I'm not the only author who works on multiple projects at the same time, not by far, and I'm quite glad this is the case. Because I'm not, it meant there was an enormous number of blogs and articles for me to peruse when I first began juggling projects. I needed to find something that would help me stay on track and reach my goals, while not being intrusive or annoying (alarms, for example, are both intrusive and annoying, and actually break my focus).
After a few years of searching, I still couldn't find something that worked well for me. During this time about a year ago, I was averaging about 1,000 words a day. Some days, I'd average more, some days far, far less. There were even days where I (gasp) didn't write at all, either because I wasn't "feeling it," or I simply had other things I needed to do. Things became a little more desperate when I began writing full-time and when I changed my release schedule with my publisher. I've known forever that writing is what I want to do with my life, and to do so successfully, I needed to overhaul my daily goals and make sure I was, at the bare minimum, doubling my daily output.
But none of the methods on the blogs I read were working for me. I tried everything from alarms to listing my goals and projects every morning (my most recent attempt before my current one), and still I could not get in the groove. Sure, for a day or two, I'd bust out more words than usual, but then things would settle down and I'd space out my goals and just... stop writing as much.
"Not good!" I said, and I went back to the whiteboard--literally--and erased all of the lists and tables I had charted up for the week. I needed something else, something that I could use to hold myself accountable.
And then, I created this.
Note that I still have troubles with realistic goals. I'm working on it, I swear! However, I my output has increased a lot. Other than Tuesday, which was what I term a Black Day, I've done pretty good, keeping my daily word count above 4,000. Thus far, this method had proven the best for me. I list out the projects I want to work on each day of the week, and then below, have a chart where I can keep track of my successes or failures to work on certain projects. This is a pretty good system of accountability for me, because everything is listed out. I can literally see my accomplishment on each and every project, and it really helps me keep my projects more balanced.
While I have yet to know if this method will work for me in the long-term, I'm pretty happy with the short-term success right now. This specific method allows me to keep juggling my numerous projects while keeping in mind my due dates, and helps me prioritize fairly well. There are a few books I haven't worked on this week (Rise of the Four Kings being the most notable), simply because I had other priorities. I may reconsider how I approach this method, though, and try to do at least 100 words on every project, even the ones that I shouldn't technically be working on.
I'm a stubborn person. I'm also very driven. When I decided to be a writer, I said, "I want to be a powerhouse. I want to go into this a furnace whose bellows don't quit. I want to stoke the flames in myself and in writers and artists all around me."
That's my goal. Not just in writing, but in life. It's what keeps me going. Driving to be that powerhouse is what pushes me hard every day to keep writing, keep supporting my fellow authors, and keeps pushing me to always do more, to always do better, and to always fight for what I love.
How do you keep track of multiple projects? Does your method seem to work well? Share in the comments below!
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