Start as you mean to go on

I've never been one for new year's resolutions, but I am a goal-setter. Every year I repeat this little mantra to myself: Start as you mean to go on. Sometimes I go a few months with the routine I want working perfectly, other times I don't last the first day. Sometimes, I even last the whole year and accomplish nearly everything I had planned - those are rare times, though.

My problem is I need a routine to accomplish everything I want to do, but I'm REALLY not a routine kind of person. Still, I do have things I want to accomplish, so routines are regularly implemented.

First, I need to review my goals for 2014:

1. Formulate plan/timetable for writing time, by the end of January. Adjust timetable as necessary for intense writing times (eg NaNo) NOT EVEN LOOKED AT!
2. Focus on one writing project at a time (I have far too many unfinished and unedited books not doing anything) MASSIVE FAILURE. I got bored and didn't write at all. I obviously need a million things swimming in my head to keep my interest, no matter how disorganised it feels.
3. NaNoEdMo (March) I STARTED editing a book but didn't finish it by the end of the month. I kept working on it and submitted it later in the year--publication Mar/Apr 2015.
4. CampNaNo x 2 (April, July) NOT DONE. I was editing--there was a lot to fix.
5. NaNoWriMo (November) DONE but I didn't make 50000 words. I finished one book and began another so I'm happy with the progress.
6. Write/edit and submit a total of 150,000 words NAILED IT. I wrote/submitted a total of 110000 and wrote 63000 on different projects.
7. Write and upload a blog entry every week DONE
8. Update Website regularly DONE
9. Post one free short story to website. I PUT TWO UP!

Personal:

1. Spend quality time with family every week I managed that with one family member--mostly. I managed to see other family members during work holidays.
2. Commit to regular exercise - and do it I committed! And did it whenever I met with the family member (1. above)
3. Make birthday and Christmas presents for immediate family (no taking the easy way out and buying things) MASSIVE FAILURE. Half the time I forgot birthdays and I only made Strawberry Jam and Lilly Pilly Jam for Christmas. I had to buy the rest.
4. Enjoy my day job: I have plans for major interactive displays to commemorate 100 years since WWI. It's a five year project and will mean significant liaison with community groups. Huge, but exciting. LOVE MY DAY JOB.

So, not completely successful, although there were gains made. I'll simplify this year's goals in an effort to make them more achievable--or less quantifiable and therefore easier to fudge? ;)

Things I want to accomplish this year:

1. Improve my health and fitness. I'm healthy but not fit and as I get older I notice the need for fitness more and more. This one's always problematic because everything I really enjoy doing requires me to be sitting still and exercise takes me away from that. I'll try an attitude adjustment.
2. Submit more than two books. I'm neither happy nor content if I'm not writing. My writing slowed dreadfully in 2014 so I only sold two books (Ordinary People and Just the Way You Are [publication Mar/Apr 2015]) and posted two free stories. I'm aiming for four submissions this year. One is nearly ready to go, just another couple of quick edit passes to polish it up and make sure I have the characters consistent. I have about 13000 written on the next one (Really enjoying this one. If I can hold it all together it's going to be a great story). I also have a plot summary for the one after that and an idea for the fourth, so all I have to do is make the time to do the writing. Easy! Of course that doesn't help the four novels I have sitting waiting for major edits--they've been waiting a while. The stories are great; the writing's all over the place.
3. Make writing work rather than artistic venture. I've done it before where I treated my writing as a work activity rather than a fun thing to do every day to relax and my production doubled. I'm not sure my writing improved at all, but I certainly did more of it and had a very happy year. I'm also trying to plan my stories more because, while I prefer to just start and see where the story takes me, that often leads to incomplete plot threads. So that's it in a nutshell: improve my writing and increase production. Another easy task!
4. Solidify projects in my day job. I have a very interesting and challenging day job and have just completed a massive four year project. Now I need to make sure all the sub-projects I introduced as part of the larger one are planned effectively, are implemented smoothly and maintained throughout the year. I need to be able so show improvement at the end of the year in a different way now the large project is completed. The large project might be completed but I can't let the implementation slide. Then there's the next major project I started in June 2014--it's for five years.
5. Focus on family. There are some exciting things happening in my family in the next year and I want to be part of it. I'm usually a bit hit and miss with family contact because I get so busy and distracted. This year, I need to be better at keeping in touch and spending time with everyone.

So that's my goals in a nutshell. I'll tease them out a bit over the next few weeks and break them down into smaller, achievable chunks. 

And just because I love all my covers and enjoyed writing all the stories that go with them, you get a slide show with links! Lucky you.