Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 44

Time Blocking Isn't For Everyone

I was listening to a podcast about how to stop being distracted from the things you want to do. But ultimately it was about time management, about deciding if something truly is important enough to allow time for it.

The podcast had an author on who wrote a book called Indestractible and he gave some tips on how to focus. Like set a timer for ten minutes (to start) and for that time, you must focus on what you said you were working on. Gradually increase the time.

He also talked about time blocking versus the to do list. He said time blocking is the way to go, that studies have shown you're more productive with time blocking.

He's correct about this. Reading about these studies is why I tried to time block my schedule multiple times. It's never worked for me. I do much better with a To Do List.

He gave reasons why a To Do list wouldn't work as well as the time blocking. It all made sense, but it doesn't work for my brain.

Let's say I time block Saturday 2pm to 3pm to write blog posts for the upcoming week. Let's say it's noon and I feel like writing my blog posts now. I even have a couple of ideas for the blog posts, but my time block for noon to 1pm says I'm supposed to be doing something else. Do I do this other thing that I have penciled in to my schedule and wait to write my blogs?

But I'm excited to write my posts now. At 2pm, I might not have the same enthusiasm. I suppose I could swap the time blocks around, but I would be doing this constantly.

This is why I realistic To Do list works best for me--and it's taken a lot of trial and error to learn what is realistic and what's wishful thinking. Instead of time blocking, I have a list of things to accomplish on Saturday. Write Blog Posts is one of the items. So it's noon, I'm excited to write my blogs and I do. I cross it off my To Do list. Now I scan the list and see what else is on the agenda for the day.

I like the freedom to do what I need/want to do in any order on a given day. Not in the order I thought would work for me when I time blocked my day.

Time blocking my schedule makes me feel confined, squeezed, and I don't like it.

This is how it works for me. Time blocking apparently works for most people, I'm just not one of them.

As for distractions, yeah, I still deal with them and I will try some of his tips and tricks to handle those, but time blocking won't be one of them.

Working with Griff

As of today, it's 26 days until Wicked Salvation is released and I thought I'd talk about my hero. JT "Griff" Griffin.

Griff made his first appearance in Wicked Obsession. He revealed pieces of her personality to me as I wrote it, but aside from attitude, he didn't reveal much. I knew his first name was Jonah and that he was a medic and that he's protective. One of my favorite lines in this book is when Griff tells Ryder that "this team takes care of its women and we consider Langley one of ours."

He was more present in Finn's story, Wicked Intention, and that's where I learned a few more things about him. Like he doesn't want to be called Jonah. He goes by JT. And I'm like well, why do you let Langley call you Jonah then? No reply. Of course.

It was during Finn's book that I learned Griff is incapable of walking away from a woman who needs help. He also worries about his friends and is the team's "mother hen."

Then it was time to write Wicked Salvation and I really needed to know Griff then. He was actually pretty forthcoming, maybe because he just says it like it is so much of the time. The one issue we had was my fault. Usually, the character keeps secrets from me and unloads a bombshell as I'm writing. Griff didn't do this to me, but I wasn't a huge fan of the piece of information he gave me.

Instead of dealing with this up front, I tried to straddle the line as I wrote the first draft. I was hoping what he told me was wrong and I could pivot another direction. Only he was telling me the truth. And this meant on one of the revision rounds, I had to rewrite the fence straddling and foreshadow what he said.

To be honest, I'm not sure why I ever resist what my characters tell me. I always end up doing things their way in the end. I've never won a single disagreement with them. Ever.

As it turns out, the most abrasive of my heroes is also biggest sweetheart of the group. The softest touch. The one who's ready to help someone else without being asked. And in the case of his heroine, ready to help even though she doesn't want his assistance.

Office Adventure

I start work really early because the traffic in Atlanta aggravates my anxiety. It was me and two other guys in my department and they sit on the far side from where my cube is. I fill my water bottle and go to my cube.

And I hear something.

It sounds like the man who sits across from me is in his cube, but he never comes in this early. I stand up to check, but no, he's not here. I sit down again.

Not much time passes before I hear the noise again, and it lasts a little bit longer this time.

I wheel back and check under my desk. I don't see anything, but there are stories of mice, so I'm leery. I stay partially wheeled away from the desk.

The noise comes again and it lasts a really long time. Long enough for me to decide it is a mouse and it's either behind my recycle bin or trapped inside the cube wall that separates my space from the guy who sits across from me. I get to my feet and back way, way, way away from the desk.

Now I have a problem. My laptop is unlocked and we're not supposed to leave them in this condition if we're not there. I need to reach the keyboard and hit Control-Alt-Delete to lock it. Since my arms are normal length, this means I have to get closer. 

I stretch as far as I can and I keep hearing the noise!

Finally, I lock the computer, grab my phone and the water, and hightail it to the other side of the office.

Where I stay, talking to the other guys who are in until my boss arrives. I tell him about the mouse in my cube. He goes with one of the men I'm talking with to corral the rodent.

As it turns out, they didn't have to do much. The mouse had fallen into my recycle bin, which is tall, and it couldn't get out again. The noise I heard was the thing trying to get out. Which led me to believe it was running on top of my desk and fell.

I immediately got spray cleaner out and cleaned the top of my desk, my shelves, and I had some unwrapped plastic silverware on another shelf. I tossed them.

The mouse was released outside at lunchtime. I'm not sure it survived long because this was likely an indoor mouse and it wouldn't know what to do outside. I'm not mourning its likely death. I'm not a fan of rodents.

Wicked Salvation: 33 Days and Counting

I normally write blog posts over the weekend, but I'm writing this one on Monday night because I didn't have time this weekend to do anything except revise Wicked Salvation. It was the final round of story revision, now it's in the hands of the copy editor who will check grammar, punctuation, consistency--that sort of thing.

The cover copy is posted on my website and on Amazon, so that's taken care of, but there's a lot more work to do.

I want to put the first chapter from Kyle's story in the back of Griff's, so I'm working on that. I also need to write a little teaser for Kyle, too. 

After the copy editor returns Wicked Salvation, I have to format it for ebook and print, and talk to the cover artist about making a print cover. She can't do it until I have page count information for her.

I also need to work on updates to my website. Get it ready for Griff's book release and update the Coming Next page for Kyle.

There's still so much work ahead, but I'm excited! I think this book turned out really well and I hope you think so, too, when you read it!

Lost and Found

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I'd lost one of my earbuds and had to buy a new pair. The picture on the left is my new set. Well, guess what I found last week? That's right, the missing earbud.

It's so weird because I kept checking around my desk at work, but never saw it and couldn't figure out where it could have gone. I never expected it to be as weird as it was.

I've been using a plastic grocery store bag to haul my lunch to work and my dirty containers home each evening, but I don't like them sitting out on my counters, not even overnight. So I've been jamming them back into the plastic bag holder I have attached to the cabinet door underneath my sink.

Apparently, I'd been grabbing another bag all the while, and when it tore too much to use, I took another bag from the holder. I put my lunch in it and put it in my refrigerator, and when I got to work, I put it in the fridge there, too.

After I finished lunch, and was putting my stuff away, I spotted something in the bottom of the bag. My earbud!

I wasn't sure what all that refrigeration did to it, but I figured I'd charge it when I got home and then test it out. My earbud had another idea.

When I got to my car, I put on a podcast for the drive home and I couldn't hear it coming out of my phone, but I was hearing something. Yes, that's right. The earbud had connected to the phone. It works! Of course, now I have a new set of earbuds which I like so much more than the old set. I guess I'll just keep a pair everywhere?

Wicked Deception: Official Cover Reveal

With slightly less than six weeks to go before the release of Wicked Salvation, I thought it would be a good time to do a cover reveal for the final book in this arc, Wicked Deception.

Wicked Deception is Kyle's story. You met him in Finn and Zo's book and he plays a much bigger role in Griff's story, so you'll get to know him much better.

It's funny because I didn't know what Kyle was like either. Not really. Until Griff's story. His personality took me by surprise. He's a smart ass and he likes to stir things up to entertain himself. And despite this, he's very good friends with Ryder, Finn, and Griff.

I've written one scene in Kyle's book and he's not being a smart as now, so there are more depths to him that I have to discover. I'm excited to see where his story takes me.

BTW, Wicked Deception is the end of the weapons arc, and will wrap up that storyline, but I have an idea for another four-book Paladin League arc and hope to work on this after I finish Kyle and his heroine.

Test Planner Update

If you've read this blog for a while, you know I'm a fan of paper planners. I need them in order to stay on track. I've also blogged in the past about my favorite planner. And that they keep tweaking it every year and taking real estate away from the part of the page I need the most.

The 2020 version of this planner was perfect. 2021 was something I could live with, but when they did the preview for midyear (which is a good indication of what the 2022 planner will look like) I was disheartened.

Not only did they take space away from the part of the daily page I use the most and need the most room to fill in, what they added made their planner too much work.

Sure, I could just skip it, I don't have to fill out everything, but I'm too obsessive and would fill forced to do it all. Also, it doesn't fix my problem with losing space in the area where it's most crucial for me. I think I might have blogged about this before.

So I've been test driving a different brand of planner. I picked up the midyear from this company and have been running two planners--my official planner and the test planner--since July 1.

The good news is that I could move to this new planner if I need to. I actually like their weekdays because they have little boxes that I can use to record my workouts and other things. But.

But their weekends share a page like they do in my current planner and they're even more scrunched because this planner is trying to include a weekly overview. Which I don't need and don't want. The test planner also doesn't have the built-in water and vitamin trackers that my current planner does or the check box for exercise, which I guess I can live without, but like.

So now I'm eyeing another planner. This one would have challenges, too, like the missing trackers, but I could get full days for Saturday and Sunday with this one. Sadly, there's no way to test drive this one. I'd have to jump in and hoped it worked.

I had planner peace. Why did the owners of the planner company have to keep messing with my planner?

The Countdown Has Commenced

I have a countdown going in my planner, and according to it, Wicked Salvation , releases in 47 days!

As I'm writing this, I'm working on the third round of revisions with my editor. I'll be sending it back to her one more time to make sure I got everything. When she finishes this final run-through, Griff and Cat head to a copy editor to check for grammar, consistency, typos and things like that.

The blurb for the official cover copy is being written now, too. This time, I hired someone else to do it rather than fighting with it myself. Yes, I do have a degree in advertising copywriting. Sigh.

When all the editors are done, then I'll format the story for ebook and paperback. This shouldn't be too bad this time. The formatting for Finn and Zo was a pain because of flashbacks and needing to have an anchor point at the front of each chapter. Sometimes even in front of multiple scenes in the same chapter. Everything in Wicked Salvation is current day and picks up where Wicked Intention left off.

Also on the agenda is updating the website. I'll need to update the cover copy to match the final version and I need to put Kyle's teaser up in the Coming Next section.

And, of course, I need to write Kyle's first chapter so it can go in the back of Griff's book. I have one scene written, but there will be two scenes. I'll work on that as soon as I get WS back to my editor for the final round.

Kyle's book, BTW, will be called Wicked Deception.

Black Paper and Gel Pens

I don't bullet journal, but I have a thing for buying books that were created for bullet journaling. I shared a couple of the more recent purchases in a blog post called The Notebook Problem.

So my latest purchase is a blackout journal, where all the pages are black. Awesomely cool. Except finding a pen I like that can write on black paper has been an experience and a half.

I'm pretty picky about my pens. I've been trying different brands. The G2s I have? Streaky. They make me nuts. In fact, this has been the problem with most of the pens I've tried.

I have a yellow gel pen I like. Sort of. It's a Gelly Roll, but it's a little streaky and the point is 1.0 which is pretty wide for me. I prefer .7 nibs on my pens.

I've tried paint pens--do not like--and I'm accumulating quite a drawer full of rejects.

I was back searching online for another pen to try. There was a deal going on for Art-n-Fly pens in white, so I thought why not. It'll just be another set for the collection.

This pen I like! It's not a clear-cut winner, not yet, but it's in the running. (I have a couple more brands I want to try in the future. I have them wish listed for another day.)

There is almost no information on the package, so I'm not sure of the nib size, but it feels like a .5, which is slightly smaller than I like, but not a deal breaker. The ink flows pretty well with minimal streakiness and it feels good in my hand when I use it.

I really wish I liked the Pilot G2 because it's a retractable and I hate messing around with caps, but sadly, I hate how it writes. I guess I'll live with the caps because the other brands I want to test are also capped.

Oh, well. ::shrug:: At least I finally have a pen to use in my black out journal. Now I just need something to use it for.

Quarterly Kanban Board Purge

I use a kanban board in my office to keep myself on track. In conjunction with my planner, of course. Every quarter, I take down all the old Post-it Notes and add new ones.

It's sad to pull down all the finished items. All that progress tossed away as if I hadn't worked so hard to write those chapters.

I also added those bright pink Post-its for the next book in the Paladin League series. Those millions of pink notes represent chapters that need to be written.

On the plus side, maybe it will encourage me to get to work when I finish revisions on Wicked Salvation. I want to move new notes to the finished section ASAP.

I probably should pull the purple, orange, and light yellow Post-its off the board since they're kind of back burner, get to them when I have time things. The orange ones are about organizing my office, but whenever I seem to accomplish one of them, it doesn't stay finished long before it's back up in To Do.

In case you missed an earlier blog post when I talked about it, the fourth book in The Paladin League series belongs to Kyle. You'll see a lot more of him in Griff's story this August!