Priorities

I learned that we can do anything, but we can't do everything... at least not at the same time. So think of your priorities not in terms of what activities you do, but when you do them. Timing is everything.
— Dan Millman

Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work.
— H. L. Hunt

Deadlines aren't bad. They help you organize your time. They help you set priorities. They make you get going when you might not feel like it.
— Harvey Mackay

Keeping regular office hours sounds good in theory, but I’m seeing it’s a little harder to put into practice than I thought it would be. Especially when you spend more than half a day at a social function, a bunch of unexpected family stuff pops up, and you take a road trip with your daughter (that while fun, lasts an entire day).

The root of my problem is that I suck at setting priorities. Not just in my writing, but in my crafting as well. Ironically, when it comes to more mundane things, like gardening or housekeeping, I do much better. I don’t know why that is, unless it’s the fact that the mundane things don’t matter as much. Does that make any sense?

I used to make a lot of lists, breaking things I had to/wanted to do into easy to manage increments. It worked really well for the more mundane things I had to do, not so much for the more creative things.

In fact, listing the creative tasks, even breaking them down, ended up having the opposite effect. I found the list intimidating, I didn’t know where to start, and so I didn’t.

It doesn’t help that I have plenty of time at my disposal, that just makes it easier to put things off. My time management skills could also use some honing – I don’t make good use of my time. I’m a procrastinator. And I get distracted easily – I need to learn to focus better.

Another thing I’m having to overcome is my upbringing. I’m an old-fashioned gal. I was raised to put everyone else’s needs before my own. I set aside time to do something for myself but then other people’s priorities conflict with mine and I always seem to come out the loser.

I don’t know if setting priorities is something you’re born with or a skill you need to learn, but it’s definitely something I need to work on going forward, especially if I’m going to make my limited office hours work. The ability to prioritize effectively would also help in all the other aspects of my life.

I signed up for a free download of an interesting looking book about prioritizing, but something called Bitly wouldn’t let me. I don’t even know what Bitly is, but it decided the download might be potentially harmful. Isn’t that always the way? But I also bookmarked a bunch of helpful articles to read. It’s a start at least, and I’ll share what I learn about setting priorities here, next week.

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WORDAGE REPORT

You know, I’m kind of getting tired of this. Last week was another one of those weeks that quickly spun out of control. However, at least I got my blog posts up and on time (except for Friday, but that wasn’t my fault), so there’s that at least.

I started out on track with my office hours, but life and a bunch of family stuff had a way of de-railing even the most loosely held schedule.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1,567+763+351+870=3,551
Poetry – 351 (included in blog post)
Other words – 385 (bonus blog post)

Total words: 3,936

Goals For Next Week:
Give the office hours another try and get my s**t together.

EDITING:
0 pages
Well. That was disappointing. I wasn’t able to manage even an hour or so of editing. At this rate I’m never going to be done Magickal Misfire. Which I’ve been considering changing back to Wandering Wizards because of a line I rewrote.

Goal For Next Week:
Get back to work on Magickal Mayhem.

MARKETING MONDAY:
I’m starting to think it doesn’t make sense to limit marketing to just one day. So next week I’ll be removing Monday from the title here.

Goal For Next Week:
Submit two flash stories and one poem.

TECHNO TUESDAY:
I’m thinking it might be time to let go of the tech. I mean yeah, I want to learn how to use my little gizmos properly, but they’re obviously not a priority. Instead, I think I'll try setting aside time to learn new skills. Maybe even start one of the online courses I signed up for.

Although, that being said, I couldn’t help but notice all my posts on my other blog have become italicized. And several posts from this blog have done the same thing. I have no idea what happened, but I need to figure out what’s going on and fix it.

Goal For Next Week:
Learn something new.

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
Being kind of crunched for time last week, I went for a poetry form I offered previously. The actually wording of the post was new, but the poem itself was an old one. But ironically, I’ve already started the post for this week – not a new form, at least to me, but definitely a new poem.

Goal For Next Week:
Find a new form to share on my Wednesday blog post.

CRAFTING:
I did do a ranty post about cross stitch on Monday. I still can’t believe something so tiny took me so long to create. And when I sewed the little cross stitch into the felt needle book I made the discovery that felt liked to stretch, so it looks a little crooked. Might be a new a new rant in the making. ;-)

Someone in the family was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer, so looks like it’s time to start another cancer blanket. I’ve already got the yarn, now all I have to do is find the pattern.

Goal For Next Week:
Start a new afghan. Start work on the granddaughter’s dress.

WHAT I’M READING:
When I was reading the three-in-one, Growl, I realized I’d missed the book in between it and one I read previously from the same series. So I ordered in online. While I was waiting for it to arrive I read Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah. Then Wild arrived and I read Catch A Tiger By the Tail by Eve Langlais, Wild Passions by Kate Douglas, and Her Perfect Mates by A.C. Arthur. Then when I was grocery shopping on Friday I treated myself to Murder At Sunrise Lake by Christine Feehan, and I’ve just started reading it.

Funny how I can always seem to make time for reading but not other stuff.

Goal For Next Week:
I did a little better at slowing down my reading, but I think I can do better.

GOAL REVIEW:

I got my blog posts up, and on time, although my actual Friday post was a day late. I did cheat a bit by recycling for my Wednesday post, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Despite getting my needle book done in time for my guild meeting, I didn’t make time for any other crafts last week.

I’ve got a new week ahead of me and I can only hope I find a way to start making my office hours work for me.

Happy writing.