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2026 Goals & Projects

2026 Goals & Projects


Realistically based on my past performances, I'm carrying forward the two main goals. I tend to grossly underestimate the time given, and overload myself. It makes me feel productive to have many goals. :) Anyway, I've been carrying over my goals from 2023 where stretch became actual. 

I'll try and review what I've done on a monthly update.

Without further ado.

Project #1: Finish my main novel-in-progress book 2: 

This needs more draft passes than I am willing to admit, but I'm working on being realistic and seeing how much effort things take me. Draft passes, then editorial-copyediting/proofreading-which can take up to 3 months, cover design and all that. I rarely consider those steps in my goals.

Project #2: Publish my novella

 I want to do this in January but I'm thinking of reader magnets and all that stuff. It was a world to sharpen my 'commercial' writing skills. I have three shorts associated with it. If I do write those, it may be delayed. Am I going to put them on my PadlockStack (Substack) or blog or some reader magnet?

I'm tempted to put down a stretch target but based on my history, I shall put them as optional. I just like setting goals, and buying planners and all that stuff. It makes me feel productive and organised as I said above.

Added Additional 'optional/stretch' goals


I couldn't resist :) so I'm back again. I’ve been doing this for years so just having two goals, even if based on my past performance, feels a bit empty. I’m adding optional/stretch goals.

I watched a video about learning, applying and building on that knowledge so I've decided to take stock and do a review and declutter and consolidate where needed. This may be a difficult one since as a learner, I tend to hoard and squirrel away information or material then move on to the next learning adventure with little practice or review. 

Project #3: Review romance conference material 

During the pandemic, I took the opportunity to attend some long-time dream conferences, and though I enjoyed them, I was busy writing a novel so didn't review or look at the material. I attended most sessions but just hoarded the material. I have over 50 documents in terms of handouts so maybe a target of ten. Even if just for practice. This was stuff collected over four conferences.

Project #4: Review Jericho conference material

This was really affordable but I just added, collected material and that was that I have about 15 in the main folder but I may have just throw stuff around. target: 10 workshops

Project #5: Review & consolidate other writing information on Google drive 

I have so many documents so I'm going to take a different approach here. It's just digital hoarding. I currently have 2,330 from this year so far. I'm already at 75% capacity - 11.27  GB of 15 GB. Doing this file audit has been interesting so I'll set my goal at getting it down by 10% so 2,33 files and maybe down by 2 GB or more. 

File TypeNumber
Googledocs 1,230 just writing, backups and general stuff.1,230
Spreadsheet 106 - these are mostly for plotting or storing numbers stuff.106
Presentations - 26 some from workshops or just where I store pictures etc.26
Images - 332 images - mostly setting and stuff.332
PDFs - 445445
Videos - 39 mostly backup from courses39
Archive - zips file 59 - backups59
Audio files - 44
Drawings Google drive also classes Photoshop files as this 8989
Total 2,330

Project #6:Genre exploration

I've been thinking of pivoting from Romance so I want to write four to five mystery/suspense short stories. target: 4 short stories

Project #7: Watching Instructional video 

I've had a subscription for three years running to the BBC Mastro course platform and haven't looked at any of the videos so I'm going to do that. Target: complete the courses

Project #8: Complete LinkedIn Learning course

I forgot to cancel my subscription so I might as well. Some of the courses are so boring, I'm running on double speed. But then again gotta look professional and talk the talk, Confuse people with jargon. There are some definitions and concepts that blow me away that I need to pause the video and reconcile it to years of practice. target: 30 minutes a week I need to think in terms of CPD so there are number of things I need to brush up on. 

The USA lot suggest 40 hours or 120 hours over three years.
The UK lot suggest 30 hours where 10 hours must be verifiable (ie a piece of paper) and one with an ethics module
The other UK lot 40 units with a minimum of 21 units  verifiable.

Mine? They sort of free style so I need to get guidance from others. Okay, since I have a subscription, I'll go for 40 hours. 

Project #9:The cover design course

 Do the difficult project. Not sure where I’m going with this or if I’m just going to buy covers. target: 3 covers from the course. 

Personal Goals

I'm throwing these in
  • Get a new job
  • Lose some weight - well a lot. I'm currently  over my fat weight. So my normal fat weight is 83kg but now I'm 87kg. Don't ask, just getting older, less active and eating a lot.
  • Stay off a toxic writer's forum. This will be hard but I can count this in days 
  • Tidy up and sort out my father's stuff in storage.

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