This season, I’m leaning into four personal and professional goals: (1) onboarding new coaching clients, (2) writing my book, (3) caring for my body, and (4) building a personal curriculum. These goals are not random. I honed in on them by completing my own free workshop, How to Effectively Reach Your Goals this Season.

Want a behind-the-scenes look into how and why I chose these goals? Check out my recent solo episode of Honing In, “Why I’m Aiming for Effectiveness Over Efficiency This Season.”

As June starts, my focus is on my creative projects.

I’m not one to share my big goals out loud before I do them because, as I mentioned before, it often feeds my ego more than motivates me to take action. But I’m feeling curious about sharing some of my process while I’m moving through it this season.

Rather than model razor-sharp precision or imply that achieving goals is simple if you just follow these five easy steps, I want to lean into action outside of perfectionism and give myself permission to shift my approach based on my interest and capacity. Even productivity scholars struggle with the murky job of getting things done! It’s an ever-evolving process that often requires support. Hence, me taking my own workshop.

Dr. Anne-Laure Le Cunff, author of Tiny Experiments and previous guest on Honing In, encourages goal-setters to develop a pact, or “an actionable commitment you will fulfill for a set period of time.” After I read Tiny Experiments last year, I did a month-long pact where I tried using an online mat pilates app. While I ultimately didn’t end up using the app that much, I did complete the experiment and was grateful for the information I learned about my process and what I wanted to do instead (also, a year later, I’m doing mat pilates on my own without any app! Funny how things work out like that.).

That’s the magic of an experiment: the goal is to try something new and discover insights through the process, not to achieve perfection. In fact, aiming for perfection might cause us to drop out of the experiment before we finish if we inevitably have an off day or shift our conception of what counts as “done” or “good.”

Le Cunff says we can support ourselves in completing our pacts through learning in public, and this feels spot on for my creative goals this June. Learning in public will look different for everyone, but generally includes three steps.

Step 1: Make a Pledge

When we pledge to complete an experiment publicly, we set up some accountability, but we also open ourselves up for feedback, which can be great or add a layer of stress. Le Cunff says, “When choosing who to share your pact with, ask yourself: Will they support my learning journey or foster unhealthy comparison? Seek supportive team players who can share constructive feedback with empathy” (198).

My pledge for June is to complete Jami Attenberg’s 1,000 Words of Summer, which means I’m committing to writing 1,000 words a day for two weeks in support of my book goal for June. I did join the large group Slack Jami has set up for the program, which is full of fellow writers around the world. But I also set up a small accountability group with folks from my online writing group. Not only will I feel more comfortable sharing my process with a small group that I share space with every week, but I’ll feel more accountable to show up and do my work, because I know they’ll be checking our shared writing tracker.

Reflection Question: What is one goal for June that you would be comfortable pledging to? Who would you tell and how would you share?

Step 2: Choose a Platform

I appreciate Le Cunff’s suggestion to work with tools and platforms that we already feel comfortable with versus ones that will require us to learn new skills. New platforms are exciting, but they often take our precious time and energy away from the actual project we want to work on!

In 2018 and 2019, I wrote a blog called The Tending Year where I researched, practiced, and wrote about a new productivity tool every week, and that worked great for me. But for a short-term experiment, daily tracking feels like a better fit. This is why I set up a shared document for my small group of fellow 1,000-worders: it’s simple, easy for us to access, and private. I don’t need to tie it to my work or share it with thousands of people, which means I can fully focus on my writing.

Reflection Question: What platforms are you already using that could support your goals for this month?

Step 3: Practice and Iterate

By the time this newsletter hits your inboxes, I’ll be on day five of the 1,000 Words of Summer program! To prepare for my practice, I scheduled in 45 minutes for writing every day in a time block in my calendar. I prefer rhythm over routine, so I might not complete the writing during that exact time block, but if it’s on my calendar, then I know I’ll see it and have the reminder. I’ll also add it as a task in my bullet journal every day. The more reminders the better!

As I work on the project, I might need to miss a day, so I’ll endeavor to make up the words I miss on another day if that happens. And if 1,000 words a day ends up feeling like too much to achieve, I’ll shift my expectation to 750 or 500. My ultimate goal is to get into the habit of choosing to write, and I’ll adjust the specifics as I go so I can feel sufficiently challenged and encouraged to achieve my goal.

Reflection Question: When you set a goal, do you allow yourself to shift your approach or expectations as needed?

I’ll keep you posted on how my writing goal for June goes. Wish me luck!

Curiosities

• I was a guest on Nadine Stille’s podcast, Fangirl Your Life, where I got to fangirl about my book project and my love for Heated Rivalry on an episode aptly titled “Fangirling Over Queer Media Through the Centuries.” It was so much fun!

• Catherine LaSota is running a new workshop Build Your Creative Containers, and you better believe I rushed to sign up as soon as the doors opened. If you’re an artist or writer of any kind and are feeling stuck, Catherine can help you out. See you there!

• Hadassah Damien wrote an excellent blog post that I want all of my friends to read, “Funding a menty b: Budgeting for burnout & mental health leave.”

• Kris and I played the video game Mixtape and it was so freaking cool! Even if you don’t like videogames, I encourage you to watch the trailer, because it’s a yummy trip into high school nostalgia, especially if you were a big Smashing Pumpkins fan like me.

Take care and talk soon,

Dr. Kate

Email: kate@katehenry.com

Website: katehenry.com

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