So many projects, which to do now? If there is one thing worse than having nothing to do, it’s having too much to do! At the moment I can barely remember having nothing to do, and certainly feel I may have headed into too much to do territory!
Of course, being a bit of a procrastinator (many writers are!), having nothing to do and doing nothing when I should be actually working sort of blend into each other, and I end up with projects on hand heading toward that moment when I have to do them right now, the adrenaline kicks in, and I put in a huge effort, and accomplish amazing things.
Hooray to me, yes? No, actually. Boo to me, for all of the time I’ve spent not actually doing much more than fluffing about on Social Media, when I should have been working. I have books to edit, and to write. I have people wanting to read my words, and have I been writing them? Not really, Sometimes another few hundred words get written, for my novel, yes, but a novel? A novel needs many thousands of words, a few hundred every now and then is not good enough!
I feel like I need someone standing over me, cracking a whip, so I stop slacking off the way I’ve been doing lately. What would be the best way to go, I’m wondering … I’ve taken recently to keeping track on two things, physical ones, to help me with two different physical things – my weight, and how many steps I’ve been walking. Practically every day for a few months now, I’ve recorded these two things, and it allows me to see how I’m doing with my weight and my fitness.
This is easy enough to do – every morning, the first thing I do is hop on the scales and then I write down the number, and perhaps a few comments about that result. And during the day, on many days, I switch on the pedometer on my phone, and I go for a brisk walk, at home, inside, outside, or a combination of both. I try to walk 2000 steps, which is one kilometre.
These are good things to do, you can’t hide away from the numbers, they tell the truth. My weight is slowly going down, and the brisk steps are getting easier to do, which indicates the benefit of doing these steps. I can remember a time when walking 50 metres was difficult, without having a walking stick, now I can briskly step out, with no mobility aids required!
So I can keep track of the physical things, is there anything I can do about my writing? Because of course that is what I do, I’m a writer, I write, or I should, anyway … I think the easiest thing to keep track on, would be the word count of the novel I’m writing. Just like my weight, I could regularly write down the word count, on my phone calendar. I don’t think this would work as a daily thing, but I could choose a day, and regularly write it down on that day. Getting the word count is simple, and having to do this, would encourage me to do a better job of putting the various smaller pieces of writing of the novel I do, actually into the novel file …
The other writing projects I currently have going aren’t as simple to keep track on as the novel, they are in more advanced stages of completion … What to do there? I’d say I need to report on how these things are going, perhaps once a week for them too, that would be good. And having a different title for each project, like the name of the book ,would be useful, so making a list of the various such projects needs to happen, there are a few different ones.
I’m going to have to go and make that list now, while I’m thinking about it, and perhaps after that I can think (hard) about which projects is the most important. Prioritising this different work will assist in knowing where to give my attention. It feels like a good way to go, and may I manage to find and prioritise each of these projects in the best way!
OK, that’s sorted out, I’d better get that all organised, so my life will be a place of calm and productive works happening! Haha, as if, I’m addicted to that adrenaline hit! But we’ll see whether I can get something that works better than the current shambles I feel like I’m in!
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 