Thursday 13^th August 2020

For all the work I have to do, I feel I’ve done none.

The thing is, that like many writers, getting any project done consists of loads of tiny bits of work. And some of it can have big repercussions. Making a decision on a story direction might be something that takes no more than a couple of minutes out of your day, but looking back it was a huge piece of work.

Because in the background, writers are always writing. We’re just not always aware that we do. Facts and opinions we read now, may end up in stories ten years from now. That small decision made, could result in big consequences down the line. I have characters forming in my head that I’m not aware of, that’ll find their way onto the page in the distant future.

So I have to often remind myself that whilst I didn’t work on the reorganisation of a novel I have in Scrivener or write some pieces for the newsletter I want to send out, I did think about the over-arcing story of that novel and what that means for the structure. I did mentally go through some ideas for the newsletter, asking myself the important question of how serious / fun I want the tone to be? I emailed my agent. I chatted to a writer friend.

I’ve been bad at task management recently. I tend to put everything I need to do into ToDoist. Doing so not only allows me to ensure nothing gets missed, but also provides me a way to chart progress to myself. It allows me to see that I have been busy.

I’ve even tied it into something I introduced this year: goals and planning. I still update my goals and personal targets each week but there’s currently not a way to nicely connecting it to ToDoist’s tasks and as a result my task management has suffered. I’ve also stopped using it for Day Job stuff. Typically I believe in putting everything into one task management system, but Day job stress was impacting writing projects and I needed to separate them for my own mental health.

As a result, whilst things are getting done and progress is being made, I’m currently doing a bad job of tracking it.

It can be all too easy to beat yourself up for not feeling productive. I do it all the time, and with some important personal milestones coming up, I want everything to be ready. But I have to realise that these have been particularly traumatic times. Other writers have been unable to get anything done. As much as I might feel I’m muddling through, I am fortunate that I am able to get things done.

But I feel like I need to get my shit together a bit more. There’s a lot I’m not doing, from editions of The Climb being late through to mini organisational projects not being done. I can do better, and future me will thank present me if I do that now.

I just need to remember to go a bit easy on myself at time when I’m feeling unproductive. Just because there isn’t a task, doesn’t mean I’m not working hard.