5 a Day Keeps the Manuscript in Play

Sorry for the bad rhyme but I'm trying to write with a toddler on my arm telling me what keys to press.

I've had a revelation, well more like a smack yourself on the forehead moment. Hey, why not give myself a writing quota of 5 pages a day. That's about 1500 words (more or less). During NANO I'm able to hit this mark pretty steadily but once December arrives I kind of squeeze the writing in where I can. On some days I've only managed a paragraph.

I know there's a woman out there who wrote a sentence each day (and would sometimes work up to a paragraph) and she eventually published her book years after starting it. Graham Greene followed a 500 a word regimen and he was incredibly prolific. I need more of a push or else the thread of emotions in a particular scene disappears from me.

I don't know why I didn't do this sooner. The idea has been playing around the edges of my thought process for a while but I've avoided it in the same way the revolutionary idea of eating less to lose weight fills the future dieter with dread.

The rule is 5 day, no excuses- except with a doctor's note. For the writers out there who read my blog, do you set up quotas for your writing? And for the non-writers have you established quotas in your life? Please tell.