We are only days away from 2025, and naturally, everyone’s talking about New Year’s Resolutions, and New Year, New Me. We set all these goals–start a new book, redraft a book, publish–determined to stick through with them. And then come March, we’ve lost all motivation to do anything we pledged so diligently just a few months before.

If you feel called out right now, don’t worry–you’re not alone. Goals can be really hard, and without the right habits, it’s easy to find yourself floundering and behind on everything you wanted to do. Today, I’m here to share a few tips that have helped me to set manageable goals, work through them without going into a frenzy, and complete them efficiently, so you can be all ready to tackle your New You.

Setting a SMART Goal

First things first, you need a goal to start with! Be sure to choose something actually manageable–like, writing two million words in a year? Probably way too big to tackle in that time. Unless you’re like, a really fast typer with way too much time on your hands. (Naturally, I had to look up how many words you’d have to write a day to actually do this, and it’s around ~5,500 words a day. Someone could do it. If you didn’t have a life to live.)

A method I’ve seen that seems to work well is the SMART goal-setting method. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevent, and Time-Bound. Each of these points is key to setting an strong goal, with defined steps to make sure you actually finish what you want to do, over a set point of time, rather than like, over fifty years.

Figuring out your SMART Goal

Writing out your SMART goal is a thoughtful process. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but if you take time to really think through these steps, it’ll make the completion of your goal that much easier.

First off, we have Specific. You need to specify exactly what you want your goal to be. Figure out what you want done, and what you need to do to get there, in a clear manner.

For example, one of my goals in 2025 is to finish redrafting my novel. Simple and concise, and it’s exactly what I want to do. We’re on our way to defining a SMART goal.

Finish redrafting my novel.

Second, we have Measurable. How will you know when this goal is achieved? A word count? A timeline?

I find having a set word count works really well for me, as a novelist. But this can look different for everyone. For a short story writer, this could be to write 1 short story every week. Specific, and you know when you’ve completed it. Or, to write for 20 minutes every day. Again, setting a measurement, so you can take strong steps to complete your goal.

For me, I have a goal of 100,000 words, or a finished novel. Technically, this is a little loose number wise, but it does give me something to work towards. And in setting a word count for my novel, I can figure out how many words I need to write a day to achieve this goal, which I’ll talk more about in a little bit.

Another reason setting a big goal like 100k for my novel works is that I’m trying to expand my novel to have more description, so I have to have more words. For someone who needs to redrafting for less words, setting a goal to edit your novel down to, say, 80k words could work very well.

Finish redrafting my novel, setting a word count of 100,000 words.

Third, we have Achievable. This ties in with what I mentioned earlier–don’t set yourself a goal of writing two million words a day if you also go to school and work and you know, wanna do something other than writing in your day-to-day life.

Make sure your goal can be accomplished in your life. Make sure they’re realistic. It’s okay to challenge yourself, but don’t overwhelm yourself.

If writing for an hour every day will totally overwhelm you after a week, cut that back a bit. Shoot for 30, or 15 minutes a day. If you have a goal of writing 1000 words a day to finish your novel, but you realize that you don’t have time or energy for that, since you have work and family time and birthdays to plan for, that’s okay. Goals are meant to be a framework, not a prison. You can write 100 words a day, or 300, or 50.

The key here is to choose a goal frame that works for your life, not against your life. You already have enough stress in your life–don’t give yourself another burden.

For my goal, 100k is achievable mainly because I’m doing it over a long stretch of time. I’m not writing 100k in a month. I can take my time. And I know I can write that amount with my schedule.

Redrafting my novel, with a goal of 100k. With this goal, I can take my time, and I know that I can achieve it.

Fourth, we have Relevant. What does this goal mean to you? Why do you want to accomplish it? To have steps towards being published? To prove to yourself that you can finish a novel?

For me, I want to finish this novel to have it ready for publishing, mainly. But a huge part of this project has been proving to myself and realizing I can write an amazing novel. Figuring out these processes and improving over the years. And most importantly, having fun with this process.

Redraft my novel, with a goal of 100k. Taking my time, accounting for my schedule, and having fun with the entire process of exploring my novel.

Finally, we have Time-Bound. This is my favorite part, becaue everything ties together, and honestly? I just really like deadlines.

Setting a deadline is crucial to keep you on track. How many words do you need to write a day to hit your goal? When can you expect to be ready? If you have a goal of, say, preparing books for a book sale, you need to have a deadline for the sale so you know how early you’d need to print out books. The more specific you can get the better, but even setting a goal like “write five short stories over three months” gives you a good deadline.

For me, I’ve set a goal to finish redrafting by May 31st. A set, defined date. And the best thing about having a date and a word count is that I can divide to figure out how many words I need to write a day to reach my goal. For me, since I’ve been making some progress on it over the last couple months, I need to write around 550 words a day to hit my goal by May 31st. Clear, concise, and with diligence, easy for me to accomplish.

Redraft my novel, with a goal of 100k by May 31st. ~550 words a day. Taking my time, accounting for my schedule, and having fun with the entire process of exploring my novel.

And there you have it! Hopefully by now, you have a nice SMART goal, or at least the beginnings of one. If you stay diligent with this, you’ve got it. And remember–goals are meant to help you. A framework, not a prison. If your SMART goal needs to evolve because you started picking up extra shifts at work, or had a baby, or lost a loved one and need to time to rest, so be it. It’s okay.

A Few Tips for Sticking with Your Goals

• Set a daily goal. This is vital for me. 200 words a day. 15 minutes a day. Figure out what time works best for you, grab some great music or a hot drink, and tackle those goals of yours.
• Get an accountability buddy. Having someone to check up on you can be really helpful, especially if you help each other! This can be a friend, a fellow writer, or someone you find online (safely). Let your buddy know when you hit that daily goal, or made any progress. Give them motivation. Having writing sprints together. Share favorite lines. Have fun with it.
• Reward yourself. This one is a ton of fun–if you have something extra to look forward to when you finish your goal! After I finished my first draft (and really after every draft, now) I get my draft printed out in fancy book format, so I can sit it on my shelf and daydream about when I have it on bookstore shelves…
• Give yourself grace. Don’t beat yourself up if you get behind. It’s okay to miss a day, or ten. Creativity is weird. Writer’s block is annoying. Be diligent about your goal, but if you feel like just sitting and watching your favorite comfort show after an exhausting day, and can’t even fathom the idea of sitting down at your keyboard, that’s okay. Cozy up and watch that show. Rejuvenate yourself, and then you can wake up ready for those keys tommorrow.
• Bonus Tip: Fill Up Your Creativity Tank. I could write an entire post about this, but I cannot stress the point of filling up your creativity tank enough. Just like you can’t drive on an empty tank of gas–you can only shove that car up the hill to the gas station. It’s… really, really hard to create emotional, stunning works of art… if your creativity tank is empty. Read in your genre. Scroll Pinterest for images that fit your novel, or characters. Dance to music in your kitchen. Travel. Watch all sorts of movies. Take in media, take in creativity, and it will help so much more.

Hopefully this helps you stick to your resolutions and make some SMART decisions! And of course, the SMART method isn’t just for writing–you can use it for anything, anywhere!

Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried the SMART method before, or if any of these tips helped. And I’m curious–what are some goals you have going into 2025, writing or otherwise?

Until next year(!)