Achievable Goals

Mini-goals seem to work for me. I have this little chart, just like the job charts my kids used to have. I have four daily tasks:

1. Write 750 words

2. Clean or organize for at least a half hour

3. Do something creative (other than writing) for at least an hour

4. Walk a mile

Since last Friday, I've managed to do at least three of the four every day. If I know I'm going to have trouble doing all four, I try to manage it so I don't short-change the same goal two days in a row.

So what have I got to show for it? Well:

1. I have a dozen new scenes in a new short story

2. My kitchen floor is cleaner, I have a clean bathroom, and I found a newspaper article I wanted to put in my scrapbook.

3. My granny square afghan is getting bigger.

4. My knees hurt like heck. But I guess I've eaten fewer snacks - it hurts too much to get up and grab them.

I guess I'm going to print out another copy of the sticker chart. Maybe I'll use stickers on it this week instead of check marks. And I guess I'll treat myself to a Starbucks if I manage to earn more than 20 stickers - because I found a Starbucks gift card with $5 still on it!

Revamping Goals

So, this is week two of April. I don't seem to be able to get things done. Still. I guess it's back to the drawing board with mini-goals and making them achievable. I need to be specific and have goals in different areas of my life. I also tend to do better with daily goals rather than weekly or monthly. For example, if my goal is to blog weekly, I’ll wait until the last minute on the seventh day to write! So it's gotta be daily.

Here goes.

Writing: Each day, I need to write at least 750 words. This can include blogging, or creative writing, as well as journaling.

Creativity: Each day, I need to spend at least one hour doing something creative. This can include sewing, scrapbooking, knitting, stitching, or crafting.

Organizing: Each day, I need to spend at least half an hour doing something to make the house look better. This can include clearing off a surface, putting away clothing or other stuff that's not where it should be, or actual cleaning.

Health: Every day, I need to walk at least a mile (this is definitely going to go up as the weather gets better!). It can be outdoor walking, treadmill walking at the gym, or with my wii Fit.

I have made a chart on which I will track my progress each day. And hopefully by this time next week I won't feel like such a failure!

Another Start

Another month begins. Another attempt at organizing my life. Another long list of things I need to do.

Will this be the month I succeed? I suppose I will be able to cross a few things off my list. The college semester ends this month, so in order to turn in my grades on time I will definitely get all these papers graded. And I suppose a few other things will be completed.

But it would be so nice to be able to snap my fingers and get instant results. A clean room, a completed manuscript, a slimmer, fitter body. I sure could use a genie or a Mary Poppins.

Unfortunately, that's not in the cards. So I need to get myself going. It's April 1, but I'm no fool. The only way this stuff will get done is to do it myself. So I will write those words, walk those miles, file those papers. A little at a time. Some of it will get done, and some of it won't.

At least I'll have more done than I do now.

And now my blogging is done, for another week.

Burnout

This has been a really slow week for me, creatively. The only two things I’ve done are to go scrapbooking with my wonderful Crazy Crop friends, and to write a section of a textbook for the course I teach. Writing a section of a textbook sounds like an accomplishment – except that I took most of it from a handout I wrote almost four years ago. So it was basically just editing.

Anyway, I’m sitting here with my feet up, wondering why I’m so unmotivated. I haven’t been overwhelmed with extra work, and my paperwork for school is pretty much caught up. But when I sit down to do something, all I can think about is how tired I am. What’s the deal?

It could be that I overextended myself, trying to write 1143 words a day while working two jobs, and taking care of mom’s needs. Or it could be that I’ve been wasting time, playing too much “Wheel of Fortune” on facebook. Whatever, I didn’t get enough sleep, so now that I have time to sleep, I can’t.

Whatever. I need to get back to work. I need to wake up. So I need to get moving. I should put my coat on right now and go for a walk.

I will. Right after I wake up from my nap.

March Madness

It’s mid-March, and a lot of people are glued to their televisions wondering whether or not their people will prevail. Will they overcome their obstacles and succeed? Or will adversity overtake them?

No, I’m not talking about baseball. I’m talking about the disasters in Japan. My cousins, aunts and uncles are experiencing madness right now. They were far enough away from the earthquake in Sendai that although they felt (and continue to feel) aftershocks, they were safe. They were far enough that the tsunami did not sweep away their communities. And so far, the nuclear threat has not reached them.

But there are hardships. The trains are not running according to their normally super-precise schedules, and electricity is being conserved via planned blackouts. Supplies are running out, even for those not living in the areas affected by the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power problems.

I know there are ways to help the general public. There are all sorts of organizations to which I can donate money. And there are groups heading over there to help out. One of the GVSU groups I belong to is hosting a fund raiser for relief efforts. And I’ve been in contact with my cousins. If any of them mentions a need I can fill, I’ll be all over it.

But most of all, I’m on my knees each morning and evening. There is only One who can keep them safe, and I’m appealing to Him. Please join me.

Success!!!

I just finished writing a paragraph. It’s not a particularly well-written paragraph, but it’s got all the essentials – a subject, a verb, and all the punctuation I’m always hounding my students about.

What makes this particular paragraph special is that it brought my total word count in my new story to 32,000 words. I started the story on Saturday, February 12, so for the past 28 days I have written at least 1143 words EACH DAY. My room is a mess, and if it weren’t for my hubby I would have no clean clothes to wear, and I would have eaten cereal every day except for those times when I ate out. I was on a mission to meet this goal, and I have succeeded.

Now the work begins.

These 32,000 words take me a little over a third of the way through the story I want to tell. And so I must keep going. But I don’t have the ambition to challenge myself to continue writing at this pace. I’m not sure it would be healthy if I did. I can live with a certain level of mess, but even I have my limits. So I guess I’ll do some spring cleaning, and hopefully get back to this story and finish it.

As soon as I finish the two other stories I’ve got brewing.

NaNo, Week Three

Okay, I’ve been at this for three solid weeks. Somehow, I’ve been able to keep up my daily average of 1143 words per day. There are some days, like yesterday, when I’m so tired I simply sit back in my recliner and let my fingers type what I’m thinking. I don’t even look. Anything to get the word count up there.

So far I have the two main characters getting to know each other and becoming very attracted to each other. I’ve laid the groundwork for a mystery. It’s not a mystery book per se, but something that goes wrong, and the two main characters try to find out who caused it. I’ve tried to set up several scenarios that point to someone who might have done it, but hopefully it will come out that someone totally unexpected was the villain.

I’m not quite sure where this story is leading. I had an outline all made out, but somehow the characters are starting to lead me in another direction. I know this will end happily, I’m not sure how it will get there. It may take a while, though.

I am really bleary-eyed right now from lack of sleep. I’ll have to take a nap.

As soon as I write my 1143 words.