You guys know I have a bit of a planner obsession. That whole obsession grew from my love of lists. I’ve tried a hundred different planners, of all sizes and prices. But the thing is, I made it difficult on myself, because all I really need is a place to list shit.
That’s why I found bullet journaling so effective for me. But I got caught up in all the whole “make the spreads pretty” thing and my minimalist approach didn’t quite fit that bill. Also, I’m lazy and I didn’t want to have to make spreads every month/week/whatever.
Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk about. This is more like a venting post than anything. I discovered that when I don’t sit down with my planner every day when I get up and make that day’s To Do List in my Hobonichi Cousin, I forget so much, or I flail around all unfocused like from task to task and generally don’t get anything done.
But with my planning for the SNS website launch, and recording new podcasts (which will be out soon) and launching regular content for my YouTube channel… I can’t afford to let myself flail. Above all, my writing comes first, so these are all tasks that come after I finish my words for the day. But I’m scatterbrained, so by the time I finish my words for the day, I forget half of what I need to finish for everything else.
So I have a new routine, which seems to be effective even during my work week when I’m working overnights.
I get up for the day, make coffee. While that’s going, I sit down and look at my weekly spread.
I have four categories on my weekly. Publishing/Writing, Story Nerd Studio, Content Creation, and Admin. At the beginning of the week, I brain dump everything I need to get done (which I use my monthly goals as a jumping off point, see what I haven’t accomplished yet and break those goals down into manageable tasks). Then I pick the most urgent of the tasks on that weekly, or what I think I’ll have time to finish, and I list them out on the daily page for that day.
I usually overtask, meaning I write too many of them down, but I kind of adopted some aspects of bullet journaling into this planning style. I have checkboxes for each task. I’ll color in the ones I finish, but if I don’t get to it, I’ll write it on the next day, and put an arrow through the checkbox to denote that I migrated it to the next day.
I’ve been doing my planning this way for about a month straight now, and it’s really working for me. I’ve been more focused. I’ve been getting the words in. I feel good about my productivity lately. And I’m not feeling overwhelmed or overtasked (which is usually what happens when I make too much work for myself). The best part is that I see things moving forward.
My daily word count is still lower than I’d like, though it’s steadily rising the more time I stay on this routine. I still might not make that June 30 deadline for Reapers 3, but the thing is… it’s a self-imposed deadline. I can always change it, give myself a little more time if needed.
I don’t like to, because that means I have to shift other deadlines, but it’s possible to do. I really wanted to get this book written this month, because I’ve already shifted everything a month. I’d hoped to get this book out in September, but if I don’t get it done this month, I’m probably going to have to push that goal back to October or later. I need to allow enough time to do the revisions and send to Editor Lady, which reminds me, need to set dates with her as well. Hehe. *adds to To Do List*
Also on my To Do List this week? A title for Reapers 3. Because I can’t just keep calling it Reapers 3. LOL.
What do you have going on this week?
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