Being Intentional to Crush Your Writing Goals

My word for the year in 2024 was “intentional.” And while I had the best intentions (for lack of a better word 🤷🏼‍♀️) when I set that as my word, I know I failed miserably at carrying that out in any meaningful way in my business and my writing life.

So, this year, I’m trying again. Even though I kept the idea of intentionality in the back of my mind throughout 2024, one thing that became very clear while doing my December reflection work was that last year was really anything but intentional.

I spent a lot of time last year distracted by shiny objects—those new, hopeful ideas that appear at the worst times, but suddenly we feel pressured to chase down rabbit holes after them and wonder if maybe this is finally the answer we’ve been looking for. And while I firmly believe that sometimes you need to find the things that aren’t right for you before you can settle on what is, a lot of last year was spent chasing the next idea rather than simply buckling down and putting in the work.

And of course, as I was thinking about all of this recently, I began thinking about how this applies to writing goals as well. I wrote a blog post a while back about the importance of setting realistic goals, but I think it’s equally important that those goals also be intentional.

What I mean by this is that each action step we set for ourselves should be linked to our overall goals/vision and be moving us closer to reaching those results. So, while a goal of writing 500 words per day might be realistic, if our overall goal is to publish the book that we’re already on draft 3 of by the end of the year, then that goal is realistic but not intentional. Since we’re no longer in the drafting phase of this manuscript, an intentional goal in this situation might look more like revising five chapters per week. While writing a fresh 500 words each day might be doable, that particular goal isn’t moving us towards our end goal in this stage.

What Makes a Goal Intentional? 

While any goal we set for ourselves should be specific, measurable, and realistic, the difference between any old goal and an intentional one is that the intentional one is directly related to our overall vision for our writing careers.

For example, if our overall vision is to publish four romance novels in the next two years, then setting goals related to writing our memoir likely are not intentional. Unless we have the bandwidth to work on both our romance novels and the memoir simultaneously, the memoir work is likely detracting from our efforts to publish those four romance novels.

An example of this from my business last year is that my over-arching goal was to create a consistent posting schedule on Instagram and nurture my relationships on that platform. But then I decided that I also needed to be on Pinterest. And, if anyone has explored Pinterest in any serious manner, you know that there’s a lot to learn about how that algorithm works and it requires posting a lot  to find any sort of success. So, I spent a good chunk of my time learning about Pinterest, creating pins, scheduling pins, writing captions, etc…and didn’t have time left over for Instagram.  

Even though my goal to pursue Pinterest wasn’t necessarily wrong, I simply didn’t have the time to dedicate to both Pinterest and Instagram, and my ambition to tackle Pinterest ended up detracting from my overall goal of committing to a consistent Instagram schedule. It doesn’t mean there won’t be a time when I’m able to devote the time and attention needed to Pinterest; it just means that time isn’t right now.

The same goes for our writing goals. If we’re set on publishing those four romance books in two years, anything that splits our attention so that we’re not able to do what needs to be done to reach those goals isn’t an intentional goal. While the memoir project might be a good one to revisit at some point, if it’s detracting from our ability to publish those romance books in this moment, then it needs to be shelved for the time being. 

How to Set Intentional Writing Goals

Ensuring our goals are intentional begins with doing some self-reflection. Remember that “why” I’m always talking about? This is where it comes into play.

Spend some time revisiting your why. Why are you writing? What do you hope to achieve with your writing? What is your vision for your writing career?

Clearly knowing your why will help guide you in the process of creating goals that are intentional in moving you towards your overall goals.

The second component to setting intentional writing goals is prioritizing. I don’t even remember now where I first heard this quote, but it’s stuck with me: “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything.”

This mindset shift was huge for me. Acknowledging that while I could do any of the things on my “want to do” list, I can’t do all of them at once forces me to prioritize even when that feels impossible. 

The fact is that we all only have so many hours per day. Continuing with the example from above, publishing four romance novels in two years and writing a memoir might both be great goals that we want to pursue. But if we only have time to work towards one of those goals in this present moment, then trying to force ourselves to do both will only result in achieving neither of them.

Just like my adventure with Pinterest last year, trying to find the time to dedicate to both Pinterest and Instagram when realistically I only had enough time to do one well ultimately meant that I wasn’t doing either one wholeheartedly. Trying to do both only led to frustration and burn out, and at the end of the year, my presence on both platforms wasn’t even close to where I wanted it to be.

Prioritizing is difficult. I get it. We have so many ideas and so many goals, how can we possibly choose just one? But recognizing that trying to juggle too much will likely mean you don’t make quality progress on any of the goals can help to remind yourself that narrowing your focus is the best way to ensure you’ll have the time required to work towards that goal in a meaningful and significant way.

Keep in mind that you can always go back and revise your priorities. If you commit to publishing the romance novels but ultimately decide the memoir is more important to you right now, then you can change your mind. However, I would caution you to raise a red flag for yourself if you notice your “priorities” changing too often as this can be a means of avoiding putting in the hard work.

If you notice that you often decide to “switch priorities” when you come to a challenging part of the process with your current priority, it’s likely this isn’t so much a change of priorities as an attempt to avoid the difficult part of the process. This is when we end up flitting from goal to goal without ever finishing any of them.

My best suggestion for avoiding this is to set a time frame for your current goals. Choose a priority and the associated tasks and then commit to not straying from these goals for three months. Within those three months, any new ideas or goals you have that don’t align with your current priority can be jotted down for future consideration, but you won’t jump to digging into them. This will ensure you don’t fall into the trap of chasing after shiny objects but instead take the time to consider if something new is truly right for you.

Setting goals that are not only realistic by also intentional is the best way to take control of your writing journey and be sure that the work you’re putting in is actually moving you closer to the goals that matter to you, not any other writer. Remember, just because someone else is doing a certain thing doesn’t mean that you also have to. Having a clear understanding of your why and your overall vision for your writing career will allow you to make choices when goal setting that will serve that overall vision rather than leave you spinning your wheels and seeing little to no progress.