Four Tips to Set Achievable Writing Goals — They Don’t Have to Be Daily!
- Jerrica Black
- Jul 30
- 6 min read
Updated: Sep 24
“Write daily!” they say. “Just 1000 words!” they encourage. “If you write 1667 words a day, you can write a novel in a month!” they shout.
They make it sound so easy, but I know it’s unrealistic for many of us. There are so many things that might get in the way of writing daily or hitting a certain word count. Consider:
Caregivers who have two jobs, their normal job and their care giving;
People with chronic illness and/or disability, “scheduling” around flares and doctors appointments;
People with mental illness and/or neurodivergence, conquering their own brains and society’s hurdles;
People living in poverty, working multiple jobs just scraping by
There are more circumstances which make it hard to commit to a daily grind; many people have already committed to a daily grind! Not to mention it can just be points to the world on fire this holding people back from such a strict commitment.
I’m not against daily word count goals, or word count goals in general, but I have a few suggestions for those that feel overwhelmed or discouraged by writing daily and fear the guilt of missing a day. Having achievable writing goals means we'll be more likely to meet them and therefore build momentum to hitting higher goals. I find daily anything a huge struggle; if I miss a day, the routine is gone, and the guilt is tremendous. So, I’m working on ways to set writing goals that don’t make me feel so horrible. And I want to share them with you!
Weekly and Monthly Goals
Rather than set a daily goal, try setting a word count goal for a week, two weeks or a month.
This allows you to both take days off and make use of the days you bang out a bunch of words.
Sure, sometimes hitting double your daily goal can feel good, but think about being able to bank those for a particularly busy or rough day. On the other hand, writing only 50 words isn’t a failure of your daily goal; it's fifty more words in this week’s or month's pot that you wouldn't have otherwise. When you write 50 words and you're “supposed” to write 250, despite having gotten to the keyboard or notebook, you still “failed.” And, at least to me, that makes me think, “Why’d I bother at all if 0 and 50 are the same thing?”
Time spent writing is never time wasted, and I want to feel good about getting any amount of work done. Setting goals with larger time spans leaves a little room to breathe with more opportunity for wins and less for feeling guilty.
Mutable and Levelled Goals
Stick with daily goals but consider levelled or “green, yellow, red goals.” If your main determining factor is something like symptom flares that you can’t predict, consider having a menu of goals to choose from that fit your energy, pain, or focus levels.
You can work with these in a few ways:
Wake up, assess your day and choose a goal, or
Work through the day and check in with your goals to see what you hit
Either way, you can make these as low and simple as you want and you can choose to do 2 or 10 levels. Your lowest goal might be, “think about some aspect of my piece,” and you may have something like a super goal at the top which is either nearly unachievable or just anything above your penultimate goal, and you should reward yourself handsomely for hitting it.
Of course you can mix this together with weekly or monthly goals to provide as much ease as you need. One way I could see myself using this with weekly goals is knowing that I have ebbs and flows throughout the month, for perhaps obvious reasons, so knowing some weeks I can choose a lighter goal will help me not become defeatist during those already turbulent times.
Similarly, you can set mutable goals based on scheduled activities. Like if you know you have to take the kids to ballet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but they carpool to soccer on Fridays, make it so Fridays regularly have a higher goal and Tuesdays & Thursdays have a lower goal. This could also work with a weekly goal and rotating weekly schedule. Perhaps you struggle to write when you work the morning shift, but when you're on the evening shift, it’s easy to pick up the pen before work. So, on evening shift weeks you aim for a higher goal.
These levelled goals take into account that every day is different whether it’s scheduled that way, or your brain and body decide it’s that way.
Time Spent Goals
Choose an amount of time to work on your project instead of a word count. Set aside 30 minutes or an hour or whatever every day (and these of course can be mutable or weekly/monthly based) and be working on your project. The best part about this type of goal is that it can include outlining, researching and editing as well as writing. It reminds us that not all work on our project is about getting words on the page. Even time spent sitting, staring and thinking counts; just make sure you’re not scrolling social media instead.
You can set your own “rules,” but I suggest no other activities are allowed (if you need stimulation like music that's obviously fine!) but as long as the time is spent focused on your project it counts: research, outlines, doodling, creating mood boards… It's all project work. Just be aware if these other tasks are “productive procrastination” or actually moving you toward a finished project.
Another great tool to use when you’re focussing on a time-based goal is to look into a pomodoro timer. (I have some fun ways to use a pomodoro timer that I'd love to share with you in a future blog post!) This allows for you to focus on your work, while making sure you're getting proper breaks. It prevents the fear of hyper-focus or “over doing it,” because you get regular reminders to check in with your mind, body and other scheduled tasks. Time-based goals in general grant permission to take the scheduled time for you and your writing.
One tip I’d give if you’re going this route (and it works with the others as well) is to schedule this time into your day. If it’s on the calendar, you are far more likely to actually take the time to write.
Session Goals
Forget about word count! Forget about time spent! Any time and any word count is good! Instead, commit to a certain number of sessions per week or month. And you can decide if two sessions of writing in the same day counts as one or two. Again, you can set your own rules and make it so a session only counts if you spent at least 10 minutes or wrote at least 20 words or any other numbers you want to throw in there. But you can also choose to say that if you open your document or notebook, it counts. This is especially good when you struggle with task initiation, because you get to reward yourself for that initiation even if it amounts to nothing or very few actual words or time accrued.
A Little Wrap Up on Achievable Writing Goals
Set goals that work for you and your lifestyle, body and mind. Every day is different. Our motivation, energy and inspiration all ebb and flow. (Though don’t let a lack of motivation or inspiration hold you back too much! Sometimes it is about just putting your head down and banging it on the desk a few times…)
These are just a few suggestions for how to change your mindset on daily goals and word count goals in general. I’d love to hear your ideas on other ways to modify this type of goal, and your thoughts on my techniques. Have you ever used one of these methods before? Did it work?
This is not where the goal setting and getting discussion will end; I have loads of thoughts on the topic. So keep your eyes peeled for more tips and tricks to getting that writing (and editing and revising and publishing) done!
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Jerrica is a writer and editor who inspires up-and-coming writers to create compelling fiction and creative nonfiction works while providing them with the confidence to do it themselves or ask for a helping hand when they need it. She enjoys speculative fiction, horror and gut-wrenching emotion with a side of food & drink and the cozier things in life.
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