August Goals

I’m pleased. I made 25 out of 32 writing goals and 17 out of 27 personal ones (the first was the minimum number I was shooting for; the second fell short of the minimum).
I made my fiction hours, started tweeting (as Fraser Sherman, unsurprisingly), wrote two And columns (the second came out today), did enough Demand Media articles to earn my bonus, resubmitted The Impossible Takes a Little Longer and resubmitted everything else that was out. Currently, I have no stories to send forth.
I rough-drafted my movie-book proposal, sent out two magazine queries and five freelance job queries. One asked me for a sample project I’m almost wrapping up; the second sample project is due by the weekend, but I may have to ask for more time (what with not starting work for the week until today and all). I did not get much done on Brain From Outer Space, but the other fiction goals I missed were pretty minor.
The personal stuff ranges from meditating regularly (semi-regularly really but regular enough) to taking two friends of ours out to dinner (they’re engaged and overdue for a celebratory treat), to getting a new battery in my watch (the place is just up the road but I’ve been slack) to making a blue cheese dish I found in one of my cookbooks. You’d think that one would be easy enough, but with all the tomatoes we’ve had coming in ready to eat I just haven’t found the time. That one went on the Not Done list.
As you can see, personal tasks range from the fairly important (cleaning the house, for instance—I managed to put in the hours) to the trivial. But listing them helps get them accomplished.
Which leads me to this article on that old topic of getting a better work-life balance. The author says that people who are good at it don’t treat work and private life as separate calendars—they’re all mixed in together. You don’t pencil in one around the other, you put them both in the mix and prioritize as necessary (“Sometimes the answer will be to agree to the meeting and miss the lunch. Other times, an alternate time and day will work for everyone. The point is that their decisions are intentional.”).
Other key tricks:
•They accept responsibility for their own scheduling and juggling competing events.
•They review their progress regularly to see what needs to change.
•When they see something that needs getting done, they schedule time for it. Particularly if it’s a small step toward a bigger goal because those are easy to forget.
•They celebrate what they’ve accomplished rather than fretting about the unresolved stuff.
I like the article, I suspect, because I think I do well on one through four. Not worrying about the stuff I don’t have time for is a harder one for me, but I think it’s excellent advice.
So on that note, I shall be pleased with all the stuff I did do in August, and not worry about the leftovers. All things considered, I’m pretty productive and I should be glad of that.
While we’re on the subject of scheduling, this article on whether there are benefits to overstimulation makes good reading. It doesn’t make much of a case that there are, but it does point out that planning can in itself become a giant time-suck (I’ve been guilty of that). And that plenty of great things have been accomplished without a PDA or a synched computer calendar (Guernica, Michelangelo’s David, Citizen Kane …)