Once a month writers from across the land gather to share our hopes, dreams, and
terrors. Join us!
For my entire writing career, I have worked a full-time day
job alongside my almost full-time writing job.
That ends Dec 30th, 2020.
I’ve taken an early
retirement buyout from the day job and will be working full-time as a writer
starting Jan 2, 2021 (yeah, need a few days to recover š).
Now this doesn’t mean I’m retiring retiring…more like a
graduation to full time writer (and since the day job was at a college—graduation
is fitting).
I am very motivated and love telling stories. I’m also
extremely lazy. LOL. This means I need a schedule in place to reach my goals.
Here’s what I have so far:
· 1) Work five days a week, 40 hours. The days off
can fluctuate, but they need to be there to keep me working during those 40
hours.
· 2) First month, keep a spreadsheet of time in, time
out, lunch, and results for the day. I haven’t had to clock in for probably 20
years—so this will be odd. BUT again, building the habit of a regular workday.
· 3) See above—make sure to LEAVE the desk for lunch
time.
· 4) Building my daily word count to what I want to
be hitting regularly. Each week in January the daily goals increase. Obviously,
if I have a project in editing, the word count will differ.
· 5) Daily walks and stretching. Getting outside in
the yard for part of lunch.
· 6) Focus on setting up my office and the rest of
the house in such a way that it keeps me working.
· 7) Naps if needed. This was suggested on another
group and I like it.
· 8) Find other creative outlets. At a writing conference last year there was a
great panel on writer burn out. One of the things brought up was that when your
“creative outlet” aka writing, becomes your primary job, it loses ability
to relax you. The former stress reliever is now a stressor. You’re still being
creative—obviously—but the psychological assist it can give is reduced. Soooo, cooking, coloring, who knows maybe knitting, will come into my life.
· 9) Holidays are mostly days off. I reserve the right
to work during part of a holiday if I’m on a deadline.
· 10) Spreadsheet the heck out of my book release
plan.
· 11) Social media and marketing will be broken up so
each of the five days has a portion of it assigned to them.
That’s what I have so far—any of you full-time, self-employed
folks have additional things that work?
Happy Insecure Writing Day!!
