It’s exactly what it sounds like – I’m going to review Q4 2023, and taking the results into account, plan Q1 2024. As I mentioned in the 2024 plan, it’s all about building on last year’s foundations.

Q4 2023 Review

So the Q4 2023 plan ws to :

• Publish six new books – Not as many as hoped – Security Directorate Dossiers (vol. 2), Alan Ackerman is Still Missing, and The Cookie Shop.
• Put the rest of my back catalogue for sale in my shop. – didn’t quite get to this, there’s 38 short stories still to go.
• Fix up my website SEO – didn’t make much progress on this one, but in my defence there are 738 of them.

And the relevant keystone activities.

• Write for at least an hour a day (not so much)
• Publish a collection and the five stories contained within it (yay!)
• Submit 65 stories to fiction magazines – doh! Failed to success with 17 submissions which was more than even I expected).

All up, I reckon it was easily my most prodcuctive quarter in 2023. Not withstanding having more time to think.

Using the time you have available as the basis of your planning is definitely the way to avoid not getting enough done, freaking out, and thinking you’re the biggest loser on the planet.

Especially when my available time for Q1 is diminished by taking courses and performing my civic duty (jury service). And maybe doing some work on the big house.

Q1 2024 Plan

As mentioned, my Vision for 2024 remains Stephen King/Norah Roberts famous, with the same Mission and virtues to guide me.

Q1 2024 Goals

I’ve chosen three goals for for this quarter.

Goal #1: Improve my transplant health markers, (because without your health you got nothing).

I have a set of numbers to work towards, but given I get them once a quarter when I do my blood tests, I can’t track them over the next few months. What I can do, is think more seriously about how to eat, exercise and sleep well, plus meditate and journal in an attempt to deal with my physical and mental health, and my overall sense of wellbeing.

Goal #2: Write, publish and promote books to achieve income markers, (because without products to sell, you got no business).

So along, with the income goals, are some projects aimed at fulfilling that goal, including writing new stories, editing and publishing existing stories, and getting all my work in my store.

Goal #3: Write relevant, interesting and engaging blog posts and social media to incease following and book sales, (because if there’s no customers, you got no income).

Similarly there’s numbers and projects for this, including blog posts, insider updates, and (chortle), developing a marketing plan. Which might involve some more classes…

Keystone Activities

Developing the keystone activities are the hardest part (whimper).

• Daily: write saleable words for an hour (books and stories, but not blog posts or social media).
• Weekly: submit five stories to high-quality magazines, competitions, awards and anthologies.
• Weekly: put five stories from my back catalogue up for sale in my shop through print on demand.
• This quarter: self-publish three books.
• This quarter: develop a marketing plan.

For those who wonder…

Yes, I’m still keen to stay married to DB.

And I’m still trying to do the keystone activities of cooking his favourite meals, doing the chores that annoy him, and not moving his stuff.

In fact I’ve got to the point where not moving his stuff might be as annoying as moving his stuff, which I’m counting as a victory 😉

I’m just not talking about it here.

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It all seems doable. Are you happy with your Q1 2024 Plan? Let me know in the comments

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Photo of the Q1 2024 Plan kanban board by Me!

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You can find my monthly reports and other planning related information on the Life Worth Living page.