But I'd rather direct that time toward completing something publishable, rather than going for the arbitrary target of 50,000 words.
I understand what you're saying. I kind of think that NaNoWriMo isn't going to lead to something I can publish. It will push me to write every day and give me a writing goal that I feel motivated to finish because I won't feel that I'm in it alone, I guess.
I've decided to go crazy and go for a 101,000 this year instead of 50, though I will try to get at least that if my 101,000 goal fails. It brings me to about 3,367 words a day. I will be writing every free moment I have for a whole month. So I'm hoping to be able to reach that daily goal and keep it. But with taekwondo, planning to move, and work, I probably will end up more like: work, sleep, clean, tkd, and then write like a monkey on saturday. We'll see how this goes.