Managing Writing Tasks

Some people take each day and week as it comes along.

Some have tasks in mind, and will fit them in when the mood is right.

Some create enough tasks to make others weep, and then struggle to complete.

 

I used to be all three, and sometimes within the same day. [I know ... totally warped and weird]

 

During 2007 to 2010, I had the worst period of stop-starting with my first novel and that was before I had a blog, used Twitter, or set up a FB Author Page. By the time that I was doing those, making time to write and keeping in touch with my ‘social-online presence’ became quite taxing, and that’s when conflict of what’s important to achieve on that day occurred.

The solution was to create weekly plans.

Let’s keep this simple:

1. Grab some paper, or use Excel, or whatever else comes to hand.

2. Draw a grid – with vertical left section for listing tasks, and the horizontal top section for listing days.

3. Down the vertical left section list the tasks that are important for that week;

It could be Blog Posts
Working on a Novel
Redrafting
Editing
Cover Design
Reading
Reviewing
Going to a Writing Event
Anything that forms part of your writing/author schedule

4. Against each one, indicate a reasonable amount of time to do the task, or how much you want to spend on it during that day.

5. Be reasonable. Don’t put 10 mins, even if you know it can take 10 mins. I work in 30 min blocks, so assign 30 mins to it. You never know what other distractions could affect your time.

6. Move from left to right and assign on which day you will do each task. You can have as many/little on each day.

7. You have a plan – and yes – you can adapt and alter as you move through the week. Nothing is set in stone, but at least you have something to aim for, rather than “Hmm … what shall I do today?”

 

Here’s my plan for the next 2 weeks – and look the tasks for today was a Task Blog – woohoo – done!

Tip:

If you have the time, do more than one blog post in a session, and then schedule them to go out during the week.
I don’t list using Twitter and FB as a task; that just comes naturally to me.
Try to build in some flexi-days with little on – I try to keep Saturdays and Sundays fairly open.

 

Everyone had their own way managing tasks. This is mine. And to sound really scary … some big tasks like writing a novel/redrafting/editing/etc, I have mapped out per week going all the way to June 2014.

Obsessive compulsive??  No – I think of it as focused and wanting to make every hour count.

If you have a way of managing tasks, please share.

 

PS: My Debut Novel: Disconnect – YA Science Fiction is available now.