Setting Goals

How to set goals in Writing Analytics.

Writing Analytics can help you schedule your writing and keep you accountable while working on your projects. In this guide, you'll learn about the different types of goals in the app and how to use them.

Project Goals

Projects will help you set long-term goals and schedule writing ahead of time. When creating a new project, you have the option to set a word goal.

Any writing sessions under that project will count towards the goal.

When you enable Scheduling for your project, Writing Analytics will start creating daily goals for you. These will be shown in the Overview.

Choose which days of the week will you be working. Then, set a deadline or a fixed daily goal.

Deadline

Select the Deadline scheduling mode and choose a date in the calendar:

You'll see your estimated daily goal below.

Should you get ahead of schedule or fall behind, your goal will adjust automatically on a weekly basis. Rather than creeping up/down every day, it will only change at the beginning of a new week.

You can always move your deadline or change the target word count in your project's settings.

Fixed Daily Goal

Select the Daily Goal scheduling mode. Then, you'll be able to set how many words you'd like to write every day:

Based on your daily goal, Writing Analytics will estimate a deadline.

Session Goals

Aside from scheduling words through projects, you can set a goal for each writing session. These are independent from project goals and scheduling. They won't appear in the Overview.

You can set a goal for your session when creating it:

For writing sessions, you can choose a word or time goal. Revision sessions support time-based goals only.

Word Goals

Set a word goal when you want to reach a specific number of words during a session. Your session won't end when you hit that goal — you can keep working.

Your goal will appear on the leftmost card at the top of the editor. A progress bar tell you how far you are from achieving it.

When starting from an existing draft, include the words already written. For example, if you wish to write 500 new words on top of an existing 1,000-word draft, set the session goal to 1,500.

Time Goals

Prefer to work for a predetermined length of time? Set a time goal instead.

Time goal will appear on the middle card at the top of the editor. A progress bar will tell you how much time you have left.

Again, your session won't end automatically when you reach your time goal. You can keep working for as long as you like even after reaching it.

Summary

Use project goals and scheduling to set a regular writing cadence for the long-term. These goals will appear in the Overview.

Use session goals to set ad-hoc goals for your sessions or sprints. Choose between word-based and time-based goals and track your progress at the top of the editor.

Have a question? Reach out to us at [e-mail]. We'll be happy to help!