The most helpful tool I’ve used this year.

This simple daily goal tracker from Elise Joy has served me in many ways. Over the years I’ve used it for various non-writing goals. This year it’s been a way for me to keep visual track of the writing projects I’m working on (using different colors or symbols to represent various tasks). Hands down, it’s been the best tool I’ve used (and yes, I’m still happily using Toggl timer for all my work sessions).

It has been interesting to see my year from this bird’s-eye view. (Informative!) More than once I’ve encouraged myself to get going on something because afterward I could color in a circle. (Motivating!) And because what I do is largely self directed, it is good have a reminder that today’s steady efforts matter. As the tracker says, “Big things happen one day at a time.”

Here are a few other takeaways using this tracker has shown me:

Foot loose and goal free: I’ve realized of late that goals don’t work well for me in my writing life. Having an aim to shoot for either becomes something that discourages me when I don’t meet it (like a self-imposed deadline) or no longer interests me once I get time to work on it (like a goal to write a book about a particular thing). Now that I’m no longer hustling, my “goal” (if you could call it that) is simply “steady on.” That means to keep putting in the time with the project before me and to remain open to everything else. This mindset fits better with my creativity. I want the part of my work that I control to be as free and inviting as possible (a perk of being my own boss).

Unplanned projects: With the above in mind, I had some vague ideas about new projects I thought I’d try to write this year…and none of them happened. Instead I wrote two picture book manuscripts that came to me at the right place and time. I took hold and jumped in!

Lots of events: I’ve lumped all sorts of things under “events” — everything from school visits to bookstore signings to podcast recordings to the class I taught at Chautauqua. I counted up 26 events for 2025. That’s a pretty busy year for me.

Seeing how a year shapes up: Going through this chart, no two weeks were exactly the same. I pivoted from one project to the next, sometimes because of deadlines, sometimes because I felt like it (that’s another perk of a self-directed job). I’ve returned to books that were finished but nevertheless still needed my time in some way. Some days and some weeks I devoted to one project. Some days and weeks were devoted to several at a time.

Every session matters: Sometimes I gave a project the twenty minutes I had in the day. Other times I worked for hours. All of it, day after day, added up to something more.

A novel in five periods: I’ve worked on a novel off-and-on all year in five different blocks of time. Sometimes I’ve set it aside because of deadlines, and sometimes I’ve paused to chase (and complete) a new manuscript idea. (I know one of the many writing rules out there is to power through and not get distracted by new ideas, but I’m frankly tired of rules. Now, in my non-hustle era, rules and goals are simply tools that help guide me, and nothing more. When a tool stops helping, I can let it go.) While I’m not very far into this novel, I’m really enjoying my character and his Book World. We’ll see where it leads as I steady on.

What tools have helped you in your creative work this year?