Here it comes, the unchallenged Best Season ™ in all it’s glory. If you know anything about me at all, you know I’m a fall person. My novel The Boy Who Called the Foxes is a whole testament to that fact. I love the cool clear air, the wind, the long nights, the changing leaves, the excuse to be quiet and take it all in.
But aside from simply soaking up the beauty of the season, I also like to reset my goals for fall. Actually, I like to reset my goals about quarterly. Preferably at the beginning of each new season. But with autumn being my favorite time of year, I try to go out of my way to make a particular effort to plan for it when the walnut leaves start to yellow in September.
How do I reset my goals for fall?
Typically, this involves a lot of list-making and leafing through notebooks, for me. I take a look at everything I’m currently busy with, the things I’m about to get busy with, and the things I wish I was busy with and start thinking seriously about all of it.
And by “thinking seriously” I mean I try to keep a very open mind about my possibilities. Things tend to get a little overwhelming over the summer. I don’t know why that is. Maybe I take on too much at the beginning and put it off too much due to the summer laziness that usually sets in.
Fall is a good time to make changes. And I find I’m quite ready to do that around the beginning of September. So, what are some steps I like to take?
- Declutter my to-do list
You mean, give up on things?! Well, kind of. I keep a running list of goals for my year and around autumn, I get a strong urge to cut some nonsense out of it. I don’t like to cram at the end of the year. Often, I get a new burst of energy and a new mindset in January, so I prefer not to be hustling like crazy in November and December if I can help it.
So, how do I decide what to cut? Usually, I’m able to find things on my list that are both unnecessary and boring to me. Busy work. Social media efforts that aren’t paying back. Projects I don’t find inspiring at all. Just shamelessly cut these things out. You’re not a quitter. You’re prioritizing.
- Change something
You might want to switch up your main project. You may have one that you’ve been dying to focus on but have been holding back because it isn’t your official WIP. Time to make it official.
Something I’m changing is my social media strategy. For me, Instagram used to be fun—back before I was trying to be so smart with it. Now it just feels like a lot of pressure, and I’m not seeing the ROI I want. So, I’m relaxing with IG and shifting my attention to what’s actually my favorite social media: Pinterest. (Please follow!)
- Prioritize rest & family
Fall is the perfect time to get cozy and make a doubled effort to enjoy the people in your life. I may or may not have been working a little too much this year. Too often I find myself shut up in my room headaching at my desk when I can hear my family enjoying downtime together elsewhere in the house. That’s miserable. Why would I do that to myself?
I’m a massively introverted person. I’m very independent and value solitude and hard work to quite an unusual extent. But too much of that can still be harmful. Humans, no matter how driven and introverted, need to connect with each other just for the sake of talking and laughing and chilling out now and then. You’ll cease to function otherwise. So, take some time for those things this autumn.
- Find large immersive projects—minimize scattering yourself
I run in a lot of directions and lately I’ve felt like I’m losing touch with my main thing. I’m writing a six-book series right now. I’m supposed to be working on book five.
Nothing quite beats spending a whole afternoon and evening clicking away at a keyboard, completely immersed in another world. I miss those five-thousand-word days. I miss those ten-thousand-word days. Well, those are a little crazy, but they sure feel awesome now and then. I’m going to make myself some wordcount trackers and focus on my big projects for a while. I want to make some major progress on the things that make me feel the most accomplished at the end of the day.
- Choose one more thing to finish this year
We’ve only got a few months left at this point. Time to be realistic. What can we finish in that amount of time?
Try to find a larger goal, but one you’re fairly close to checking off. Put it first. This is the homestretch, and I typically want to finish the year with a bang of some kind. Even if this is the only thing you finish in the next few months, you should feel proud of it. I hope to get the first draft of book five finished before the new year. If that’s all I achieve before January, I will still be pleased with myself.
All this shouldn’t be done in one sitting. Take some time to think about it, pray for direction, take a walk in the woods, etc. There’s no real rush—and that’s a key point to remember. You have to ease into new routines and reorient your mind for new goals. That’s why seasons don’t change all at once.
Take your time. Enjoy the process. Let yourself hope for the best and find the most rewarding ways to get there. Fall is a refreshing and energizing season. If you’re enthusiastic about your goals, you’re not likely to spend it burnt out.
Happy Autumn!