January 25, 2012

Making Better Choices: ROW80 Check In

"Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any excuse to change any and every part of your life in an instant." Anthony Robbins

ROW80 Update

Writing: Have you joined a #ROW80 wordsprint? If not, try it out on Twitter. Weekdays starting at 2pm EST, ROW80 participants gather to write for a solid hour. Yesterday, I joined in late (2:40pm) and still managed to write 325 words, bringing my Sunday through Wednesday total wordcount to 1,436. Still below my 500 words a day goal, but I didn't write at all on Monday because my kids were home from school.

Blogging: Daily here and one post since Sunday on Mom in Love with Fiction. I love blogging and keeping the creative writing juices flowing, but I'm finding daily blogging stressful. I'm not one to shy away from a challenge, and I accepted two in January requiring daily posts.

In February, I'm going to give myself permission to post 4 times a week here. It's a less stressful goal for me, and I'm working on the Art of No per yesterday's post. A huge thanks to Charlie Damonsing who commented on my No post: When you say "No" to something you are saying "Yes" to something else. Amen! I may be saying No to daily blogging, but it's only because I want to say Yes to writing more on my WIP.

Reading: Finally back to it! I'm shooting for reading 50 pages a night until Sunday to see if it works to have a specific reading goal.

Editing: Behind on several projects, but it's my own fault. I set unrealistic expectations of myself. You know you are over-reaching when even the client is suggesting pushing deadlines off. Note to self: it's better to give realistic deadlines than to think you are impressing someone by giving a hurried date.

Exercise: Nothing Sunday, Zumba (with my six-year-old, too cute!) on Monday, and 3.5 miles yesterday. Not too bad. Finally reached my goal weight. Now comes the task of maintaining and not letting bad habits creep back in.

How's everyone doing with their goals so far?

If you haven't read Gene Lempp's ROW80 post this week, Harvesting Our Creative Potential, please do. It's a great reminder that forward progress is the goal. We, as writers, need to define what that means. It's not always about how many words we've logged in a week.

14 comments:

The Daring Novelist said...

Although I enjoy blogging a lot, I'm also doing only four posts a week (mostly -- I leave a little room for spontaneous posts).

It's good to limit your other activities while you try to get something done. (I still like blogging, though....)

Lisa Rose said...

I've been having issues keeping up with blogging, too, although you're doing much better than I am. I'm starting myself off at 3 times a week and we'll see from there.

Sounds like you're doing a fantastic job this round. Keep up the good work!

Wendy Jane said...

That's what I love about Row80. We can tweak our goals as we go and not feel bad about it. I know I wouldn't be able to do the daily blogging. I have plenty of ideas, but I just can't manage to sit still long enough. You've made amazing progress thus far. Keep up the good work. I hope to join in the next word sprint!

Natalie Hartford said...

Fantastic week Tia! Wow - you are kicking it. I've been meaning to join in the writing sprints in the evening but when I open the computer to write, I forget to open twitter (avoiding the distraction). Dang. I'll have to!
As for blogging, I hear you. I can't imagine blogging daily...I was doing 5 days a week and found that very hard to maintain so I went to 4 days a week and it's much more manageable!
Here's to saying YES to yourself more - love that btw!!

Juliana said...

Great week!
I would love to join the sprints, but it's exactly the time I go pick up my daughter at school =(
Blog everyday, or even 4 posts per week? That's too much for me.
It happened, yes, but I had some news then and such ... now I blog twice or 3 times per week.
Hope the rest of the week goes well!

Kate said...

Your blogger goal is waaaaay past mine. I try to make sure I get to it once a week. :)

Great work, keep it up!

Kelly. said...

Congratulations on reaching your goal weight! I have a long way to go and, it seems, not the right lifestyle to make much of an impact either. :(

I've made small changes so far: walking up to 3 miles when I'm working (I walk to the train station), making more home made, fresh foods, eating more fruit and veg. I can then work towards building on that. I'm the kind of person that if I cut everything out I'll end up slipping and then giving up entirely.

You're blog looks great! I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts (I will be subscribing).

Are you a professional editior? I definitely think realistic goals for other people are the best way to go. You can give yourself as many crazy goals as you like as long as it doesn't knock you back if you don't reach them.

Good luck with this week :D

http://kellycautillo.wordpress.com/

Anonymous said...

I don't think I could do daily posts either. I struggle to come up with something to say for just 2-3 check-in posts a week. I certainly admire your get-up-and-go! When it comes to deadlines, I always use the Scotty method (realistic amount time x 4). LOL. Sorry, geek coming out.

Tia Bach said...

A huge thanks to all of your thoughts on daily posting. I've really stretched myself to do it, but I've been posting daily since 10/1, and I need a breather. I think most readers don't really expect daily.

Em said...

Firstly well done on reaching your goal weight! Good luck with the maintaining....I hope to be maintaining one day rather than trying to lose but that is another story!

I am so glad you enjoyed the sprint. I am only managing 30 mins of them when I am around at the right time but I get so much done. Hope to see you sprinting sometime soon!

Ruth Nestvold said...

Yeah, love the wordsprints! But at the moment, the writing task at hand is editing. Although I guess for the fun of community I could join in and post pages edited rather than words. :)

Wow, four posts a week! I try to do two, and it's often I don't even get those done.

Good luck on your goals and have a great weekend!

Tia Bach said...

Em, In some ways the maintaining is harder for me. When I'm losing, I'm focused, determined. I tend to slide back into my old ways during the maintaining phase. Wish me luck!

Ruth, Definitely join us for the encouragement and edit away!

amy kennedy said...

I think you're doing so well on balancing -- or seeing what's not working and changing it. The maintaining, I so get.

I don't know how to get past that either. Except, I never really thought about it, until I read it in your post -- so maybe just being aware of it, might help me.

Tia Bach said...

Amy, Wishing you luck. I feel like ROW80 is writer therapy. I put it out there and in the process, kind of figure it out!