Have you set up a successful writing plan for 2009–one that sets monthly goals and objectives, plus an easy way to track your progress? Do you have monthly goals and objectives for planning, writing, promoting, and profiting from your book? Setting up a writing plan is the first step to achieving your 2009 goals. Planning engages your brain and helps you focus your daily activities around what’s truly important for your book and your business.

3-Steps to Success
Planning your 2009 writing success can be as simple as answering 3 simple questions on a single sheet of paper:

• Step 1: What do you want to accomplish during 2009? Start by identifying the desired change you want to accomplish. On a single sheet of paper, list the ways you want your writing or your business to change between January1, 2009 and December 31, 2009. What are the specific ways you can quantify the change you want to take place?
• Step 2: What needs to be done each month? Break down 2009’s major accomplishments into a logical series of monthly tasks you can work on each month. Ask yourself, “What can I do in January, 2009, that will lead me closer to achieving my December, 2009, goal?
• Step 3: How can you motivate yourself? Create an easy and very visual way to track your progress. After you determine the monthly tasks necessary to achieve your yearly goal, create a simple way of tracking your progress each month. Your progress tracker should be very visual and should be displayed on the wall next to your computer. Ideas include adding gold stars next to a list of monthly tasks, a bar chart that you can easily fill-in as you complete each task, or a mind map that you update using Task icons.

Your 2009 success will be measured not by the complexity of your plan, but your commitment to making the most of every hour, day, week, and month. A simple plan that’s consistently followed will pay bigger dividends than a complex plan that withers away by March.