This blog is for those writers who are having a tough time staying on track when it comes to scheduling their deadlines, marketing, etc.
Strangely enough, despite being a die-hard plotter, I am much closer to a “pantser” when it comes to my time management.
There are core things that I need to happen. Contract deadlines. Launch months. Any kind of advertising or regular social media. Client appointments.
None of that takes into account semi-regular items like my kid’s schedule, or regular house admin (shopping, meal planning, etc.)
Why can’t I “plot” my time?
Believe me, I asked myself that. I went through Sarra Cannon’s Heart Breathings 90 course, which I still recommend. The biggest takeaway from the course was thinking about how to truly gauge how long a project would take.
Unfortunately, there were two problems with the approach, for me specifically.
My brain wouldn’t play nice with my schedule.
I’m both ADHD (diagnosed and medcated) and Bipolar 2 (again, diagnosed and medicated.)
What I have learned in the years wrestling with both these things is, I am not going to be able to block out hours on a day planner and stick to them. That is, I will be able to for a while, and then… I won’t.
If you have any sort of neuroatypical/neurodivergent condition, this probably sounds pretty familiar. (Note: I am working on doing some sort of “if you’re neurospicy” time management for writers, if there’s any interest?)
So I’d come up with a grand plan of just how much I’d accomplish in a quarter, the building block of the HB90 scheduling plan. Then I’d stumble somewhere around week 3, and then collapse, unable to wrap my brain around how to recalibrate my plan and how to catch up.
STUFF. (Like, a ridiculous amount of stuff.)
A disproportionate amount of stuff hit, nearly all at once.
Some of it was very positive: conferences I’d never attended before. Writing opportunities. Teaching opportunities.
Some of it was negative, though. Death in the family. Sicknesses that picked up speed unexpectedly. Family coordination. Dealing with the unforeseen (and certainly unscheduled.)
Just this last weekend, I had been in San Diego, visiting my ill mother. I’d cancelled a conference in anticipation of this advancing development. On the day I was scheduled to leave, they announced the unheard of hurricane advancing towards us.
My son and I managed to get out (on a long delay) only to return to wildfires in my home state, just south of our airport.
Like I said. STUFF. This was not on my bingo card!
Buffer is everything.
I discovered that, especially as you’re getting your legs under you, you need to look at how long you think it’s going to take you to write something.
Odds are good you’re going to project a timeframe that you could do… if everything was perfect. If you were able to focus on it, perhaps exclusively, with full family support, tip-top health, and pure joy about your story idea.
What I would then suggest you do is take that time frame, then double it.
Then, if you haven’t written and completed at least five books, double it again.
That is your real timeframe. Because I promise you, nothing is going to be perfect, and if you try to press yourself into the tiny box of a too-tight deadline, you’re going to not only blow past it, you’re going to train your brain to believing you’re a failure.
“But I like pressure. I can hit the deadline. I always do.”
I can already sense some of you making this argument. True, these are just my recommendations, and if it works for you, disregard. As with any advice, especially mine, you have to check in with your gut and use your best judgment.
But I can say from both personal experience and working with clients in burnout: using deadline pressure and then pushing yourself to the limits is a short term solution. After a point, your body simply will not allow you to keep doing it. Something’s going to give, whether that’s your wrists in carpal tunnel, your mind in an unexpected block… or you’re simply going to find yourself in a situation you can’t all-nighter your way out of.
That’s a hard wall to crash into, one possibility you ignore at your peril.
“How am I supposed to make a living?”
This is the other time management red flag I’ve noticed.
People set deadlines not based on their realistic capability with additional buffer, but based on what they feel they must do in order to make the income they need. “I’m not going to make six figures a year unless I publish at least a book every quarter, and even that’s slow!”
I understand this creeping sense of desperation. If you’re trying to get out of a day job situation, the struggle can be torturous. If you’re actually relying on writing to provide your income, it can be absolutely terrifying.
However, your desperation and need does not change the foundation of the situation. No matter how you want or need to hit a super-tight deadline, if you find yourself continually falling behind, that’s not helping your situation at all. Likewise if you’re making yourself ill or injured
Which means either you adjust your expectations and develop a slow-build strategy or even pursue the crapshoot of traditional (this is if you already have a day job or other source of income) OR you find a fallback day job… because while writing is an art, selling is not only a business, it’s a highly speculative one at that. Like poker with three act structure.
You might also look at how you can approach things in a different way. Offering different formats, for example, of existing work (audio, for example, or if you have the money, translations.) You can set up a Patreon account. You can have merch created. There are other options to consider. You’ll need to schedule time to develop them too, obviously, but you’re looking at overall goals.
What works for you?
Ask yourself what you want, and why you want it. (Yes, I say this all the time. See the personal GMC newsletter!)
Then realistically set the writing goals, with plenty of buffer. If you can finish early, great. You’ll get better at forecasting as you track and the longer you’re in the business. But anticipate that stuff is going to happen, and make space for it.
Also, make space for self-care! That’s just as crucial, and it’s going to make all the other things you want to do — writing, marketing, etc. — that much easier.