August 2023 Outlook

I don’t usually do two posts in a week, both a recap and an outlook, but I’m trying something new. July was so chaotic, I don’t want to let that determine how my whole quarter goes. I’m trying to remain opotmistic for the rest of the year, trying to tell myself there are things that I can control and things I know how to plan for.

So for August, I want to buckle down again. My day job work schedule changes next week, back to the dreaded closing shift. and while it’s not ideal, at all, and it means less time at night with my boyfriend to watch a TV show or two, or go to dinner, it means I’m going to have four hours a morning to myself while he works and I’m not yet at work. I have always struggled with this shift, and I know I will struggle again, but I really need to make use of this extra time that I suddenly have and make use of the mornings, knowing I will not have time after work to work.

I also have half a week off from my day job, and I’m ready to really make the most of it. I want at least one 10,000 word day during my little vacation. The past few times I’ve taken time away from work have been for big events, like surgery/my brother graduating from college, and to go to a wedding, but this one is specifically for a writing break. I really want to have this draft done this quarter, and then turn my focus back to Hit List for the last quarter of the year, and hopefully publish both next year.

G O A L O N E: Write the 1st draft of a new stand alone novel.

My good, better, best goals for this: 70,000 words/80,000 words/90,000 words

My goal in August is to really push hard and get to at least 60,000 words. It’s an ambitious goal but I’m going to do my best to focus every day and get it done. If I can get a few thousand words done each day before work, I have a shot at this.

G O A L T W O: Focus on Tiktok to promote my books, because I seem to get better reach there than anywhere else. Tiktok has a benchmark of 1,000 followers before you can do things like links in your bio or go live, so that’s my ultimate goal.

Good, better, best: 200 followers/500 followers/1,000 followers

At the time of writing this post, I’m a little more than 150 followers, so I want to push hard to grow TikTok this month. I want to post at least three times a week to get this going. I just worry that I will run out of ideas to do that.

G O A L T H R E E: Focus on improving my self care and work toward an average of 70 for a daily score. I set up a way to calculate my daily score in Notion, and my goal is to average 70. That includes things like spending time with my boyfriend, in a meaningful way, having a big creative breakthrough, or tidying up, because I’m terrible at that.

I have nothing on this one, except trying to exercise in the morning again. My new schedule will have me working from noon to 9, so if I wake up at 7:40 or 8 each morning, I have plenty of time to really focus on these goals because everyone else will be working. And I know that once I have a two minute conversation, it takes me a long time to get back into focus. That’s on me and I need to better handle my ability to focus.

Maybe that will come to me in my thirties.