Drawing from the Well
Queries Sent: 1
Total Queries: 23
Rejections: 3
Scenes Mapped: 0
Total Scenes: 282
I don’t know why, but it took me FOREVER to send this one query yesterday. I went down a rabbit hole researching one agency and ended up abandoning it because I couldn’t figure out if any of their agents represented adult fantasy. Then I had to start over with the next agent on my list. That one I queried so hooray. But it had been an hour and a half by that point, it was after 10pm, and I was tired, so I abandoned all thought of mapping more scenes. I guess that’s okay since the bigger chore right now is finding representation, but still I would have liked to keep laying out the sequel. Maybe today…
Filling the Well
1984: 77%
Bloodwitch: 14%
Finally got some reading on Bloodwitch in yesterday. It’s going to be a long read. It’s a long book and there’s a lot of setup. Susan Dennard is a domino master so you spend at least half of the book watching her slam dominoes into place wondering where its going even as the journey is interesting and often exciting. Then you hit a tipping point and the dominoes start to fall and coalesce into an eventual climax that makes the entire picture fall into place. It’s just work to get there. And it’s not on the level of George R.R. Martin either. Reading A Song of Ice and Fire is like wandering through the forest asking “Where the hell am I going?!?” until you emerge on to a bloody, fiery battlefield and say “Ah ha! THIS is where I was headed the whole time.”
Polishing the Well
Yesterday my wife finished off all the trim work in our dining room and the floor was installed the day before so the room is really coming together. Next, furniture!
Well Chat
Prioritization Tactics
I have recently found that prioritizing competing goals is the only way I get anything done. Paralysis of choice is a real thing (look it up) so finding ways for me to remove choice and follow a predetermined path of tasks makes me more productive. Here’s how I do it.
First off, I figure out all the things I want to get done in a day. Right now, it looks something like this (in no particular order):
- Get the kids to school
- Work
- Eat
- Read
- Write Book
- Write Blog
- Spend time with my wife
- Catch up on shows
- Catch up on YouTube
- Clean the house
- Shower?
You can see how it can quickly become confusing which of these is my highest priority. Part of priorities is routine. Routine helps remove some of these priorities because they are what I would call “have-to’s” to my kids. These are things that have to happen and have to happen at a particular time each day. Work and taking my kids to school are right on that list. So those are at prescribed times, fine. But there’s still a lot left.
One tactic I use is simultaneous accomplishment. I don’t stop for meals while I’m working, I eat at my desk. Granted, I work at home so this is not an option for everyone. If you HAVE to take a meal away, read, listen to an audiobook, watch a show, or listen to a podcast while you do it. Or, if you’re really ambitious, take a laptop to work and pop it open on your lunch break while you munch. I listen to my YouTube playlist or an audiobook while I drive. Any time you can tackle two items on your list at once, do it!
Then there’s finding pockets of time in your day to accomplish things where you would normally just blow the time on meaningless things like scrolling Facebook or playing phone games (guilty of both). One of the gaps in my day that I have capitalized on, and have spoken about numerous times, is between returning from dropping my son off at school and leaving to drop off my daughter. There’s a 30-minute gap every day. That’s when I write my blog.
Now you may be saying, “But Brian, how do I know which tasks I should work on simultaneously or in time pockets?” Great question! That’s where the title of this blog comes in (by now, I’m sure you were wondering). For simultaneous tasks, I always pick low priorities because if I don’t get a chance to get to them, it’s not a big deal. Plus, doing them simultaneously is typically only feasible with low-priority tasks based on the nature of the task, but it IS the task’s NATURE that matters most. You can’t read a book AND write a book simultaneously. You can’t create and consume at the same time; they’re different neural pathways and trying will make both efforts suffer.
As for capitalizing on time pockets, you have to determine the best tasks based on 1) their importance and 2) their likelihood of otherwise being completed. What do I mean? Certain tasks are hard to complete during the hustle and bustle of the day unless you make specific time for them. Yeah, I’m talking about writing. It’s a concentrated-effort task and it’s damn near impossible to do a good job when you are trying to keep up with TV and kids all at the same time. For me, at least, writing is best done when it’s quiet. On top of that, writing is VERY important to me. It is part of who and what I am. Because it is vitally important to me and I will otherwise have a poor chance of getting any done, it’s a prime candidate for completion during the day’s time pockets. Thus, I steal time for it.
And that’s how I prioritize my tasks. I listen to books and videos while I work. I eat while I work. I blog between school chauffeur duties. I steal time to write. I watch shows with my wife and serve her in the process with foot rubs and general doting. What’s left?
Oh yeah, showering. Well, nobody’s perfect.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG