August Goals

Soon, the lazy days of summer will go away

I will not quote the famous Taylor Swift song, not yet, because something slipping away means it’s going away, and therefore I am a “‘August’ is a September song” girl.

But August is here, and after a busy weekend, it’s time to get back to work and focus on what’s going on and what my goals are this month.

For the last few years, I’ve been focusing on quarterly goals, going through a method by another author, Sarra Cannon, who does the HB90 method. But with that, there is a monthly review every month and I take it as a time to re-evaluate and adjust if needed. However, for the most part, looking at my quarter three goals? I feel like I’m in a good spot, a third of the way in.

At least with one goal.

So, now is the time to review where I’m at and how I’m focusing to hit these goals every month.

Goal One: Write the first, full draft of And She Hunts

word count target: 93,000 words for the draft
for writing for the quarter: 50,000 (good) / 70,000 (better) or 93,000 (best)

As of writing this post Sunday afternoon, I’m at 36,000 words. Not quite as far as I’d like to be but we’re still squarely on track to hit at least the better goal, if not the best goal.

While I would love to finish this draft this month, I think it’ll be closer to Labor Day. August is just going to be a busy month, with lots of events after work and on the weekends. I’m hoping for 30,000 words again this month, at least.

Goal Two: Build Reader base

Instagram: 800/900/1,000 followers
Email newsletter: 40/50/60 subscribers

Right now, I’m sitting at 801 followers on Instagram and 38 followers for my email newsletter. I definitely expect the Instagram number to drop under 800 again, as I’ve been fluctuating around this number for a while. Part of me believes that if I focused more on social media, I might see more growth. And I want growth to sell more books but man, social media is such a terrible thing nowadays.

That’s why I want to grow my newsletter. Maybe someday, I’ll write a blog post on my other substack, for my pen name, about why an email list is so crucial for authors, especially indie authors. And I’m not just talking about a Substack list, but an actual list of emails and names you can take with you if you need to move platforms (and I have done that too many times this year).

So, I guess we’re on track for both of these stats? I don’t think I’ll be saying that in September.

Goal Three: Daily Score Average of 85

I’ll be really honest, I’m failing on this one. And not necessarily in the way you think, I’m just not tracking. When using Notion, I had a formula in my daily note where I could add different habits and things I did throughout the day - like write 1,000 words or meal prep, and all of those habits had a score assigned to them, between 1-10. The formula would then round up and add all those habits for the day and spit out a score.

Well, I’m leaving Notion, and the app I’m moving to doesn’t offer that. So, we’re going back old school to go over habits and I’m keeping it simple now. The big things I need to do every day, like take my medicine, log my food, and be creative.

Going back to review my goals and recap July, I feel better than I did before. That’s part of why monthly reviews are so important. To remind myself that it wasn’t a total failure and I did good last month.

Now, here’s to moving forward and keeping momentum when needed.