Focus Days

Today's tip for accomplishing stuff is so simple that I feel silly writing it. As an added bonus, all I have is a crappy camera phone picture with shadows over it. Nothing ominous. It's just that I am in a coffee shop writing my second novel. (No, nothing published yet. You'll buy it, right? Even if it is a little, um, smutty?) (Seriously, you know you are going to buy it just for the smut. There's some planner porn in it, too!)

Anyway, the tip.

When you are trying to get something done and nothing is working, schedule a FOCUS DAY.

Notice in the bottom left hand corner where I write my tasks for Wednesday, there is almost nothing written down in the "must due" column, other than Nano. (There is also laundry, mostly because it's cold - below freezing - and Louisiana folks only have so many cold weather outfits.)

I am working on Nanowrimo this morning in a local coffee shop. (Shout out to Brew Ha Ha in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The coffee and the service rocks!) I am behind on my writing and need to catch up if I am to write an entire novel in November. So I scheduled a day to focus on writing.

Of course, I'll do other things today. I will do a load of laundry and cook lunch and dinner. I am blogging, something I try to do almost everyday. I will go to a parent meeting at school and the Home and School Volunteer Association meeting. I like to think I'll one day have an entire day to focus, but that likely won't happen.

That said, if it doesn't have to get done today, it won't. I planned for my focus day, including scheduling tasks that I couldn't do right away for Thursday or Friday instead of Wednesday. And it's working! I am catching up on my writing.

Whatever it is - cleaning out a closet, cooking for Thanksgiving, gift shopping for Christmas, or just doing the lingering housekeeping or work project that never seems to get done - schedule a focus day and get it done.

I am considering a focus day to read all those novels that I never get around to taking out of my tote bag. Maybe that will be my Christmas present to myself!

Etcetera.