Looking Forward to Events
I looked at the calendar recently and thought, wow, it's already mid-August! Where the heck did the summer go? As I'm sure most people do, I feel that time is going by faster and faster with each passing year. When I was younger, it seemed that time drug out and that the things I looked forward to would never arrive. As I get older, I still look forward to events, but they seem to sneak up on me now. There isn't nearly enough time to simply enjoy the journey or to prepare for those things I look forward to. I am struggling now with how to better manage my time to prepare for those events that mean the most to me, so that I can get the most out of them.
For instance, as I've mentioned previously, I participate in BIW (book-in-a-week) nearly every month. I wanted to prepare for this week to get the most out of it. Instead, it snuck up on me and here it is Tuesday . . . and I have yet to write anything I am really happy with, plus I haven't spent the time writing that I had hoped. I am involved in a critique group, and we'll meet this coming Saturday, so I need to get my work uploaded so that it can be critiqued and need to critique the others' work. The Ozark Creative Writers Conference is in October, and the deadline is August 31. I need to get my rear in gear and get my entries ready to go. And NaNo is coming up. I am the Municipal Liaison and I need to get plans in place so that our region will have a successful November.
OK. That's my griping part of this post. But what can I do about it? What can we, as writers and dreamers, do to manage our time so that we can get the most out of events that are important to us?
Plan ahead. Plain and simple. Put it on the calendar and block out time. Your time is just as important as everyone else's. Get out your calendar AND your family's calendar and mark your events clearly. Don't move your appointments to serve every one else's needs. Respect your time.
Plan backwards. Look at the event and think about what you need to do to prepare. For example, my critique group meets on Saturday, so I am going to schedule time tonight to upload my next chapter and tomorrow night and the following night I will schedule half an hour to critique for others. You can do this on a bigger scale, too. For NaNo, you may want to schedule research in September and character sketches in October - and do a bunch of cooking in October so you can freeze stuff!
Reward yourself. Give yourself a pat on the back for each step you reach. This doesn't have to be a big reward. It can be something as simple as watching your favorite (recorded!) TV show after you finish a project, or drinking a cup of hot tea while watching the hummingbirds flit around a feeder.
The better prepared you are, the more you will enjoy the events that are coming up. I, for one, plan to fully enjoy the OCW conference this year, and to have the best NaNo ever!
Happy preparing,
Elle
For instance, as I've mentioned previously, I participate in BIW (book-in-a-week) nearly every month. I wanted to prepare for this week to get the most out of it. Instead, it snuck up on me and here it is Tuesday . . . and I have yet to write anything I am really happy with, plus I haven't spent the time writing that I had hoped. I am involved in a critique group, and we'll meet this coming Saturday, so I need to get my work uploaded so that it can be critiqued and need to critique the others' work. The Ozark Creative Writers Conference is in October, and the deadline is August 31. I need to get my rear in gear and get my entries ready to go. And NaNo is coming up. I am the Municipal Liaison and I need to get plans in place so that our region will have a successful November.
OK. That's my griping part of this post. But what can I do about it? What can we, as writers and dreamers, do to manage our time so that we can get the most out of events that are important to us?
Plan ahead. Plain and simple. Put it on the calendar and block out time. Your time is just as important as everyone else's. Get out your calendar AND your family's calendar and mark your events clearly. Don't move your appointments to serve every one else's needs. Respect your time.
Plan backwards. Look at the event and think about what you need to do to prepare. For example, my critique group meets on Saturday, so I am going to schedule time tonight to upload my next chapter and tomorrow night and the following night I will schedule half an hour to critique for others. You can do this on a bigger scale, too. For NaNo, you may want to schedule research in September and character sketches in October - and do a bunch of cooking in October so you can freeze stuff!
Reward yourself. Give yourself a pat on the back for each step you reach. This doesn't have to be a big reward. It can be something as simple as watching your favorite (recorded!) TV show after you finish a project, or drinking a cup of hot tea while watching the hummingbirds flit around a feeder.
The better prepared you are, the more you will enjoy the events that are coming up. I, for one, plan to fully enjoy the OCW conference this year, and to have the best NaNo ever!
Happy preparing,
Elle
I can so relate to this. It seems like time is flipping by. I never thought I would be one of those people who would worry about my age but I do. I never thought I would be one of those people who worry about the things I haven't done but I am. But I'm practising not doing that.
Reply to this