After watching this class, I was especially drawn to the idea that you can apply project management techniques to personal goals. I like the idea of holding myself more accountable for my personal projects in this way, so I decided to set a SMART goal for a writing project that I've been procrastinating on for awhile.

 

The goal? Write and submit a piece of writing to ten different publications by the beginning of March.

 

I started, as Nikki recommends, by listing out my tasks and categorizing them. I broke them into two categories: Writing and Submitting.

 

WRITING

• Write first draft of article
• Complete first round of edits on article
• Have 3 friends review the article & provide feedback
• Complete second round of edits on article
• Complete final round of (minor) edits on article

 

SUBMITTING

• Create spreadsheet of publications to submit to
• Draft pitch letters for those publications
• Submit writing & pitch letters to publications

 

My next step will be to go through these tasks and assign each one a deadline so that I can stay on track to meet my goal!