Accountability - Forward, March!

Last week I was able to teach a lesson on Time Management at ACFW's stay-at-home conference, hosted by Karin Beery and Tiffany Coulter. I kept chuckling over the fact that I was teaching such a class because lately, I have had NO time. But life comes in seasons, and this season happens to have me on the road. A lot.

One of the points I made in the Time Management lesson is the importance of having an accountability group and the difference it's made in my life. Before becoming part of that small group, I often felt like I was climbing more solo than I actually was.  The accountability group provided not just accountability, but support, too.

I've often toyed with starting an accountability group open to others and finally did. It's called Forward, March! It's based on what we do in the very small group Joanne and I are part of, and I asked Joanne to join me to help get the group up and running.

Here's what we do in Forward, March!:

• Every Friday evening a roll call is sent out and each member is to send in their goals for the upcoming week.
• These are goals related to the business of writing... Word count, research, edits, platform building. Anything that relates to the overall big picture of the business of writing.
• Each weekend, in the same email, the members report in, specifically, in detail, how they did on the goals they set for the week that just finished.
• These are usually bullet point lists, making it easy to account for.
• Brevity is encouraged. LoL, not that we always make this one. ;-)

In the years I've been part of this small group, I've accomplished much more than I  would have otherwise. Our goals lists and reports keep us self-motivated, and for those times when we need "encouragement" to get moving, someone is there with the fabled wet noodle. In fact, it came out this week, and a deadline was set. Joanne said (not to me this time! phew!) "I'll be emailing on Wednesday to see if you did this!" You can be assured, follow up will happen on Wednesday. LoL. Kind prodding does wonders!

The value of an accountability group is the multifaceted. 

• There's support, friendship, and wet noodles to prod you onward. There's also a record for you to see, and thus evaluate, of your habits.  
• It helps you spot the time sinks and how long you've been procrastinating on a certain thing.
• As people in the group make forward progress...as YOU make forward progress, momentum is built, which will encourage you and others in the group. It's a synergistic effect.

YOU can be a part of this!  =)

If you would like to join a writer's accountability group, go to Forward, March! and request membership. Let me know where you heard about this group and what you write (just because I'm curious! *grin*).

We would love to have you join us!!

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Group and Capture

Something that I've found that helps increase my productivity is grouping my work. I do my best to not write just one post. Instead, I write at least two, preferably three, while my mind is in that gear. For more about grouping, check out Time Managemet Ala Patty.

The next natural step in that equation for me is to capture my post ideas when they spring up--that means while I'm working on the first post, often another idea comes to mind. Rather than trust my memory (which never works any more!!) and rather than reach for a note card or post-it, now I immediately open a new post window and capture that idea before it flies the coop. Then, as I work, I can seamlessly flow between the posts, adding things as I think about them. Rather than go to CBD or Amazon three separate times, I'll go once and get the info I need for all three posts in one stop. Rather than look for pictures for one post, I'm looking for two or three.

It may take a few minutes longer to get one post done, but when it's done, I usually have another post well on the way, if not two additional posts under way. The extra 10 or 15 minutes I spend capturing ideas and jotting things in the post text box and pasting things in, save me an hour.

I like those margins!

The side benefit of capturing the idea on my dashboard is that I have fewer abandoned ideas floating around in my files. How many times have I started posts, worked on them but then when I had to restart my computer, neglected to bring them back up? Many, many times. And if they're out of sight, they're out of mind. On my dashboard, they're easy to spot and with the 'clippings' I drop in the post, as I think of them, it makes it that much easier to pick it up and finish the article so I can use it. It makes for much less wasted time and effort!

Tip: When I do this, one of the very first things I do is change the posting date! If I know when I want the article to post, I'll plug in that date, otherwise I set the date a month away or whatever the date is where I have other posts in a holding pattern.

I think of my dashboard as a staging area. It's not uncommon to have several projects in the works at any given time, and that gives me room to work on each, without crowding my desk or my brain. It frees me to forget things once they're captured.

Don't tell my friends--but some posts I'm writing directly in the post text box. Something I'm known for warning people away from because Blogger... burps ...every now and then and eats posts. But, if I "write in the box", I have a document open that I can paste my post copy into, for filing and safe keeping.

BUT, not all my post get written directly in the post text box. *shiver* The thought gives me the heebie-jeebies!! Blogger is a wonderful tool, but you need to keep your posts on file as Word documents. Too many things can go wrong online and things can be vaporized instantly. Keep your posts in your own files and keep them indexed.

So tell me, does working on a post spark ideas for other posts for you?

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Maintaining Momentum

Okay, this last week, as I've been thinking about my system of doing things, I realized I forgot a couple of huge components. I also realized that this mini-series has helped me see the things I'm doing that work, what doesn't work, and also the things I could do to make things work better. As a result, I took a day or two and did some major organizing here online and on my computer and it should help me tremendously. *grin* It already has.

So, thank you for humoring me and helping me see things more clearly. =)

Here are some other things that really help my productivity level—they all fall into the category of accountability.

First: In the comments on Time Management Ala Patty, Joanne mentioned the note we send each other every night. It's simply an accountability note of what we accomplished that day and our writing related plans for the next day. The note often includes more, but those are the “required” items. So that provides daily accountability for us.

Second: Over a year ago I joined a small group set up to help provide accountability in our writing goals. It's a yahoo group and every Friday night a Roll Call email is scheduled to go out automatically. Usually it's on Saturday that we email in to the group with two lists: our goals for the past week and how we did on each item and another list of our goals for the upcoming week. These are bullet point lists with measurable goals, and we do measure.

Some weeks every item on our goals list is followed by no. LoL, or nope or a variety of other negative responses, and we can get creative because it's really depressing to write NO on five out of five goals. Thankfully, other weeks there's more cheering than nopes on there. Those simple weekly lists keeps us on target. Progress is progress, no matter how small the steps are. Little things add up over time and we've accomplished far more since we started reporting in than we did before.

Sure, some weeks come when life explodes and all hope of progress is blown to smithereens. Some weeks our accountability group resembles a prayer group, and that's good. We cheer each other on, pray each other on and cry on each other's shoulders. Through it all, we encourage—even when we're wielding the fabled wet noodle. And yes, we do pull that out on occasion. It's part of holding each other accountable even as we encourage.

Third: The private yahoo group I have. I'm the only member of this group and there are two purposes for it. One, to act as an off-site storage for a few items, making it so if my computer crashes (banish the thought!) I haven't lost all my work. Two, to act as a reminder system for me. Yahoo groups have a calendar feature that you can schedule email reminders, and I need them.

Here are some of the things I have reminders set for:

• the due dates for the four sites I write for
• chores I have for the sites I own/manage, including backing up those sites
• changing the filter on the AC/furnace (LoL, and other such household things I tend to forget)
• to back up my manuscripts and the spreadsheet I use as a master index for EVERYthing

Without this reminder system I tend to forget many things—I am a very forgetful person, just ask my husband and kids. Yes, I have a daytimer, but to be honest, weeks sometimes go by with me forgetting to look at it, so the automatic email reminders are a lifesaver. It's worth the hour it took me to get the dates entered—many times over.

The key for me has been accountability and a system to be reminded. It's taken me time to find a system that works for me, but right now, this is what I do.

So tell me, what are some of your tricks that keep you productive?

The first two posts in this mini-series:
Time Management Ala Patty
Treasure Hunting Marathon

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Treasure Hunting Marathon

Another thought to tack onto Thursday's post on Time Management ala Patty, and it applies to any goal you have, not just writing...

If you're relatively new to this writing thing, remember it's a marathon and you can't sprint a marathon. Trying to burns you out long before the finish line is in sight. Use these first years (yes, years is plural) to lay a foundation, to practice, to make contacts, to build your platform, and to build your endurance muscles.

How do you
eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.

If you have young children at home, realize it might take a little longer because you're a wife and mom first, writer second. The two combine well, but you have to keep the writing balanced. If the writing outweighs the family, you probably won't like the end results.

When I first started writing I knew it would take time so I set a realistic goal for my writing. LoL, I was so... scared and lacking confidence that the goal gave plenty of leeway. With the goal in place, I studied what I needed to do to get me from where I was then (homeschool mom of 5 with a platform of maybe 15 people, techno-challenged, and scared silly) to where I wanted to be. Then I started working in the cracks of my mom-day. Baby steps. A little here and a little there add up.

The reasoning that kept me going:
These are years for preparing. Invest them wisely.

You don't want to race to the finish line only to discover that it wasn't just a race, but that it was a treasure hunt and you don't have any of the things you need. Take the time to hunt out that treasure so when you reach the finish line your goodie bag is brimming with things you've gathered on your journey.

This doesn't apply just to writing—it fits for any long term goals you may have. Life is a treasure hunting marathon.


So tell me, what are some goodies in your bag? Found any treasure lately?

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Time Management ala Patty

Since I get this question fairly often, I thought I'd answer here...
How do you keep up with everything you do?

(Must read this with a frazzled voice!!) First, please understand that I don’t keep up with everything. I really don’t. =( My house is perpetually messy—but with 7 of us still here I settle for that excuse. My kids are to the ages where my mom-job is much less constant hands-on, meaning it’s more supervising. My youngest will be 10 next month and my oldest is 18, so although things are crazy, it’s a different crazy than it used to be. Even the homeschooling is down to routine. I have lesson assignments from when the older kids went through, and I simply recycle them for the younger two. *eye roll*

That said, here's how I juggle the things I do:
Blog commenting. I no longer do a lot of commenting on blogs. While Joanne faithfully uses her Google reader for keeping up, that tool gives me nightmares, so I utilize the email subscriptions people offer. Posts arrive in my inbox, I skim them and if they catch my attention, I stop by and leave a comment. There are a few sites I've resolved to “be present” on and I comment a few times a week. Key word in that sentence: FEW. It's not enough, but I'm gradually getting better again.

Spreadsheets. I have spreadsheets to keep my sanity, and I use them. Religiously. In my master spreadsheet I have 11 tabs. And that's not anything for my WIPs. This set of sheets contain an index of all my writing, broken down into a couple categories for:

Fiction (short stories), Devotionals, and Marriage.

(I index my writing so I have easy access to it and can recycle my posts.) There are tabs for posting schedules of the 4 sites I either own or co-own, and for the online class I teach.

This spreadsheet stays in my tray and I access it several times a day. At least. I also send it to the private yahoo group I created to act as a back-up site because if I lose that sheet, I'm peanut butter.

Aside from that spreadsheet, the thing that helps me the most is how I chunk and group.

Chunks of time work best for me—granted, that chunk of time may be divided into 5 sessions throughout the day as I oversee and direct things here at home, but usually I can string enough bits of time together to create a chunk.

Grouping turned out to be a life saver for me! I write monthly for At the Well, the Internet Cafe, and Jewels of Encouragement, and bi-monthly for The Barn Door. That's a minimum of 5 posts a month, plus any guest posting I might do. I felt like my head was constantly in a noose. Not a warm fuzzy feeling at all. One day, working on an At the Well post, I had an idea for another post for them (they assign the topic each month) so I checked my calendar and saw it would fit for a different month. I took about a day-and-a-half and put together six months of posts for that site. Then I listed the months I had yet to do for this calendar year, jotted down my ideas for those posts and moved on to my next group. By the end of the week I had not only pitched that noose out the window, but I had accomplished a huge amount. Last weekend, rather than putting up one Jewels of Encouragement post, I did two. I would've done more but I had to run out the door to church.

While my mind is focused on a particular site and their unique audience, I do a minimum of two posts at a time, preferably more. Then I can let my mind move on to another area.

The same thing with the non-blog things—I group them together. I'll take a day or two and update lessons or work on the scheduling and interviews at The Book Loft or doing all the little odds and ends at the sites. It helps save my sanity.

Relaxing time is spent sorting pictures, resizing them, adding watermarks and uploading them, or I'll work on new blog designs or hunt for things online. The only TV my family watches are movies and if I've seen the movie, I carry my computer to my chair and work on things I don't need concentration for. Occasionally I crash, doing nothing, but not often.

This is simply what's working for me at the moment.

So tell me, what are some tricks that help save your sanity?

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