I’m infamous for biting off more than I can chew – it might be the Scottish in me, it might be the fiery red hair – even though in that picture of me I actually had black hair ;), it might just be that I always feel I have to make up for *something*. Goodness knows what, but I’m highly competitive with myself mostly. What I do know is that for about two months now I’ve had this growing list of things that I need to take care of – I was midway through designing my hosting site when Christmas pounced in my house, I’m trying to do the fly lady project, make over my son’s room, and lots of other things – I’ve always been a bit ‘butterfly’ in my approach to stuff, but I’ve definitively gotten worse since I fell and banged my head a few years ago.
So, I’m making it easier on myself.
First rule got instituted this weekend with the arrival of a really nice case for my iPad – with a keyboard. Night times are for writing/editing/fiction – so no more laptop unless I’m on a tight deadline. Or if I want to veg, I can. I don’t veg nearly enough, and I’m beginning to think it shows. Right now, I’m using the opportunity to get my blogging schedule back on track and plan as much of the next few weeks, which leads me to…..
I’ve got a list in word, called ‘the never ending todo list’. It’s now six pages long, but I’m not going to panic if I can’t get it done straight away. Instead, once a week, I’m going to print it, stick it on my clipboard and mark it off as I go. At the end of the week, I’m going to move what I managed to the ‘always growing accomplished list’ along with a record of my word counts and edits and everything else I do so I’ve got a work diary of sorts, plus I can see how my work ebbs and flows for one of the projects I keep putting off.
In other news, Phillip Pullman, one of the writers I grew up reading, and greatly admire, just about sums up how I feel about the INSANE government cuts to libraries. In Gloucestershire, where we live, we’re losing 11 libraries – I don’t talk politics very often (because of readership + neutrality, to a point) but this is just mad.
Now, wish me luck, for I head out to the doctors to find out what in the merry heck is wrong with my poor arm – I suspect I’m going to be told that something has gotten into my vein, but that doesn’t explain the ominous bruise on the other hand…..sigh.
Related articles
- Philip Pullman’s call to defend libraries resounds around web (guardian.co.uk)
- Why the Big Society failed (liberalconspiracy.org)
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
WHEW! I thought I was one of the few with a “Never Ending To Do List” and a butterfly approach to projects! 🙂 Hmmm print once a week… that might work for me too.. I use Google Spreadsheets or Excel for my lists but I like the print it out once thing.
I once made a list of about 96 things to do that day. It was about 8am and my boss caught me making the list and just shook his head at how long the list was…. he was floored when I’d accomplished everything except pick up kids, go to class and eat dinner!
Good luck with all the projects!
LOL…my english teacher once said to my mother ‘bless her little socks, she can’t stay on one idea for long can she’ – he just about had an apoplexy when I emailed him about my books.
As for the printing it weekly – it means I can ‘lock’ my list so I don’t get feature rot on my website (you know, ‘ooo…ooo…I need to do this’ – gives me time to get the work in that needs to be done, and add to it while I’m going). I think it’ll take discipline, but I’m really struggling to find a way to manage the ever growing list. I’ve tried GTD, I’ve got a program called ‘Achieve planner’ (all that I achieve, despite the software being excellent, is a whole day in planning and then forgetting to load it the next day) – I’ve got trackers on my iPad and linked up to google calendar and it’s still a nightmare. I’m rubbish 😉
Thought this might amuse people coming back to this post – week 1 and I’m at 942 items. Not including uncontracted work, or the new blogging post I’ve got. Next time I’m sitting there thinking ‘I’m bored…..’….LOL!