month

Previously… every month I account for what I’ve done. Sometimes atone. Always account. And you don’t need to read this but I really, really need to write it. This helps me keep going, helps me press on.

Here’s what I did in June, now read on for July 2014:

Writing (approximately 63,488 words):
Edited and delivered Write On! issue 4
155 news articles for The Blank Screen (totalling approximately 44,847 words)
4 email newsletters for The Blank Screen (approximately 4,732 words)
4 Self Distract personal blogs (totalling approximately 5,374 words)
Produced 2x videos for The Blank Screen site
Editing Catherine’s autobiography
Wrote and delivered short story commission “The Book Groups” (2,200 words)
The Blank Screen Blogging book: (6,335 words)
Writers’ Guild and Royal Television Society event invitation emails
Transferable Skills (4 pages of script)

Pitches/interviews:
Interviewed for Reader in Residence posts, failed
Soft chased one publisher

Education
Performed three workshops at Original Writing Day in Newman University
Performed three-day workshop at Fircroft College

Attended:
Writers’ Guild AGM where I was a teller and a talker
Tom Wentworth’s play at Ludlow
Royal Television Society Education Day Final as judge
Royal Television Society AGM where I joined the committee
Writing Begets Writing Mental Health morning session
Writers’ Networking Meeting

Press:
Interviewed by BBC CWR re anniversary of moon landing

Other:
Got up at 5am for the 250th time
Write So Fluid news site ran a tweet of mine
Email interviews with five bloggers for book
Coffee interview with one blogger for book
Asked to do a talk in October
Federation of Entertainment Unions checked my availability for September
FEU booked me for September
Book group editing session
Designed mockup for poetry app
Talked with Arts Council re funding application
Met with Jeff Phelps re buddying programme and poetry app
Explored Dapp iOS development system
Explored Scrivener software
Judging RTS Awards DVDs
Soundscapes project discussions and notes
Recommended for lecturing work at charity
Celebrated 20 years of marriage with a holiday in France

The site Productive Flourishing makes a good point:

After years of struggling with the planners designed for and by office workers, I figured out that it wasn’t me that was the problem: it was the design of the planners.

Creative people approach their work differently. Most of us don’t work 8–5, and we don’t have projects that we can plan to get done during the same times each day. The limiting factor for us is not the amount of time we have available, but rather the type of time we have available.

One size does not fit all when it comes to planners. Check out the planners below to see which ones best relate to what you’re trying to do, and give them a try!

Free Planner – no credited author, Productive Flourishing (undated but July 2014)

And here’s an example of what one such plan looks like. This is a month’s action plan:

The full article contains very many such free planners but also links out to a set of paid premium ones.

William Gallagher

How to be a productive writer and when not to be

That was July 2014

Free (and paid) week planners for creative people