How to Plan the Next 12 Months in Two Hours or Less

And get more done in 2025 than you ever imagined

Image from Freepik

I’ve planned out my 2025 as a writer, and it took me a little under two hours. It’s a loose plan, because I want some flexibility. It’s also a simple plan, because at this point I only really have three writing-related goals for the coming year. As I mentioned last week, they’re pretty simple:

• Continue to grow on Medium and Substack

• Write two non-fiction books

• Get back into writing fiction

The first two goals are tightly intertwined, because the non-fiction books I want to write will be written as posts on Medium and Substack, then converted into chapters in the books.

This means that planning them out simply meant deciding exactly what I wanted to put in each. I wrote earlier this year about how I mapped out a book in 30 minutes. I’ve now mapped out a second one. Which means I’ve also planned the theme of a lot of my written work on Medium and Substack.

The above plans along with my substantial and constantly growing idea files, will form the basis for my growth on Medium and Substack, because the most important element of growth on both platforms is simply producing high-quality content on a consistent basis.

While I can produce content for two books at once, I can’t really write, edit, and launch two books at once, so I’ll be using quarterly goals, based (loosely, again) on the idea of the 12-week-year, to finish one book in the first quarter, and another by the end of the third. There’ll be a new goal for the fourth quarter, and even I don’t know what that is yet.

Yes I’ll need to focus on a few other things too. Things like getting consistent on Notes and other social media, submitting to the right publications on Medium, and continuing to engage with other writers authentically on the platforms. I’ve incorporated these goals into my daily, weekly, and monthly tasks to ensure they get done consistently.

The third goal is a simple one, and a purposely vague one to be honest. I’ll focus on fiction in my daily study as a sixty-minute student, at least a couple of times a week (the rest of the time will be spent on non-fiction, because it’s what is actually earning me money right now). And I’ll apply what I learn to the novel idea I’m working on or the short stories I’d like to get back to writing.

And yes, I planned to become a world-class fiction writer in the next seven years. That’s still a goal. I just need to balance it with what actually earns me a living right now.

This is an oversimplified plan, but I’ve been simplifying everything in 2024, and it’s worked well for me, so simple is the goal for 2025 too.

If you’re planning the next 12 months, I’d advise the following.

• Pick just a few big, important, audacious goals

• Devise a loose plan for each (use my 30-minute plan for a book, or adapt it for anything else)

• Consider setting quarterly goals along the lines of the 12-week-year

• Put together a list of daily, weekly and monthly tasks that support your core goals

Above all, keep it simple. Feel free to share your super-simple 2025 plan in the comments (or share it elsewhere and tag me so I see it)

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Some thoughts from others I’ve been enjoying this week

How to become an antifragile creator in a fragile world by

Alex Mathers

What I've learned about Substack in 2024 by

David McIlroy

18 Ways To Write Engaging Notes on Substack (And Prove You Are Not A Bot) by

Veronica Llorca-Smith

What else I’ve been up to this week

Reading: My old short stories to remind myself that I can write fiction

Watching: Veep (because I never watched a single episode when it was originally aired)

Enjoying: Christmas celebrations with family and some much needed downtime

This week’s Medium post

(It’s been a slow week on Medium, but here’s one from this time last year that I highly recommend as a year-end read. Friend link, as always, so you can read for free if you’re not a member.)

• Conducting an Annual Review as a Freelance Writer

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