SMART

As previously mentioned, I don't do new years resolutions. The running joke is that severel years ago I made a new years resolution not to make new years resolutions... which is kind of circular.

However, I do like to set and achieve goals. And an unwritten goal is just a wish. The five parts of a proper, well thought-out goal are: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. Hence the title of this post (see, I smarts. :P)

So here is my goal: I will complete a writing exercise every week for the first eight weeks of 2018.

It is specific - I have a spreadsheet I wrote out with 8 writing exercises, one to achieve each week.
It is measurable - each Sunday I can evaluate the week and see if I hit that target (or not).
It is attainable - each of the exercises could (theoretically) be knocked out in under an hour; could do all of them in one day. If I wanted to really challenge myself, I'd be aiming at a writing exercise every day (I can do more, one a week is the initial goal).
It is relevant - in order to get better at writing, I need to practice.
It is time-bound - I will have a seven day window to complete each exercise and if I miss one for some reason I have to move on to the next one.

Why only the first eight weeks? I could set myself a longer goal, such as an exercise each week for the whole year, but that is just setting myself up for failure. With work, I know there will be times when I will be away and I don't know when, for how long or what I will be doing. It would be too easy to have some work commitment come up, miss a few weeks and then get depressed that I missed my goal for the whole year.

I'm reasonably confident that I won't have any time away from home in the first two months. After that... not so sure. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.