Pacemaker is a Simple Flexible Goal Planner for Writers & Students
Set a Goal
Give a memorable name to your project and determine how much you want to do within your timeframe.
Set a Strategy
Want to start small? How about swallowing the frog and knocking out large workloads right away? Tell Pacemaker when you can commit more or less time to your work and how you want to approach the workload.
Sit Back
Pacemaker calculates a schedule that will help you finish on-time! No need to wrestle with spreadsheets or do manual calculations. Download your plan in iCal format or save your plan to your Pacemaker Account.
Pace Yourself
Start working towards your target. Each day counts! As long as you follow the Pacemaker schedule, you will finish ontime.
Record Progress
Record your progress and Pacemaker will adjust your workload based on how you've been doing. Further adjust your plan based on any new changes to your availability.
Celebrate!
You did it! Take some time to celebrate this milestone.
Pacemaker can be used for Novels ...
...for Dissertations ...
... for Blog Posts ...
... and more!
Everyone's working style and schedule is different.
Use Pacemaker for Free or Do more with Premium
Pacemaker Premium is a monthly subscription that gives you access to more personalized planning features like ...
Unlimited Private & Public Plans Choose which plans you'd like to share with others and create as many as you would like!
Ability to run challenges Challenges are groups organized around one or more goals. As a premium user, you'll be able to create Challenges/Groups for your writing group, NaNoWriMo regional group, classroom or friends! Members can track individual and group stats and progress all in one place. Learn more about challenge here.
Multi Project Calendar Pacemaker Premium Users can see all of their projects on a unified calendar and will be able to see at a glance where they need to invest their time. You'll be able to see the work you need to do across all of your plans.
Personalized Planning and Organization tools You will be able to access new plan visualizations (e.g. bar graphs) and add richer project data to your plans e.g. a full description.
Thousands of writers and students use Pacemaker
Let me just say how incredibly helpful I have been finding Pacemaker. I’ve been writing novels for a decade, making plans by hand, trying to figure around travel and weekends and then recalculating everything when I (inevitably) veered off course. Being able to plan for more work on certain days, at the end, or in the middle, was mathematically challenging — and recalculating was immensely time consuming. I am just so grateful to have this program.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Holly Black, NY Times bestselling author
I'm usually managing at least 3 different major projects at once. Pacemaker has made it a lot easier to create workable schedules to get everything done without overwhelming myself.
Jess Mahler
Well, I wish I had this tool when I was writing my dissertations. I had to make my own by hand in Excel and that took half a day by itself. It also helps make NaNoWriMo just a bit easier. But whether I'm writing fiction or non-fiction, this tool really helps me visualise how much I have to do day by day, as a motivational tool as well as an organiser. Plus, I love graphs.
Snowdrop
I just wanted to say thank you and I love this site. After taking part in NaNo last year I found that I missed the word counter once it was all over. I tried to recreate it on a spreadsheet but it just didn't have the same feel. When I found this site it was literally like a dream come true, it has helped me beyond measure to get back into the habit of writing every day, so thank you!
Laura R
Connect with us
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Pacemaker is a playful way of making peace with your writing goals. You set a word count goal, chip away at it day by day and finish on-time! You can approach your writing target in various ways to suit your style :
- Steady - write the same amount of work every day. Try It.
- Rising to the Challenge - start off small and increase your word count quota every day. Try It.
- Biting the Bullet - bite off large chunks of your writing goal at the beginning of your schedule so that the pressure is off at the end of your schedule. Try It.
- Random - each day is a surprise, you may need to complete 5 words or 500! Whether heavy or light, you'll reach your word count goal at the end of your specified schedule. Try It.
Who may find Pacemaker helpful?
- Nanowrimo participants : During National November Writing Month, authors attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days! Sign up at The Nanowrimo Website
- Students : Don't let the 10,000 (or 100,000!) word thesis requirement scare you.
- Anyone needing to plan a writing or reading schedule based on word count or any other quantifiable measure including time in hours or minutes.
Fun Fact
- There are over 20 million googol different ways to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Don't believe me? Check this out :)
- While Pacemaker will hook you up with a great custom 30 day plan, we hope that you'll consider this tool for even longer writing projects.
Enjoy!
- There are over 20 million googol different ways to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Don't believe me? Check this out :)
How often is the site updated?
- About once a month.
How do I export a writing schedule to my calendar?
- If your calendar can read the iCAL calendar format, then you can import a writing schedule generated by Pacemaker.
- Create a writing schedule as normal using the main Pacemaker controls. Click on the "Download as iCAL" button. You will be prompted to either save the raw .ics file or import it directly into your default calendar program. Choose the option that fits your needs.
- If you're using an online calendar like Google Calendar, download the raw .ics file provided by Pacemaker, then follow the instructions that your calendar program provides for importing .ics files
- Unfortunately, this feature is not available on the latest versions of Safari or older versions of other browsrs. Please use an updated browser to make use of this feature.
How do I customize word counts during my schedule?
- There are many ways to customize your schedule. You can control workload on weekends, weekdays, specific days of the week, specific dates and specific date ranges by adding 'workload rules'. Each workload rule will describe one part of how you'd like to customize your plan. An example rule is "On February 14th, Do Less". The Pacemaker schedule builder includes several controls that will help you build your workload rules. You can add as many workload customizations as you'd like. Changing the dates or workload can also help you explore more ways to reach your goals.
- Be sure to share your customized plans with friends both for feedback and also to give them a template from which they can start.
What are 'beta' features?
- Beta features are experimental and may not work as expected on all browsers. Feedback is, as always, welcome.
Do I need an account to use Pacemaker?
- No, you do not need an account to use the vast majority of goal planning features. However, setting up an account has several benefits including managing multiple plans in one place and easy to remember urls. Be sure to save your plan after making changes to your goals or your progress.
Can I see the plans of other Pacemaker users?
- Yes, simply navigate to the Pacemaker user's plan list page. You will be able to see their plans and, if you wish, use them as a starting point for your own. Click on this url to see an example of a user's plan list page.
How do I use Pacemaker without an account?
- Simply make your plan and save a link to it for your reference or to share with others. Repeat this process if you've added progress or changed your plan. You may also export a plan to your calendar if you'd like to be reminded about word count goals without coming back to the Pacemaker site.
I have been using Pacemaker without an account but now I'd like to add my plan(s) and progress to my account?
- 1) Simply sign up for a Pacemaker account with a valid email address, unique user name and strong password.
- 2) Navigate to the urls of the plans you have saved. Click on the "Save" button on the plan creation page.
- 3) You should be able to find all of your plans on your plan list page. You will be able to edit them as you go along.
How can I manage my progress?
- You have two choices when tracking your progress over time. First, you can opt to have Pacemaker recalculate your daily goals based on the progress you report. This means that Pacemaker will adjust your future goals but allow you to keep the same relative pace. For example, if you chose to work at a steady pace but exceed your goals on some days, Pacemaker will adjust your future daily goals to be slightly lower but still giving you the same load every day. Alternatively, you can opt to have Pacemaker keep your plan constant so that you can see how your actual progress compared to your plan. This is helpful if you like the satisfaction of seeing how far you've exceeded your goal and/or enjoy the challenge of catching up if you've fallen behind. You can switch between these options at any time.
Can I put a widget on my webpage or blog showing my plan progress?
- Yes. This feature is available to users who have created a new plan or saved an existing plan after February 18th, 2016. In order to get the widget code for your plan, navigate to it on the Pacemaker website and click the "Embed" button. Copy the code provided and place it in a convenient part of your website or blog. Please refer to your website or blog provider for instructions about embedding custom script tags.
Why was Pacemaker made?
- Pacemaker was originally made in July, 2012 for a graduate student named Susanna as she wrote her 15,000 word graduate school dissertation. The site was made by her sister Sarah
I am a writer/designer/developer/translator and want to help make Pacemaker better.
- Do send me an email!
Pacemaker was created with the help of these excellent tools
- Twitter Bootstrap : a sleek, intuitive, and powerful front-end framework for faster and easier web development.
- RiotJS : a React-like user interface micro-library.
- Date Picker : date picker for Twitter Bootstrap
- Morris Graphs : Morris.js is a lightweight library that uses jQuery and Raphaël to make drawing simple charts easy.
- Moment.js : a javascript date library for parsing, validating, manipulating, and formatting dates
- Numeral.js : a javascript library for formatting and manipulating numbers
- Elusive Fonts : Icon Font Library
- Users like you! : who share ways in which the tool can be improved
