It’s the beginning of yet another week in our continuing journey to become successful entrepreneurial writers. Organization is a key aspect to being a writer. I know that those that like to work surrounded by clutter and confusion will disagree with this statement but no good work can be done in chaos. Even people who claim to love chaos have some organization to their clutter. Here are a few tips to get your week started on how you can get organized and (hopefully) stay that way.
- Keep Your To-Do Lists Short and Sweet—I am notorious for starting a to-do list only intended to be a few items long but then somehow ends up being about twenty items long. Well Ms. L. provided me with a tip the other day that is so appreciated that I had to share. She suggested making a list with only five items on it (stop at five) of the most important tasks needed to be done. If more items pop up in your mind then just begin a new list that will get addressed either when the first list is completed or the next day. Five items to a list, it’s short and it’s simple, and also manageable.
- Keep a Clean Writing Space—This may sound like it has nothing to do with actually producing good writing but I believe that it does. When there’s nothing but clutter around you how can you possibly produce good work. If you clean the area your writing in I think it will make it more conducive to write your next great piece of work.
- Set a Time Frame to Accomplish Your Task—It is good to have a deadline for when your projects should be completed. Having an unlimited time frame gives you to much of a reason not to complete the task and the deadline will give you something to aim for and less time to procrastinate.
- Work on Minimizing the Distractions Around You—If you are a person who checks their email ten times a day and who networks on social media (hopefully you’re networking more than socializing), or who has their specific television shows that they just can not miss, then you are not going to suddenly become the polar opposite. However, you can work to minimize those distractions that are keeping you from doing your work. If you know that your novel isn’t getting worked on because you can’t part from you favorite TV program, then you know what you need to do to make that happen. I myself am drawn to watching my soap opera’s when I should be writing so recently I decided to just DVR the soap opera’s to watch later so I can write when I’m supposed to be writing.
These are just a few things that I try to remember to help me to stay more organized and also more focused on my writing and on the ventures that I want to pursue within my writing. I hope that at least one of these suggestions strikes a chord with you and that you can implement in your writing efforts.
Jimmetta Carpenter
Writer/Editor
The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)
Writing as “Jaycee Durant”
http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310
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