Hello, everyone!
Note: For those looking for a Pitch Wars #pimpmybio, this is not that yet.
I'm trying to get more organized. I'm starting to realize that it's not a matter of flipping a switch and changing your habits instantly. Like many things, you can get better at it with practice. For a while, I was making schedules for myself (since I write at home and have no schedule set for me). I've gotten out of that habit, and this seems like a good time to get back into it.
This blog post is meant to tell you all a bit about a new organization process I'm trying out; it's also meant to help me with that process. I'm hoping that typing up my tasks will help me sort through them. I'll talk about what I'm working on, and then the way I'm planning to budget my time in the beginning of July. There's going to be a lot of math in this blog post, so it may be a bit more boring than usual, haha. If this method doesn't work, I'll have to try something else.
On August 2, I plan to enter Pitch Wars, which is an event that pairs unpublished authors with mentors. So, one of the things I need to do by then is finish revisions on my manuscript, Red Letter Law. It's been through many rounds of revisions since I finished the first draft on November 2. But this round has been difficult; I'm trying to rid RLL of potentially harmful/problematic content. It means cutting out some scenes I really like, but I'm optimistic that what I replace those scenes with will be better. I've gotten stuck a lot, but I have to push through it.
I'm also drafting another novel, Furlough. I started it November 1 as my NaNoWriMo novel, but ended up switching projects and just barely hitting 50,000 words total. I wrote a little of Furlough during April Camp NaNo. I don't have to finish the draft by the end of July; I'm trying to work on it in my downtime from RLL revisions, or whenever my brain needs a break.
In brief, I also have the following things that I either need or want to do: daily devotion, an internship from home, reading for CPs, reading for a freelance client, a few freelance sample edits, leisure reading, YouTube (both AuthorTube and BookTube), social media and traveling. So, if I can list these (other than traveling) in order of importance, and estimate the time needed for each, I can make a schedule.
Here's a list by priority, with times listed if I know them:
1. devotion (minimum: 1 hour per day.)
2. internship (estimated 10 hrs per week max.)
3. editing RLL
4. freelance beta reading
5. reading for CPs
6. sample edits
7. YouTube
8. leisure reading
9. social media
10. Furlough
I hope I'm not forgetting anything, but I can always adjust. Lets assume that I need time to sleep and eat, so I can work for about 8-10 hours per day, excluding Sunday. For now, I'm only going to try and schedule the first 5 days of July. So, I need to estimate the amount of time it will take me to edit RLL and see how much I can get done in those days. I'm going to say 30 hours, but I have no real idea. I'm not going to schedule any editing time on Sunday. So that leaves 7.5 hours per day if I want to finish by July 5. I think that's too much, so instead I'll budget 6 hours per day and leave the other 6 for later in July.
So now, hypothetically, I need 6 hours per day to edit RLL. 1 hour per day for devotion. That's 7, and then I have about 3 hours for other things if I want to max out at 10 hours. In general, 10 hours per week of my internship comes out to 10/6 hrs per day, which reduces to 5/3 hours, or 1 hour and 40 minutes. But this week, I'll have a lighter load for the internship, so I'll say about 20 mins per day. That leaves 2 hours and 40 minutes per day for other things. For these 4 days, I'm going to multiply 2hr40min by 4, which gives me 10 hours and 40 minutes! I'm impressed. That's more time than I thought for priorities 4-9. So, I can estimate the total time for my other tasks and figure out how much time I'm willing to devote to them per day, and leave the rest for after July 5. For now, I'll try figuring out how much time I need to complete each task. (Tasks that are indefinite will have an estimate of how much time I'll need for them in July overall.)
1. Freelance reading: 7 hours
2. Reading for CPs: 6 hours (for now; this might change later in the month, and I'll adjust)
3. sample edits: 3 hours
4. YouTube: 4.5 hours
5. leisure reading: indefinite. Hopefully 30 mins-1 hour per day; can be placed in "off hours".
6. social media: indefinite. Hopefully at least 20-30 mins per day; can be placed in "off hours"
7. writing Furlough: indefinite. Maybe 10 mins per day on average; 5 hours for the month
If we add all those together, we have 20. 5 hours for the definite things (1-4). So, I'm not going to finish all of the tasks by July 5. Even if I cut that in half, 10.5 would be cutting it close. So, I'm going to allot only 1/2 hour for YouTube and leave the rest for July 6 or later. That leaves 10 hours and 10 minutes total for the remaining tasks. Since, in total for the month, tasks 1-3 will take 16 hours, I'll aim for half of each to take place in the next five days. That means for all four days total, I've 3.5 hours of freelance reading, 3 hours of CP reading, and 1.5 hours of sample edits. (The sample edit estimate is high, so I may be able to finish in less time than I think.) If I subtract those 8 hours from the 10 hours and 40 minutes, I am left with 2 hours 40 mins for tasks 5-7, which means 40 minutes per day, plus any time allotted in the off-hours. Tasks 5-7 can be done on Sunday, but I'll try not to do my other tasks then; this is because other than church, I like to relax on Sunday.
So, here's our approximate breakdown for each planned day:
1. devotion: 1 hour
2. internship: 20 minutes
2. editing RLL: 6 hours
3. freelance reading: 53 minutes
4. CP reading: 45 minutes
5. sample edits: 23 minutes
6. YouTube: 8 minutes (but ideally, all 30 minutes of YouTube filming will take place in one or two days.)
7. leisure reading, social media, and writing Furlough: 40 minutes + any off-hours
And here are some rules to keep my mental and physical health in check:
1. No skipping meals.
2. No all-nighters, if possible. (If I can't sleep, I can't, but I'll try. My mental illness makes it hard to sleep sometimes, which can cause all-nighters.)
3. If I feel burnt out or overly stressed, I take a break.
4. No beating myself up if I don't hit these time goals, or even if I'm not in the ballpark. These are stringent on purpose, because even if I don't fulfill these exact times, I'll probably get more done than I would with no schedule at all.
5. No roll-over time. Ex: If I don't hit 6 hours of RLL one day, I will NOT add extra hours the next day, because that would lead to more stress.
6. The opposite of roll-over time is just fine. If I work more than I think I will on one thing one day, I can use less time on it the next day.
7. I can also switch things around if need be and don't have to stick to the schedule exactly.
8. I must try to remind myself that everything will be okay if my plans change because of life, or if I mess up.
So, here's a tentative schedule for July 1:
8:40 -- Breakfast
9:00 -- Devotion
10:00 -- Edit RLL
11:00 -- Snack and intern work
11:20 -- Edit RLL
12:20 -- Social Media
12:40 -- Edit RLL
1:40 -- Lunch while beta reading
2:00 -- Edit RLL
3:00 -- Beta reading
3:20 -- Edit RLL
4:20 -- Snack while beta reading
4:33-- Get ready and go to a dinner thing
8:00 -- Edit RLL
9:00 -- CP reading
9:45 -- Sample edits
10:08 -- Done. Time for leisure reading, social media or general relaxation
That is a longer day than usual, due to a dinner thing. Hopefully, the extra "first day of Camp NaNo" excitement will help me to stay on task and be productive. But if I don't get everything done exactly as scheduled, I'll try to stay calm and start looking forward to Monday.
