Friday, June 28, 2019

Update Day: Taking Stock

Since it's the last Friday of the month, it's time for another GotGoals? Bloghop update. If you'd like to know what that means or how to join the bloghop, please click here.


I have to admit that today's post is kicking my butt. I've tried writing it twice, but there are things going on in my life that I just want to share, so it keeps coming out every time I try to write this post and taking over. The other reason is that this is kind of an important milestone.

On the one hand, it's the middle of the year. It's also the middle of my goal's five-year period after I hit reset on how I approached my goals. So it stands to reason that I should stop and take stock of everything I've achieved.

But... right now, that isn't working for me. At the heart of it, I'm currently busy with some really large-scale things, so it's been months since I've actually "achieved" anything that isn't related to my freelance work.

Still, this doesn't mean I'm failing. Until recently, I did feel like a constant failure. There is always something more to do. There is always something I could do better. So lately, I've started to fall into a trap of not seeing the progress I've made because it kept feeling like I'm falling short.

So I'm getting into the frame of mind of remembering that what I'm busy with right now is just as important as those goals I want to achieve.

With that in mind, this is what I'm working on right now: 


Book 3 of The War of Six Crowns


I had really hoped that I could publish this by now, but yeah. Life. I'm making progress, though. It's just taking longer than expected because of its length. It'll be worth the wait, though. 

Work


Yeah. That's really something that is taking over my life right now, but despite more than doubling my freelance rates, I've had two (or more) freelance jobs to do pretty much constantly since January. This is awesome, but it does have a massive impact on my productivity. That's why I'm now doing the next thing...

Building My Writing Momentum


My thinking around this activity was what woke me up to how hard I've been on myself. This whole thing of "Three years ago, I could write/edit 2k a day." Yeah. That's true. But the thing is, I don't count the writing and editing I do as a freelancer. If I really were to put a word value to the writing, editing, and research I do as a freelancer, I do 4.5k per day at minimum. (And sometimes as much as 16k.) Still, it's not really good enough for me to rest on my freelance success. The whole reason why I started freelancing was so I could have the security and time I need to work on my own fiction. 

So when I say I'm building my momentum, I'm really talking about writing 3k per day on my own writing. Or... about 7.5k per day in total. Is that completely insane? Maybe? 

Sorting Out My Communications


Recently, I've had to start studying up on branding and communications for my contract work. And man, did I learn a lot about what I'm doing wrong. So now I'm working on fixing all those things. This was what I've been talking about every time I mentioned the big decisions I'm making. In a lot of ways, the changes I need to make are down right terrifying. But I know there's no point to going on in the way I have been because it's just not working. But because there's so much to sort out, it's taking longer than I wanted to take.

One thing that I am starting to sort out really fast is my YouTube Channel. At the moment, I'm hosting weekly live write-ins on Saturdays at 5 P.M. South African Time (which is 11 A.M. EST). So if you'd like to hang out with me and some writing buddies I made with Camp NaNoWriMo while getting some writing and editing done, head over here and subscribe and hit the notification bell. That way, you'll know the moment I go live. Speaking of Camp NaNoWriMo...

Prepping for Camp NaNoWriMo

As part of my momentum-building effort, I've signed up for July's Camp NaNo. I'm aiming to write 60k words next month, but starting at around 1k words a day and working my way up with small daily increments. The idea is that by the end of the month, I'll be above the 2.5k per day level.

So yeah. Big things are going on here. Pretty exciting, really. What about you? Do you have any major stuff going on as you're going after your goal?

Sunday, June 2, 2019

Update Day: Bringing the Madness Under Control


Friday was the last Friday of the month, which means it was time for Update Day. But I'm only posting now because my schedule hasn't really lightened up yet.

April was mad because of the massive job I got that had a deadline right around the end of the month. That went so well that the person who hired me in April hired me again in May. The job is a bit smaller, but its deadline was (you guessed it) on Friday. I had planned everything so that I could actually have time to write a post the way I'm supposed to, but the project kicked my butt in a MASSIVE way.

But here I am now. I've definitely made that decision I mentioned last time. It's actually a terrifying thing that I decided to do, but I know it's the right thing, which makes it exciting too. I'll be making the announcement next month because while I have a firm grip on what I'm doing, getting it done is going to take a lot of preparation... which is hard to do when you barely have time to take a proper breath.

I'll get there, though.

In other news, I did a large-scale overhaul of my lifestyle in May. This is part of my no-time problem, but I've decided to get a grip on my physical and mental health. I'm naming the two together because they're linked. I know I've been suffering from a LOT of stress, but I've been eating badly and skipping exercise, which made me sleep badly, which added to the stress.

So I just reached a point where I realized I had to sort that crap out. So now I'm eating healthier and walking more for exercise. Although it does cut into my schedule a bit (it's hard to be as productive while you're changing your diet), I'm really glad I did it. It's definitely helping me cope better and to think clearly about what it is that I'm doing.

Now the biggest thing for me for June is to keep to the healthy habits I'm building and to actually act on the decisions I've made this month. Wish me luck!

How are you doing?