Happy New Year!
2024 has tiptoed into my life on silent cat paws of fog. It’s 8am and I’m slowly enjoying my breakfast as I sit down to write and make my Monday to-do list. I’m grateful that this is happening in a hushed house where most of the family is still asleep because the nearest shop won’t open for several more hours. I’m in the Land of the Morning Calm where the majority of people are not morning people and where no one thinks twice about starting your day much closer to noon than my old 5am wake-up times when I was on the rowing team in college.
I like that I have this little pocket of space to think. To mull over the coming months. To really dive into what I want.
My writing partner reached out this morning to tell me about an author doing a 2,024-word-per-day challenge for the year and, let me tell you, I almost spit out my hot cocoa. That is decidedly not my goal this year.
In fact, I’m scaling back in 2024.
As many of you know, I have a writing calendar that I fill in with stickers every day for writing, editing, and general office work. Because secretly I’m 3 and I really love stickers. It works for me because I have an instant visual reminder of what I’ve done, and I get the beautiful dopamine hit of putting a sticker on paper when I finish my work.
But, in 2023, I realized my desk calendar with my writing recorded doesn’t have the full story. In fact, none of my calendars have the whole story. I have one for appointments, one for writing, one for work, and one for volunteer work. None of those four have my daily parental tasks of getting kids to school, overseeing meals, grocery shopping, bill paying, ect.
I glanced at my regular calendar that only has appointments above and beyond the regular schedule and I realized I had 100 days not scheduled in 2024. Day 1 and I am already two-thirds booked.
That made me step back and re-evaluate my plan for 2024.
I am under contract for two books. I have promised my agent a new title to shop in 2024/25. I have multiple editing clients booked for the year.
That’s on top of commitments to family and friends, my local community, and myself.
I know SELF can get dropped out of the planning a lot of the time. If you’re a certain age and background you were probably taught to put yourself last and prioritize other people. You probably will give up your time for a massage to go help a neighbor or pick up that extra shift. But I’m not twenty any more and I do actually need to make time for myself and my health.
So I’m taking a three-pronged approach to 2024 so I can do everything I want while also not losing my mind (or health).
1) Less Writing
Usually I earn a sticker for every 1000 words written towards a publishable novel. This year I’m dropping the word count requirement and giving myself a sticker any time I write. The goal of a writing session will be 400 words, 1/10th of what I usually write on a writing day.
There is science behind this decision. First off, Terry Pratchett aimed for 400 words a day and had a fabulous career and wrote a world he loved while being happy. I want that too. Second, quantity leads to quality. It’s the whole 100 Pots thing taught at every motivational speaker event for the past two decades. If you ask half a class to make 100 pots and the other half to make one perfect pot, the group that makes 100 pots will be the ones who make better pots.
In 2023 I wrote 182,000 words, but I was writing only a few days a week. It was inconsistent, and I was only writing when I could guarantee I had the time to write at least 1000 words. At this point in my life that’s not sustainable, so I’m not going to do it. I’m going to aim for small, daily sessions. If I write 400 words five days a week I’ll write 104,400.
Who wants to bet I’ll write more than 104,400 words in 2024? I am.
2) The 2024 BINGO Card
Someone introduced me to this idea in passing while I was in Australia last week, and I love it. The idea is that you write down a bunch of crowd-sourced, random things that are either goals or events or even disasters, and put them on a bingo card. When something happens, you mark it off. When you have bingo, you celebrate.
I’m crowd-sourcing my bingo card with family and friends this week and aiming to make a card that’s optimistic. It’s a little silly and a little different, and I love that for me.
3) Setting A Fun Goal
This came from another conversation with friends and a social media post about setting goals like Seeing The Most Birds or Having Weekly Picnics. And that honestly sounds like so much more fun than the usual list of goals.
There are reasons people set goals involving health or good habits, and I support that. But I also suspect that those healthy goals are much easier to reach if you are having fun while you hit those goals. Mindset is a huge part of success in any venture. If you believe in something and you enjoy it, you’re much more likely to succeed. Citation needs? Citation provided, my friend, USC published a study on this only a few months ago (https://appliedpsychologydegree.usc.edu/blog/how-liking-your-job-will-help-you-succeed).
I’m still looking for my fun goal. If you’ve got a great idea please drop it in the comments.
As we fly into 2024 I hope you find something joyous. I hope you wake you wake up every day with something to look forward to and spend more of your time with people who love and support you. I hope that by bringing optimism to your daily life you end 2024 much better than you ended 2023 (if it’s possible – I know a few of you are going out on a very high note, and I’m proud of you).
Happy 2024, everyone, let’s have a magical year!
