Pandemic Productivity Recovery Plan

I swear someday I'm going to make posts here other than the personal bit from my writer's newsletter again. I was thinking about the importance of journaling for me again, and how difficult it is for me to keep memories without it. Of course, I keep saying this. But hey! It could happen! Not today, though.

Thoughts in Passing

For the first time in almost a year, I am alone in my house on an ordinary day. My spouse is working on-site today, and the kids are at in-person school. It is HEAVEN. And I am trying to figure out where to start digging myself out from the mound of all the projects that I have neglected. Fortunately (or unfortunately), I have played the "getting back into the groove" game before, after recovering from injuries and surgeries and newborns. I'm guessing a lot of people will emerge from the pandemic and need to work on recovering their productivity and getting back into writing. If you've been able to keep writing and keep on top of your projects during this time, that's GREAT. You should be proud. If you haven't been able to, well, maybe me sharing my process will help. WARNING: extreme productivity geeking-out below, feel free to skip!

 

Step 1 is simply figuring out where I'm at. This step will take a while.

 

I tend to use my email as a to-do dumping ground. I use "action needed-writing" and "action urgent" email tags to flag these to-dos. That's not enough organization to really keep on top of things, although it does make it easier to find them. List organization isn't quite enough either. This is where the spreadsheet comes in. You knew there'd be a spreadsheet, right?

 

It's pretty simple. The Type column is how I prioritize my tasks. Paying gigs come first, followed by things I've promised to other people (I'm careful not to take on too many of these), and everything else is intuitively sorted by the Eisenhower Decision Matrix. There is a number at the beginning of each Type label so that I can sort the tasks in order, first by Type and then by Deadline.

 

If you are a natural-born procrastinator like me, this is a good time to pay attention to what you've been procrastinating on the hardest. Often it falls in that critical "Action Important & Non-Urgent" category.

 

I also add significant writing projects that have deadlines. I enjoy writing for a particular submission call, so that is where a lot of these deadlines come from initially. This is not the place to track all my various manuscripts in different stages of writing and editing and submitting (again, unless deadlines apply). I track those elsewhere. Scheduling blocked time for writing/editing outside of this task spreadsheet is essential.

 

One final productivity note! As I go through my email "to-dos," I try to apply the 2-minute principle. If it would take me 2 minutes to do, it doesn't go on the list. It gets done then.

 

Next month, I'll talk about scheduling and how getting things done is going. I have 288 "action-needed - writing" emails in my inbox, so wish me luck!

 

(Do you have a writing question? Send it to me, either by replying to this email or by using the comment form on my website, and it may get answered in the next newsletter.)

 

What I've been up to lately, writing-wise:

After Dinner Conversations has produced a podcast discussing the ethics and free will implications of "In Their Image." This is just so cool! If you are philosophically inclined, you can listen to at https://www.afterdinnerconversation.com/podcast/e38-in-their-image-what-happens-when-a-teddy-bear-cant-find-its-purpose or on your favorite podcast catcher.

My final reminder is that awards nomination season is wrapping up. If you are eligible to nominate, I am very fond of my small bittersweet story about love in the time of extinction, "The Dinosaur's Valentine." It's available to read at Daily Science Fiction or to listen to at Centropic Oracle.

Full markets newsletter: http://www.aswiebe.com/writing/archive2021.html#022521