Way Too Much To Do

An amazing thing has happened to writers in this new world of publishing. We are all busy. Extremely busy, with to-do lists that stretch beyond any reality at times.

I love this new aspect of writing and publishing. Completely love it.

Why? Because it means I am in control. I have the control over all aspects of my writing and publishing.

And I have accepted that control. (Amazing how many writers don’t accept the control.)

Have you ever noticed in the real world that the person in control of something is usually the busiest person? I personally would rather be the person in control of my writing and publishing than a person sitting around waiting for someone else to do something.

Yet millions of writers still today wait for a response from some agent, or wait for money or a contract or publication from a publisher. I know the feeling, I did it for decades and honestly, since it was the only game in town, I focused on what I could control and ignored what I couldn’t.

But now I control my writing, how much or how little I do. I control the path of publication, the level of quality, the amount of promotion.

Yes, with my writing, I am a control freak and all of you should be as well.

But in this modern world, that control brings with it long to-do lists, usually created after learning something new. This last week at the master business class here on the coast, I learned a ton and have a very, very long to-do list. And I heard that same thing from all the writers attending.

So how to handle long to-do lists when you want to do everything on the list but there just isn’t enough time in the day over the next five months to even try to clear the list?

Prioritize the list, of course. And break it up into smaller lists.

Here, starting on Tuesday, is how I am going to prioritize my to-do list into general categories.

1… Writing new words comes first. The craziness of the last few months has now passed and I will be getting back to the writing. So production is first. New books, new stories.

2… Streamlining production. For me this will have a lot to do with what is happening at WMG Publishing. But basically it is making sure the production has a path to publication simply and cleanly, with a bunch of the new stuff I have learned implemented.

This has a bunch of numbers on my to-do list under it.

3… Focus on this web site. I got step one on my list done, clearing some clutter. Now I will be focusing on the links to books and finishing up all the book pages. That will include cleaning up the Smith’s Monthly page. And other things here such as Facebook pixels and so on. But first this house has to be in order.

This also has a bunch of numbers on my to-do list.

4… Focus on some new products. This will include bundles of my novels and so on, to help readers find my series. Also a focus on reading order catalogs for my work.

This also has a bunch of numbers on my to-do list.

5… Relaunch Poker Boy. More on this later. Been working on it for over a year now. Almost ready.

6… Clean up and move online workshops. More on this later. No worries, they will not be going away, just getting easier to access.

You get the idea. A ton of stuff to do, some from before the last workshop, other stuff from the master business class.

But what I was trying to point out here is that I have control and to get a handle on the huge list I divided the list into categories that were easier to focus on. So six major areas, with shorter to-do lists under each category.

Just looks better. (grin)

And has less stress which lets me have more fun and stay focused on the first area of my big list, writing new work.

Just a suggestion on how to control your own to-do list. Figure what works for you and then accept the control and go have fun.

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