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Dale’s Theme for 2020 is “Writing”

Pick a Theme

Instead of a “New Year’s Resolution”, CGP Grey suggests picking a broader “theme” for the year:

This year’s theme for me is “Writing”. If you asked me what I do for a living, I’d tell you with a straight face that I was a writer. Your reaction is almost always either a smile, a twinkle in your eye or, at minimum, a raised eyebrow. I know you’re deciding between Ernest Hemingway, J.K. Rowling, Isaac Asimov or Steven King, but then I stop you by saying, “No, no that kind of writer.” The twinkle fades. I then go on to explain that I am a technical writer, dealing in computers, electronics, robots and such. That’s usually the end of the conversation about what I do for a living.

But the last several years have seen no time for proper “writing”, per se. I’ve been much too busy teaching, designing and selling kits on my web site, travelling and taking naps to get any serious writing done. After taking some time to think about these things in more detail, I’ve decided to focus more on writing this year. To do this, I’ve set myself some measurable goals:

“Smart” Writing Goals for 2020

  • A minimum of one book a year for five years
  • A minimum of two magazine articles per year, also for the next five years
  • One major blog post (or mini-series), ~10,000 words, 3-4 posts, per month for twelve months
  • One minor blog post (3-5 paragraphs) per week for 52 weeks

Can you see what I’ve done? I’m accomplishing one of my goals (the last one in the list) right now by telling you this. The good thing about these goals is that they are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based (i.e., “smart” goals). At year end, I will be able to look back and see which of these goals were attainable. In any case, I get to write more, and that mostly means that I get to make time to write more, and those are both things that I enjoy doing.