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Goal tracker

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Revision as of 17:42, 26 July 2021 by NavarenWizard (talk | contribs) (Adding instructions on how to create, update, edit, and delete goals, w/ screenshots. Removing some information out of date as of July 2021.)
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The goal tracker on the NaNoWriMo website allows Wrimos to track their progress on both official writing goals (NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo) and personal writing goals. It was introduced in December 2016. Goal trackers can be accessed via "My NaNoWriMo -> Stats" (previously "Goal Trackers"). An active goal tracker displays all of the possible stat sections on the Stats page.

The current goal tracker allows participants to track their goal progress in words, but more options may be added in the future. "Winning" a goal is completely honor-based (though in the past, NaNoWriMo goals had to be validated with an automated word counter built into the site).

Creating a goal

The New Goal popup.

A goal tracker can be created from the Projects tab of your profile (also accessible via My NaNoWrimo -> Projects).

  1. Click on the title of the project you want to create a tracker for.
  2. Go to the Goals tab underneath the name of your project.
  3. Click the Create New Goal button.
  4. In the Create New Goal pop-up, you can
    1. associate your goal with an official NaNoWriMo event. This will default in the correct values for the event. For NaNoWriMo, everything will be defaulted, and for Camp NaNoWriMo, everything except for the goal type and word count will be defaulted.
    2. name your goal.
    3. set the goal type (writing or editing). These both measure progress using a word count, but the NaNoWriMo Knowledge Base suggests measuring editing goals by "the number of words on the pages you want to edit".[1]
    4. set your word count goal.
    5. set the start and end dates for meeting your goal.
  5. Click the Save Goal button.

After creating a goal, you can see it on the Goals tab for your project, as well as on the Stats page (accessed by clicking on the title of the goal or via My NaNoWriMo -> Stats). You can also create a new goal when you create a new project.


Editing or deleting a goal

To edit your goal, go to the Goals tab of the associated project and click the gear icon in the top right corner of the goal. You can then edit the goal information in the Edit Goal popup.

If the goal has already started but hasn't finished yet, you won't be able to edit the start date.

You can delete goal trackers even after completion by going into the Edit Goal popup and clicking Delete This Goal at the bottom. Deleting a goal erases all the data for the goal.[2]


Updating your progress

There are a few ways to update progress on a goal. For more information on how the update information is used, see Stats page sections.

Anywhere on nanowrimo.org

The How's Your Writing Going pop-up.

The green button with a plus sign in the navigation bar at the top of the page can be used to update any active goal on any project. It opens the How's Your Writing Going? pop-up. To toggle between goals, use the arrows in the top right. If you want to put in your total cumulative word count and have the site calculate how much you've written today, you'll need to use this pop-up.

From the Projects page

Each project with an active goal will have an Update button. Clicking this button will bring up the How's Your Writing Going? pop-up.


From the Stats page

The New Progress Update pop-up.

At the top of the Progress Updates section, there's an "Add new update" link. This opens the New Progress Update pop-up, which has two major differences from the How's Your Writing Going? pop-up.

  1. It only allows you to enter this session's words, not your total cumulative word count.
  2. It allows you to backdate a writing session in case you forgot to update your word count on a previous day.