IS YOUR TIME WORTH IT?
- Jacquelyn Lee
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
Part One: Q1 Goals Check-In for Writers
Payroll Sends Your Q1 Report. What Does Yours Say?
Every quarter, payroll does something very specific. It closes the books on the last three months and sends out a report. Wages earned, hours logged, time accounted for. The numbers do not lie, and they do not care about what you meant to do. They only reflect what actually happened.
Quarter One of 2026 is almost over. And I want to ask you something: if your writing life had a Q1 report, what would it say?
Back on December 31st, I wrote a blog called “Make a Vow, Then Take a Bow.” We talked about Janus, the Roman god who looks both backward and forward, and we built SMARTER goals for the year ahead. That blog was about stepping through the door of a new year with intention.
This one is about checking whether you actually walked through it.
I am not here to make you feel bad. I am here to do what payroll does: give you an honest look at where your time went, so you can make better decisions about where it goes next.
If you haven’t read “Make a Vow, Then Take a Bow” yet, start there. It sets the foundation for everything we’re doing in this post. Link in the Resources section below
The drift is not the problem. Not noticing it is. |
Where Did Q1 Actually Go?
Be honest with yourself here. Not harsh. Just honest.
When you set your writing goals in January, you probably had a picture in your mind of what the first three months of this year would look like. A project started. A habit built. Maybe a draft finished, or a blog launched, or a chapter finally put to rest.
Now look at where you actually are. Not where you planned to be. Where you are.
For a lot of writers, Q1 goes one of two ways. Either you came out of the gate strong and lost momentum somewhere around week six when life got busy. Or you spent January “getting ready” and never quite got started. Both are real. Both are data. And both are completely fixable if you are willing to look at them directly.
The goal of this post is not to convince you to work harder. It is to help you work smarter, starting with knowing the truth about where your first quarter went.
Tip: Grab a piece of paper or open a blank document. Write down three things you intended to accomplish in Q1, and three things you actually did. Do not overthink it. Just write. We will use this list in a moment
Running Your SMARTER Goals Check-In
Remember the SMARTER framework from the New Year’s blog?
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound, Evaluate, and Reassess. Those last two letters are the ones most people skip. And they are the entire point of this post.
Evaluating means asking: did I make progress?
Reassessing means asking: do my original goals still make sense given where I actually am right now?
Your Q1 goals were set in a different moment, with different information. Life in March is not the same as life in January. Health, work, family, deadlines, motivation levels, all of it shifts. A goal that made perfect sense on January 1st might need to be resized, rescheduled, or replaced entirely. That is not failure. That is how any real plan works.
So here is your SMARTER check-in for Q1. Work through each letter and write a short honest answer.
S-M-A-R-T-E-R | Your Q1 Honest Check-In Question |
Specific | Was your goal clear enough that you knew exactly what “done” looked like? |
Measurable | Did you have a way to track your progress? Did you use it? |
Achievable | Was the goal realistic for your actual schedule and energy this quarter? |
Relevant | Does this goal still align with what you care most about right now? |
Time-bound | Did you set checkpoints? Did you check in with yourself when you hit them? |
Evaluate | What evidence do you have of progress? Be specific. Pages, sessions, posts, drafts. |
Reassess | What needs to change for Q2? What gets carried forward? What gets let go? |
Resource Note: The SMARTER goals framework was introduced in this blog series in the December 31st post, “Make a Vow, Then Take a Bow.” The original SMART acronym was developed by George T. Doran in a 1981 management paper. The expanded SMARTER version adds Evaluate and Reassess, which are the two steps most relevant to a Q1 check-in. Full resource link in the Resources section below
Setting Your Goals and Intentions for What’s Next
Here is where we shift from looking back to looking forward.
A goal tells you what you want to accomplish. An intention tells you how you want to show up while you are doing it. Both matter. And most writers skip one or the other.
For this week, I want you to do something simple. Use the Goals and Intentions Assessment template that comes with this post. It is not long. It walks you through your Q1 honest look, asks you to set up to three goals for the next four to six weeks, and gives you space to write the intention behind each one.
An intention is not a task. It is a commitment to a way of working. Something like: I intend to show up for my writing even on the days when it does not feel productive. Or: I intend to track my time this week without judging what the numbers say.
Goals without intentions are just a to-do list. Intentions without goals are just a mood. Together, they become a practice.
Tip: Download the free Goals and Intentions Assessment template attached to this post. Fill in the Q1 section first, then move to the Q2 goals. Keep it to three goals maximum. Three you will actually do beats ten you will abandon. |
Download the Goals and Intentions Assessment template and set aside twenty minutes this week to fill it in before Part Two drops on March 27th. |
Goals tell you where you are going. Intentions tell you who you are becoming on the way there. |
Q1 is almost behind you. Before it closes, give yourself the gift of an honest look at what happened and a clear-eyed view of what comes next.
You set those January goals for a reason. Even if the quarter did not go the way you planned, that reason still matters. This is your chance to recommit, resize, or redirect with the information you now have.
Set your goals and intentions this week. Use the template. Be specific. Be honest. And then get ready.
Because next week, Part Two drops. And it is going to change the way you think about your writing time.
✨ Something exciting is coming on March 27th. Part Two of this series goes live with a free downloadable tool built specifically for writers who are ready to start treating their writing like the serious work it is. Subscribe so you do not miss it.
Found this helpful? Share it with a writer friend who is still figuring out where Q1 went, and subscribe so you never miss a post from Jacquelyn Lee at InspireBooks.
RESOURCES
The following resources were used in the development of this blog and the Goals and Intentions Assessment template included with this post.
Jacquelyn Lee, InspireBooks: Make a Vow, Then Take a Bow
The December 31st, 2025 blog post that introduced the SMARTER goals framework to InspireBooks readers. Start here if you have not read it yet. This post is the foundation for everything in this series.
Project Smart: A Brief History of SMART Goals
Background on the origin of the SMART framework, originally developed by George T. Doran in 1981 for management objectives and since expanded into personal and creative development.
Joanna Penn, The Creative Penn: Business for Authors
Joanna Penn’s work on the business of writing addresses goal-setting, time management, and building a sustainable writing career as interconnected practices. Highly recommended for self-publishing authors at any stage.
Coming in Part Two — Available March 27, 2026:
“Is Your Time Worth It? Part Two: Time Management and Planning for Writers”
Part Two dives into the practical side: what your writing time is actually worth, where most writers unknowingly lose hours, and how to start tracking like a professional. Includes a free downloadable Project Time Tracker available at Jacquelynleewrites.wordpress.com from March 27, 2026.
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