Some latest publishing industry news had me in upveal today (you’ll find out soon enough) and I am quite struck by how important it is to keep a schedule that keep you going when you lose your cool.

No matter what, today I wrote my words and went for my short run. Both were tough to do but I promised myself I would do it and with each promise fulfilled comes the good habit ingrained in us, easy to sustain.

Bob Mayer suggest to keep a to-do/done daily list and he has his daily non-negociable. Margie Lawson suggests a winner/superstar to-do list where if you do all your winner tasks your are doing pretty good, so no need to beat yourself for not being a superstar everyday.

I like the non-negotiable thing. A while back, when my kids where little I read all kinds of housekeeping books. I should have known then that I’m more of a reader than a housekeeper! But I came accross the concept of Minimum Maintenance (MM). Basically not to feel overwhelmed, it means to spend 5 min in each room of the house, tidying up, starting with the room where visitors are most likely to come in.

It does work. I do MM twice a day, usually while the kids are around and I can’t work anyway. I don’t always get to all the rooms but it does keep the chaos away.

MM is a small non-negotiable thing after the writing.

So I feel that even if I get stressed over news, I just have to stay the course, calm down. I have a big plan.

I’m not just reacting to events but acting towards a big goals. Yes I may take tosses and turns but I’ll get there.

Added 1400 words to Ancient Secrets today.

Blessed Be.

GOTHIC WINTER by ~JTphoto on deviantART

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 03:51 and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.