Get Your Free Daily Writing Scheduler

Because of the many demands upon our time, writers have a keen understanding of the fleeting nature of that commodity. We need to work in a consistent manner that prioritizes creativity and maximizes productivity. Is such a happy balance even possible? I may be a Pollyanna (as some label me), but I do believe it can be done.

My Daily Writing Scheduler is my response to the need to organize my activities as a working writer. It is the result of many hours of analysis to determine the activities I engage in or hope to begin. I've listed these activities by column in my Daily Writing Scheduler, which I use myself.

I'm delighted to offer my Daily Writing Scheduler free to others. You can obtain your own copy by providing your name and email address in the sign-up form at Janalyn Voigt, something you can do with complete confidence since I use a reputable mailing list manager and won't share your information with others. Rest assured I won't flood you with emails. To tell you the truth, I don't know how people have time to do that.

Here's what you should know about my Daily Writing Scheduler:

What it is: My Scheduler is not software but a simple Excel document. You will need to open and run it in Excel. If you don't have this program, you can find a free, compatible program at http://www.openoffice.org/product/. Click on "spreadsheet."
Image: You can change the picture by right-clicking on the image and uploading your image. You may need to size it, but you can do that by dragging a corner.
Background: To change the background image, in the top-of-the-page tabs, go to "Page Layout," and then "Delete Background Image." Please note: once you delete the image I've provided, you may not be able to get it back, so make sure you really want to delete it. You can find some nice free-use background textures at http://morguefile.com.
Buttons: I've included buttons to common social networking sites. To change or add wording and edit or add a hyperlink, right click with your cursor on a button. You can see the buttons I think are important in the picture, above. The beauty of these buttons is that, with one click, I can open reach Twitter, as an example, and since my browser autofills my user name and password, with another click I'm logged in.
Priorities: You will achieve best results if you work the form left-to-right, since that will cause you to prioritize creative projects before busy work.
Date Autofill: Highlight the box immediately under the first column with the word, "Date." Now type in a starting date, and the rest will autofill.
Current WIP Word Count Goals: Under the column, "Current WIP," fill in your word count goals (see the picture of my Scheduler, above).
Word Count Record: Enter your word count for the day.
Word Count Auto-calculation: When you enter your word count each day, the "Total Count" box will calculate. There is a way to stop and start this count, so that if you choose to keep this form as a running diary, you'll be able to add more than one project. I'll write a post for more advance usage of this form next month.
Current Ebook Word Count Goals: If, like me, you have plans to write an ebook, you can use the "Current Ebook," "Word Count," and "Total Count" columns in the same manner as you would for your current WIP. If you could also use these columns to keep track of a second book project.
Blog Posts: If you blog, you'll appreciate the chance to keep track of when to write posts throughout the week.
Submissions: This form can be used as a simple record of when and what you submitted where.
Critiques: This column allows you to schedule critiques in a sane manner. You won't be overrun because you'll know at a glance when you can get to a critique submission. Seeing it all laid out can enable you to say "no" when you need to.
Editing: This column allows you to keep track of and quickly identify your editing tasks.
Book Production: Whatever you need to do, be it designing a cover, drawing a map or writing an appendix, you can schedule it in this column.
Book Promotion: Scheduling your promotional tasks makes them more manageable. You'll ensure you're always doing something toward promotion while keeping a good pace that won't overwhelm you.
Ebook Production and Promotion: These two columns function in the same way as the "Book Production" and "Book Promotion" columns. They can be used for a second print book project, as well.
Scheduling Tasks: Do you want to go on a retreat, to a conference or simply make it to a coffee shop to write? Whatever you need to schedule fits here.
Emails: If I'm only going to sort my emails, I type "Sort" in this box. If I've just sorted my emails and need to deal with important emails, I type "Urgent" here. If I plan to Zero my email account, I type "Zeroed." If you can't imagine clearing your email inbox, type "email" in the search box at Janalyn Voigt.
Career Building: This is where you can break your goals down into tasks you accomplish, a little each day. Perhaps you want to speak, take a class or read a book about writing. Maybe you need to ramp up your wardrobe, or you are out of business cards. Plan your progress in this column.
Opportunities Captured: If you're like me, you receive opportunities to blog, invitations to attend webinars, information about meetings you'd like to attend, etc. Work on your opportunities a little at a time.
Networking: Schedule and keep track of where and when you will visit online sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, forums, groups, and blogs.

I hope you enjoy my Daily Writing Scheduler. I hope you will either comment on this post or drop me a line at janalyn@janalynvoigt.com and let me know how it works for you. I'm always open to suggestions for improvement.  Remember to stay tuned for my advanced usage post next month.

 

© 2010 Janalyn Voigt

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