We all think we need more time, as our days rush by in a round of busy-ness often at the back of our minds is the dream,the ONE DAY project.
Maybe its something as simple as taking a class, or something more complicated like building a boat,or writing a book.
It’s there in our minds, yet we never find that chunk of time to actually start.
As part of my daily routine I’ve been writing in a journal for a couple of years, two or three pages written while I sip my morning cuppa.Initially I just wrote what was on my mind until one day I wrote INTENTIONS at the foot of the page.
There I listed what I wanted to do that day, often things to do with writing or creativity.If they were there the next day I transferred them to the next day’s page. It showed me how little time I spent on what was to me so important I paid more attention and used my time better,so if I only had ten minutes, I’d begin to write something in ten minutes.
At New Year I took it one step further, I thought about what I wanted to achieve with my writing and set out a list of realistic but slightly challenging goals. I wrote them out and stuck the list by my desk, where I would see it daily. I called it
MY YEARLY INTENTIONS
I ended up with a list of nine items some were simple, like joining Romance Writers of Australia. While other required more effort from me ,such as completing a novella of around33,500 words.
Perhaps you’ve guessed that one of those intentions was to start a blog?
It’s almost mid-point of the year and so far I have completed five of the nine items on my list.
The things that made it work for me were.
Having a mix of easy and more difficult things
All were slightly challenging but achievable I hadn’t for example put write a best seller on the list
They were things I actually wanted to do but hadn’t got round to doing.
Seeing them daily as I sat at my desk encouraged me towork to achieve them.
Maybe its time for you to write your own list of intentions?
Make it specific and give yourself a mix of tasks that you think might work for you.
Sonia, I enjoyed this, before I turned my computer on, I was updating my
to do list. I didn’t buy a diary this year and a have tear off daily system which
works quite well. I’ve become more disciplined and get real satisfaction from
ticking things off. I used to think that kind of thing was for goody goodies,
more fool me. To your achievements…
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Thanks Leslie- somehow the idea of a list seemed anti-creative, Instead the opposite has proved true- getting those ideas out of my head and on paper staring at me each time I sat down to write seemed to do the trick. Obviously its working for you too!
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