I didn't call these goals or resolutions. They're just a list of things I wanted to focus on this year.
VERY BRIEF JANUARY RECAP
(1) Regain energy and muscle mass lost when sick in 2023. Still working on it. Added Yoga to my walking and weight lifting his month.
(2) Workout in the morning within thirty minutes of waking up. I still haven't managed to get up before 8:30 so I'm going to start setting an alarm 5 minutes earlier every three days until I reach my goal wake-up time.
(3) Return to my previous Monday through Friday office schedule, starting at 8:00AM and ending at 5:00PM. Agh! I am struggling here. Every week, it seems like there are out of the ordinary incidents that suck away my time and leave me frustrated. I just read about the IF-THEN theory which I'm going to try. More on that later.
VERY BRIEF MARCH RECAP
(4) Make a decision about Kindle Vella. The data didn't support this return on time invested. I got the rights back on my Vellas but haven't completed editing and formatting for publishing yet. Again, the time suck that seems to be my life this year.
(5) Be more active on social media. I'm doing more of it, but I'm not consistent so that needs work.
3RD QUARTER UPDATE
(7) Finishing uploading all books "wide" on Draft2Digital.
(8) Finish edit on Good Girl Conspiracy. (Wrote it last year but I wasn't happy with it)
(9) Format the last traditionally published novel for publication in August.
(10) Finish the window treatments on the rest of the windows in our home in town.
(11) Write the next 3 short stories for A Moment in Time series.
MY IF-THEN PLAN
Since there have been so many unexpected events as well as emergencies, storms that knock out the power, and other frustrations, I developed an If-THEN plan. It works like this.
(1) If the electricity goes off, then I will work on the short stories using my AlphaSmart and upload what I've written when power is restored.
(2) If I'm called away on an emergency, I'll take my AlphaSmart with me to draft blog posts, chapter novels, or plotting notes.
(3) If I'm physically tired from traveling and don't feel like writing, then I'll jot down ideas for book covers, marketing graphics, and other things that require imagination but not a lot of energy.
Get it? You make a plan for the curve balls life throws at you so you'll know what to do when you can't do something the way you'd planned.
TAKEAWAY TRUTH
The real takeaway from this post is this: Make an If-Then plan for yourself. It'll keep you focused and productive rather than frustrated and overwhelmed.
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