my board has my writing goals and my planner has my more personal goals – which is working…for now.
I hope you have an amazing day and don’t let the fact that it’s not January 1st stop you from starting something new, thinking about where you want to go and point yourself there – start today, start small but start now. Think about your goals and pick one tiny thing and then plan when you’re going to do it and voila! You are well on your way!
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