Time
Management
Part 2 in a 2-part series
From Here to
There
My
dad had a by-and-by type of personality – nothing much fazed him and if he
didn’t get something done today, that’s what tomorrow is for. I take after my mother- for me, it’s all or
nothing.
During
a discussion with a friend, I was asked why I couldn’t just do something for
its own sake, and not aim for a date of accomplishment. The words that fell out
of my mouth surprised me. I’m a
goal-oriented person and if I don’t have a goal to aim for, I don’t aim for
anything.
Problem
#1 We Set Goals that are Intimidating
Oftentimes
we envision the result without realizing that a lot of little steps lie between
you and it. And sometimes maybe we sabotage ourselves with seemingly impossible
goals. At first glance “I want to write
a book”. Becomes the mountain in front
of us. That goal is enormous in our minds and we end up not following through.
What
we need to do is break that into smaller attainable goals. Don’t try to go from
point A to point Z in a single bound. There are many smaller steps between
where you are now and where you want to be.
And to get there we must ask ourselves what we need to do, arrange, or
move to accomplish those goals.
-
What can I do
each day that will get me closer to what I want to get done?
-
What can I do in
15 minutes a day? 30 minutes?
Plot? Characters? World Building? Outline?
-
Can I write a
page a day?
-
Do I have a place
to do this without interruption?
The
point I am trying to make is that nothing gets done without intent. We are not helpless characters in our lives –
or are we?
My
personal go-to is the 15 minutes to an hour in bed before I turn out the lights
for the night. I have a pile of
notebooks two feet high sitting on a small footstool beside my bed. I call it my Jenga-pile. This works for me because many of my current
works-in-progress are always on my mind throughout the day, marinating in the
background.
And
if you are wanting to write a story or novel, ask yourself these questions:
1) What is your
idea? You always start with an idea.
2) What happens? There is always action – that’s what makes a
story.
3) How much
happens? It’s not one chapter, is it?
4) Why? That’s probably going to be your “hook”.
5 5) And then
what? For every action, yada, yada,
yada. And most importantly,
6) How does this
end?
NOTE: If you don’t know how this ends before you
begin, you will end up writing both yourself and your poor character(s) into a
circle and your story will flounder.
Someone once told me “Know
how your story ends before you begin writing – and then write toward that end.
The great thing about writing it toward the ending is that then you will be
able to lay a lot of groundwork throughout your story for your “ta-da” moment,
your ending
Problem #2 Time
While we all have the same
amount of time in our daily lives, some of us have more obligations and outside
interference that consumes our downtime.
May I suggest that “finding”
time could possibly be a matter of rearranging the time we have into manageable
blocks? If something is ON and IN my
mind, I can surely sit and write for at least 15 minutes – before the evening
news, or in place of the news. Before
bedtime or after lights out. Like last
night – this article was on my mind and I have this little book light clip at
my bedside. Up comes my pillow to block
a lot of the light and I pull my notebook over onto the bed to keep
writing. My notebook is never too far
away these days. Even “finding” time,
once the desire hits, is a multi-step process.
Small steps.
My life has always been a
bit like a Chinese puzzle: to move one thing, something else needs moved first,
and on down the line. It’s like the room
over my garage. It’s been over-filled with furniture, books, canvases and art
supplies – then there’s the computer desk and accoutrements - and oh, yeah –
that big round work table I have stuff on and under.
I needed to be able to use
that darn room – although I’ve been able and have written anywhere. All I really need is a flat surface and a
pen. Decisions were made, and I brutally went through it removing some things
and completely discarding others. It was hard to let go of some perfectly good
things that I no longer had any use for.
And again, it seemed that I had to move one thing before I could move
another. Now I can use that room the way
it was meant – a place where I can paint and write. But that is sometimes the way it is with our
time: to do something, we really want/need, we need to move things, events,
circumstances around to where it works for us.
