Happy New Year I'm deep in the planning stages for 202 so I thought I'd share my process. My day job is lucky enough to have an arts program attached to the organisation - so we can be involved in choir, a writing program, musical instruments available anytime, as well as creative arts for children - the focus of our business. When the writing program was announced I jumped on board. It seemed simple enough - anyone who wanted to write could join, and we would meet after work for 2 hours once a month to talk writing and support each other electronically (and in person) in between. There was homework and sessions were moderated by a well-known Brisbane author. I was in. Four months later, I was out. Free, accessible, supportive, high-level mentoring - was I nuts? No, it wasn't the right group for me at that time because I was at a different stage of my career to the other writers in the room as the only published author other than the moderator. The biggest difference: They had writing goals (some had never written before) while I had an annual work plan, with deadlines, mini-goals and I was time pressured as a result Before I made the decision, I sat down and looked at everything I do outside of day job working/travel and accounted for where I spent my time. And the decision came down to could I justify another two hours to talk writing, or would I be better off spending the time writing? I chose writing and I also made some of the other non-negotiable things in my life a bit more efficient. Did it work? 2019 was my most productive year for a long time. Most of those projects will come to fruition in 2020. So what's the difference between a work plan and a goal? A goal is what you want to achieve. A work plan is the extra detail that tells you how it is going to be achieved. It's breaking it down into manageable chunks, it's identifying those barriers to writing, and scheduling writing around them. It's scheduling those barriers as well, so they don't impact writing time. It's showing up for a writing shift the same as you would a day job shift. To make sure it's all written down in one central place I use a Personalised Planner that has everything: house, writing, running and social in one place. This helps me identify "pressure points" and then I schedule the writing around them. I use my phone's calendar for the day to day. This method won't work for everyone, but it does help me to get more organised. And more organised = more words. That's a win. Comments are closed.
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Fiona Greene AuthorWhen you set out on a journey and night falls, that's when you will discover the stars." Archives
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