I love a to-do list.
For a start, my brain works best when it is uncluttered and has some kind of order. If I feel like I’ve got most of the plates spinning and never really wanted the ones that are crashing to the floor anyway, that’s a good day.
Half of my distraction from writing is because there is something else that needs doing and my brain won’t let me stop thinking about it unless I get it done. Or feel like I’ve got it under control anyway. That whole ‘I’ll do it later’ type of attitude leads me to fits of anxiety and rocking gently in the corner.
So a to-do list helps me to organise and fool my brain.
‘See…I wrote it on the list so it’s as good as done and I won’t forget so you can now concentrate on getting this writing finished…okay, Brain?’
But the dangerous side to my to-do lists is I end up in an endless circle of writing things on a to-do list and yet never actually getting them done.
For instance today I wrote out some lists about my work and my writing. I wrote out that first I have to redo my training and then I should make a plan for the summer and a 30-day plan for when I set up my business online. Then I need to get back to setting days aside each week to work and once I’ve got a routine then I can get on with the job of marketing my books rather than writing them, putting them on Amazon, and just leaving them to fend for themselves.
I made a lovely set of to-do lists which led from one thing to the other and made a clear path from getting my finger out and working online through to getting new book covers done and rereleasing my novellas. It’s all there in order with numbers and little arrows now and then. Some bits are in red and some have a wee star next to them.
I went off to have my lunch, satisfied that I had Got Shit Done.
Well…I had Got A To-Do List Done…but nothing ticked off it.
Sigh.
So I added ‘do blogs’ to it and wrote this so now I can tick something off.
I’ll do the rest tomorrow.
(yeah, I know, don’t say it…)
The Reluctant Writer 