Juiced On Writing

In a recent edition of the U.K. magazine, Writing Magazine, writer Lynne Hackles gave me an idea which saved the day (a term my six year old daughter and friends are overdoing lately).

With it still being January, the subject of goals and objectives still remain fresh on many people’s minds – including my own. But how many, like me, are already suffering some morale problems when faced with a large list of tasks to achieve on a weekly basis?

Thanks to Lynne’s heroic ‘save-the-day’ usable ideas, I now have a working Writing Planner Diary and Work Log, all rolled up into one. I’ve decided to, after some thought, call it my Writing Tracker.

The Problem With Overall To-Do Lists

Subtitle : The Great UN-Dones

Lynne had previously mentioned the rigid structure a novelist friend had proposed on keeping a writing  diary. That friend had suggested a list of ‘things to do’ for the week, committed in ink onto each Monday’s diary page, and that friend had probably stuck to her own structured list.

Lynne had not, claiming that ‘butterflies don’t do rigid’.

Although I could never suggest I’m a butterfly myself (at best, I would accept a ladybug, and worst-case, might be convinced to go with a grasshopper – maybe), Lynne’s idea is one I can apply to ease the conscience more so than any other I’ve struck recently.

In my bedside reading collection currently are two books on writing, one on getting to a four hour working week (yes, that one) and David Allen’s Getting Things Done, bought for half price in the new year sales.

As much as I admire the organisational concepts, I know that the full-on Today, Tomorrow and structured regiment of Getting Things Done is not for me. Previously I had setup a system using some excellent task management software, where multiple projects and tasks were all organised, with recurring alerts, filtered today searches, and flashing overdues.

Within a month, this well orchestrated multiple list of projects and tasks became unmaintainable, and incredibly discouraging as the overdues started adding up, despite my best efforts. Software’s good at that – highlighting your failures. Completed tasks get crossed off, and often filed elsewhere in the program, disappearing off your radar to leave you with only the glaringly obvious UN-dones and flashing alerts.

I now use a combination of many tools to plan and organise the tasks I need to do – some are electronic (see my post on ReminderFox recently), some are physical scribblings (see my review on Todoodlist) and then there’s the daily lists – maybe even in a diary or planner (see my review on The Organized Writer or the upcoming one on The Writer’s Planner). What this book is called is a mute point for me, so I’ve decided to call it a Writing Log (with calendars).

What do they say about the best laid plans of mice and men? Well, obviously we all know it’s true. This mouse found out very quickly. After starting off so well with a large – but still do-able (in a holistic and overall viewpoint) year’s worth of business plans containing goals and tasks for my writing, came my almost immediate fall. Getting down to the nitty-gritty of day-by-day task achievements and actually crossing off those weekly (and sometimes daily) list of to-dos found me experiencing the “gosh, will I ever get through that list” blues half-way through the week.

Lynne Hackles said this about such a weekly list -

‘…  [a] list of “things to do” and which remain undone only make me feel a failure’.

She’s so right. No matter how planned I am, and how successful at working through some (if not most) of my target tasks, seeing a list of tasks not achieved – not struck off with a line through them – is extremely demoralising for me, even if I have crossed out plenty in that day. Whether it was a flashing overdue of a computer program, or inked in tasks on Monday’s diary page, those UN-dones mean I go to bed restless, knowing I have to get through those the next day, plus more.

The effect is accumulative. Although I may be very successful at getting through those tasks of the biggest priority, seeing all the little ones still hanging there, undone, is what the ego (or is it the id?) feeds off. By the end of the week, Monday’s UN-done list jars against the writing soul, not encouraging at all. Simply guilt-ridden finger-pointing little annoyances, sapping all the positive vibes of moving forward.

Solution 1 : Movable Post-It Tasks

Lynne’s system is simple. She now writes down her week’s worth of to-dos – not on Monday’s diary page -  but on a large post-it note. She can then cross off the items she has achieved, and move the post-it note onto the next day, and through the week. Lynne takes those tasks she has achieved over the day and adds these to the relevant page in her diary. The diary therefore becomes a record of her writing achievements, rather than failures.

Lynne even goes on to say that her system has created a little competition within herself. If one page in her diary holds two items completed, then she tries to better that the next day. Successes beget more successes…

My writing diary or log will also be written in sticky-ink (a post-it note) transferred along the days. Is this the way Getting Things Done might like it? I don’t know – reading the book is down there at the bottom of my lists, and I’m no longer particularly frightened of it. Eventually I’ll get to it.

Solution 2 : Developing my To-Do List into a Writing Planner and Log

Unlike Lynne, my own system will also feature logging – of both successes and failures. Lynne’s Diary has achieved tasks written down on the daily pages, and she also suggests writing down other successes – these might include acceptance letters arrived, publication dates, writing conferences, book shop signings. But she places a line across putting rejection letters received or any other negatives down into her own diary.

This is where Lynne and I differ.

What Do I Need in a Planner Diary or Work Log?

I need three things out of my own planner diary -

1. a list of project tasks or to-dos I need to achieve (the plan)
2. a record of the time and effort put towards my writing projects and tasks (the expenditure)
3. a progress record of my new writing efforts (the income)

Yes, I’ve put these into financial or accounting terms, other writers might term them much more simply as -

1. What should I be doing to reach my goals? (the tasks)
2. What have I used up to reach those goals (the resources or work log)
3. What did I get out of it (the successes and failures)

I have combined this simply in a diary system which allows me to track all this with some simple notes per daily page. The tasks (written on post-its) are detailed in the previous section, but I’ll explain the others here -

Tracking is one of my goals this year – and in that I need to track two things specifically – without going overboard -

1. a ‘resources‘ view – money (what I’ve spent, what I’ve earnt), and time (how many hours were spent on each task)
2. a ‘progress‘ (of writing career) view – this can be looked at from the to-do list tasks I have completed off over a day / week and been written into the appropriate diary page, and from a more overall perspective.

To explain the later, I’m a ‘new’ writer – having not submitted any writing work anywhere as yet (other than publishing this blog). I am trying to develop a personal positive attitude towards the rejection letters which inevitably will come with my publication goals. Rejection letters show me that I am finally submitting, and that I’m stepping slowly through the business. Although I may be joking when previously suggesting that I will frame all those rejection letters, I will at least hold them in a folder. And recording their arrival in a writing log / diary will provide that overall viewpoint of my own writing efforts.

I won’t record them with much detail – but flicking back, over a year or so, I would hope to see some progress in understanding the submission guidelines and needs of my markets, and finally turning rejections into offers.

Other possible negatives also go in there. The time wasted on writing a long-winded blog article and then deciding not to bother publishing it anyway (I did this today) is identified. It’s all a learning lesson, and hopefully shows some development as I grow in my writing, to recognise and stop the same happening another time.

The above is a quick scan of my current Writing Tracker pages open. On Sunday’s page you will see the completed tasks summarised with rough timings on the work effort. The yellow post-it list has been moved across to Monday’s page. I also have a Nice-To-Do post-it if I find any spare time.

And I’ve used a diagram post-it to list the things I have to do to complete off as a priority for today – one of which is publishing this particular post, with a semi-task of taking the photographs / scans to accompany this particular article. As this is now published, I can throw away the doodle. This quick doodling list of things to do comes from the excellent Todoodlist e-book, which I recommend. See my review on Todoodlist for more details.

Aside 1: Other Writing Log and Planner Systems

The notebook, journaling, logging and planning systems other writers use can be much more complicated than this, or much simpler. Some are quite formal, whereas others are random gatherings of notes and systems. But most of us at some point (often associated with a new year) come to the realisation that some kind of system needs to be put into place – a routine, somewhere to log it, record it, and an effort to form a habit of organising our writing.

Each of us needs to develop and work on our own management and productivity systems for our own writing. That’s a given. Just as with writing techniques and likes, organisational methods are not a case of ‘One size fitting all’. In fact, I’ve never fit any clothes in that sizing myself.

Eventually even I can see a need for a more structured logging and  invoicing (perhaps) system put into place. If I go down the route of freelancing, I will need to move into time-clocking my work, and sub-setting working records for clients. If I concentrate my efforts this year (as is the plan) on my fiction work, and more writing practice, then this simple work log and planner sitting in a moleskine* diary works well for me, certainly when combined with my other reminder systems and mindmapping plans.

Query letters, submissions, manuscripts tracking and other writing work will be managed through a quick note in my writing log notebook, and possibly spreadsheets or software for the tracking side of them. But combined with my Writer’s Notebook and this writing planner and log diary notebook (which I’m calling my Writing Tracker), I have two easy to use, on-hand notebooks to contain most of my writing day-to-day requirements. Simple as that.

* For those who have read here previously, you may be aware that for the last several weeks I’ve been searching for a moleskine notebook as a writing notebook. I never found them locally in the Cambridgeshire county in the U.K. But I finally have found the ubiquitious Moleskine available online via amazon.co.uk, hence my use of the moleskine for my own writing log and planner.

Aside 2 : The Mslexia Writer’s Diary

Although I chose to go with a simple Moleskine diary for my own Writing Tracker this year, there are  other notable diary systems which would work equally as well. A Filofax, for example. Or another writer’s planner  – such as the Sidetracked Writer’s Planner from The Organized Writer or perhaps that of The Writer’s Planner both available as templates in e-book form.

Or perhaps the feature-rich and fabulous Mslexia Writer’s Diary for 2009.

Mslexia is a writing community and magazine for women who write. The Mslexia Diary draws favourable comments each year.

The 2009 diary – smaller than a paperback novel – has week-to-view pages, blank sheets for notes and scribbles, an elastic to secure it shut, inside storage pockets, an address book section, and several advice inserts including lists of author’s recommended books, inspirational quotes and prompts, a writer’s directory of resources, a guide to writing guides, and a how-to on running your own writing group. The diary is clad in a strong plastic cover and opens easily with wire-binding.

The Mslexia Writer’s Diary 2009 is available for £12.99 (overseas £14.99) or comes free with a subscription to the magazine.

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