Time Goals vs. Word Goals: What If You Don't Have to Choose?
You've tried the 15-minute morning sessions. You've committed to 500 words a day. Yet somehow, your writing habit is not giving you the results you want.
Imagine trying to bake bread by using a measuring scale or a timer. Without a scale, you'll end up getting your hydration levels wrong. No timer means inconsistent proving. Using both tools yields the most reliable results.
After experimenting with several strategies and analyzing my writing habits over the past year, I've found what works best for me, to get the results I want. In this article, I will go over the two most common methods for tracking progress, measuring time, and word count. Then I'll explain why I think the best strategy is to use a combination of both.
I will work for X minutes each day.
The strength of this strategy is in its simplicity. Daily writing struggles? Start here. The problem with time-based tracking is it leaves too much room for futzing around and procrastinating. We are writers after all, and writers are experts at finding creative ways to procrastinate, if nothing else.
The definition of what qualifies as writing is abstract and resists a specific definition. Is reading yesterday's work considered part of writing? What if I'm thinking about my story as I'm walking? Spending two hours talking to Claude about my magic system? (Ok, this last one doesn't count, but it's a super fun way to avoid writing.) You could say that only writing in a word doc counts toward the goal. But when are you supposed to do your research if not during the time you designate for writing?
In my experience, it's too easy to fill up the time without being goal oriented. Our brains will take the path of least resistance. The act of writing is uncomfortable. It requires staying within our thoughts, challenging our assumptions, and working through problems. If given the option to do something easier, like listen to a podcast, or do research, our brains will choose that instead.
I will write X words each day.
The online writing community is maybe too obsessed with word count. I will lay much of the blame at the feet of NaNoWriMo. The online community that encourages people to write 50,000 words in November. If you read the forum posts during NaNoWriMo, you'll witness what I can only describe as binge writing. People will produce over ten thousand words in a single session in order to "catch up." But what is the quality of those words? Spoiler alert: not great.
If you write 300 words a day, you'll eventually have a novel, even a lot of them. This is how Graham Greene wrote his novels. It's a powerful realization that incremental daily gains accumulate into a substantial body of work.
Yet, when it becomes a single-minded goal, it's hard to make progress. Because writing is rewriting. Revision is a huge part of the process. When you're revising, you'll cut more words than you're taking out. Even if you exclude deletions, you won't be adding many words during revision. A system which disincentives revision can be harmful when revision is the most important part of the process.
Time Block Planning + Daily Word Count = Win
The solution is to merge both approaches. Time block planning is when you use a calendar to schedule periods during the day to work on specific tasks, focusing on one project per block. Assign each block a measurable outcome, for example, revise yesterday's chapter, or write one new chapter. The paradigm is daily output via directed effort at a specific time.
I used to spend writing sessions oscillating between different tasks (journaling, blogging, working on my novel) but the context switching was killing my momentum. Context switching is a sneaky form of procrastination. My stupid anime brain is always seeking novel simulation, afraid of being bored. The longer you can stay focused on the same project, the more progress you'll make.
Unlike time based tracking, the goal is not to maximize time spent on the task. An interesting side effect is you're not incentivized to work longer than you planned, since the total time is not the thing being tracked, it's the output. Time block planners don't wait for inspiration. If they reach the end of a session with more to say, they outline the next session and stop, anyway.
The measurable output part is to keep yourself honest. As covered before, without accumulating small gains, it's difficult to make progress. Each session should produce some kind of artifact you can measure.
My tracking system is super basic. I use Google calendar to block time on my calendar, usually in 90 minute chunks, but do however long you can for a day. If you can do it at the same time each day it's more likely to be habit forming. Then I track how many words I wrote inside of a spreadsheet.
In the spreadsheet I have the columns:
Location
Start Time
Duration
How many words I wrote
I review the spreadsheet to analyze when I'm most effective and which days of the week I stick to. My current process is to start by adding new words. Then after hitting my target, I'll revise what I've written the previous day.
By the way, this can work for any kind of output. For Substack posts, the output could be a post rather than a word count. Since posts are variable in word count based on the topic. With time-based tracking, I used Rize.io, but it felt too cumbersome.
It bears repeating, there is no "right" way to work. What works best is what works for you. Some days will feel easy, while others will feel much harder. Consistent daily progress matters most. Be patient and kind with yourself, try things out.