Planning Ahead – The Climb #598

Monday 12^th October 2020

Today has been a day of admin. As the year draws to a close there are a bunch of things I want to get complete as well as a bunch of new things I want to start. Whilst I’m OK if not all of these come to fruition, what I don’t want to do is get to a stage where I’m flitting between so many different items that nothing gets done.

I started experimenting with planning my year back at the start of 2020. At the most basic level this established what my goals were for the year, and then attached a bunch of milestones (a word I hate) to them. The idea is that I could then attribute those milestones to each quarter and month to month focus on tasks that fed into milestones and in turn into goals.

Of course, the problem, and one of the reasons I have a love / hate relationship with planning is that 2020 has been an absolute shitshow that’s thrown everyone’s plans in the air. With things like writing, it’s comparatively easy. I’m in control of my own writing, and as such, as much as this year has been a struggle, it’s just been a struggle with only myself. And yes, I appreciate that for some people that struggle has been overwhelming, but it’s different from trying to organise things with a bunch of other people, each with their own challenges during the pandemic.

So a lot of my swordfighting goals went out the window this year. I’ve delayed them for a year or two, leaving the only real challenge for the immediate future to get myself back into fighting shape again ready for then.

But that withstanding, most of my goals are personal ones that don’t rely on others, and I’ve done OK. I’ve struggled with routine and staying focused, but I’ve got a lot accomplished this year all things considered.

But there’s still more I want to accomplish, and as such I spent the time today trying to plan my time. I’d like to think I have a better idea of how long a rewrite or first draft now takes me, and as such I feel I have a better idea of how much I can do.

But, it’s meant that tasks have now started to roll into 2021 and I find myself starting to plan that year as well. I still don’t think I’ve mastered it but I’m leaning heavily on my task management skills which have allowed me to be pretty productive, even during a pandemic. I’m hoping the combination of tasks looking at the now, together with planning looking at the future should allow me to increase my productivity and complete not only goals I have for this year, but plans I have into 2021 as well.