A Writer's Confession - Back to 1, 3, 5

I'll be honest. Much of September and October were non-events. It seems as if every new day brought a new distraction that required my time and attention.

I was away from the office days at a stretch to deal with everything from medical problems for one of my kids to feral hogs running free and tearing up the ground around our country home.

The only things I really accomplished were redesigning several book covers, moving all of my novels back to Kindle Unlimited, and learning as much as possible about Facebook ads which I plan to implement since I'm back in the office.

SOMETIMES LETTING GO IS THE BEST PLAN

With 5 novels completed in the last 18 months, I still have none of them finalized for publishing. Time seemed to slip away like sand sifting through my fingers at the beach. I finally realized my problem to a great extend is linear thinking and acting. It's as if I can't move forward if I have something that needs to be completed.

That incomplete thing hanging over me like a vulture was the book I wrote that was to be Book 2 of a planned series that began with Old Enough to Know Better—a book and characters I loved. I made an executive decision to set that unpublished manuscript aside because I finally admitted to myself that the reason I kept procrastinating on that final edit was that I'd lost my enthusiasm for the series.  

I may come back to it in the future, but I decided to remove the series concept from Old Enough to Know Better and just call it a stand alone for now. Letting go of that unpublished manuscript took away the pressure and guilt I felt about it.

Ironically, I heard that old Kenny Rogers song, The Gambler, yesterday on a YouTube video. 

When he sang about knowing when to hold 'em and knowing when to fold 'em, I had to laugh because that's exactly what I'd done with that unpublished novel.

PLAN FOR PROGRESS

I realized the first thing I needed to do was get back to basics in order to move forward. I returned to my 1, 3, 5 Plan that I'd been following since 2020. I've blogged about this way of achieving your highest priority items before. Here are the past posts if you'd like to check them out, followed by a quick summary of this simple method.

Simplify with 1, 3, 5 List Method

79 Days of Using 1, 3, 5 List

Update on 1, 3, 5 List Method for Achievement

3 Rules of 1-3-5 List Method

#1. Write down 1 big awesome task.

This is your priority item. This is what you say you really want to do, but you don't seem to be making any progress on it.

You know what it is even though you may think you have 5-10 priority items to accomplish today. Be honest. What's the most important thing you need to do to achieve your most important goal which is the one that will yield the greatest rewards when completed.

#2. Write down 3 medium tasks that should be done before the day is over.

#3. Write down 5 little things that should be done IF you can get to them, but the world won't come to an end if you don't get them done.

Then, when you finish your workday, make tomorrow's 1-3-5 list. That way when you get to your desk tomorrow, you know exactly what needs to be done first.

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

Sometimes you must take a step backward and maybe let something go before you can move forward.

Joan participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, affiliate advertising designed to help websites earn advertising fees by linking to products on Amazon. If you click an Amazon link in her post, she may receive a small commision at no extra cost to you.

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