With the beginning of the new year means a new start. A new set of goals and plans to follow. Ina previous post I went through the top level of what my goals are for this year. Behind that I have a more detailed plan which says what I want to achieve every day.
How are you setting yourself up for success?
One big change I’m making this year, to hopefully set myself up for success, is to change the order I’m doing things so that I write first. There is always a never ending list of things to do, so even though crossing things off that gives a sense of achievement, I’m prioritising my writing. This should help me keep making progress with my draft, and then when I’ve met my daily target I can work through the other activities.
Goals are one thing, but they have to have a plan behind them that is made up of small steps. I made my plan following Sarra Cannon at Heart Breathing’s writing plan for the year, and what she emphasises is adding in a couple of buffer days each month. So my plan has lots of space (I hope!) including taking all school holidays and every Sunday off as well as some extra days for those unexpected things that pop up unexpectedly.
Now the exciting thing is to see how well I follow it!
I am very curious about Cannon’s system, but I choose not to invest over an hour today watching her video. Can you give me the Cliff Notes on it? One work planning tip that has really helped me is from Chris Syme https://cksyme.com/. It’s so simple and obvious: plan all of your work, not just writing, for the time of day that best suits the energy level required. For example, save easy/repetitive tasks for your low energy times (which for me is evening) and demanding tasks like writing when your energy levels are high.
You can sign up to her mailing list and get the worksheet. The video is her talking through that and giving examples. Essentially you look at how many days you have available – taking out holidays, other commitments, weekends, whatever else, and then a couple of buffer days a month. Then you work out how long it takes you to write, edit, and publish each book. Then you map that against what you can comfortably do in a day. Which gives you a timeline of what you can achieve in a year. Does that make sense?