Tweak It 1/19 -25: Monday – post blog, talk to accountant; Tuesday – write listserv draft; Wednesday – no computer; Thursday, brainstorm names, read book, blog draft; Friday – research. Success rate 50%
Review and Revise: if I have a friend over for dinner and we drink a bottle of wine, I probably won’t do the tasks I outlined for that day (Thursday). Going forward I’ll try to schedule tweaks so they don’t conflict with social events.
Optimism is great. So is leniency
You have ambition and optimism in spades. Good. But you will never get everything done. There is always more. So aim high and get comfortable knowing that things change and you can roll with it. There are two ways to handle this:
- Schedule your whole day, know that you will not achieve it all, and move on. What’s important floats to the top, so be satisfied with what you did and move the rest to later.
- Schedule regular periods of nothing. Use those times to recharge, connect with people, or catch up. If a booked schedule makes you feel frantic and skipping things like a failure, this is for you. Speaking of which:
Not Guilty
A possible side effect of <100% success is guilt. Guilt is boring and unproductive and yet is rampant. Accountability is important, but guilt is a bad motivator: you either do something unplanned and spend the time feeling bad about it (not fun), or you force yourself to do as planned but feel resentful and beleaguered (not fun). If you want to watch Inception after working for ten hours, do so de buena gana – with gusto. Don’t spend that time self flagellating because you’re not crossing things off your list.
Diversify your tweaks
My list this week includes finishing The Blind Assassin, brainstorming ideas for a business, tallying January finances, and sending pitch emails. Tasks are more interesting when they contrast each other. If Tuesday you have to write proposals after work, it’s nice if Wednesday all you have to do is finish a novel. Variety makes your workload sustainable.
This week: Monday – write, email Pam, type up notes; Tuesday – write, send pitch, tally rent and groceries; Wednesday – no computer, finish Assassin; Thursday, write, send silent auction info; Friday – write, research.
Daily practices:
- Check calendar in the morning. Can I do any tweaks before breakfast? Keep tweaks in mind and accommodate my schedule to include them.
- Write for one hour. Writing is a priority which I want to become a practice.
Thanks for reading! Have you Tweaked It?
