One of the more challenging jobs for solopreneurs, writers, and creatives is managing and completing projects that need that last bit of managing before launch. You know you have them stacked up in a corner, quietly whimpering every time you pass by on your way to more important things like laundry and scrubbing the tile grout with your partner’s toothbrush.
We love to create, we love the wild and crazy, and we love the fabulous rush of first efforts. But finishing? Editing? Often by the time we reach that last mile of our journey, we are bored – bored with the story, the premise, the idea, and our own brain. We know we need to complete it; we understand we will feel good when our project is full and totally done. We just can’t manage to do it.
How to get through this difficult part? I will share my very low-tech method for working through edits. I use a calendar.
Not just any calendar, although alerts and protecting time on the family shared calendar is important. This is more like the old school calendars where we crossed out every day between us and the first day of summer vacation with a big red X.
It is unsophisticated, and a little embarrassing. But damn, it prevents delaying projects or even quitting completely.
Find a calendar. A paper calendar floating around the house with three months left will do nicely or make a calendar specifically for the desired length of the project. Do not use the family calendar, this is not a shared experience. This is all about you and your book edits. I tried this system with my online calendar and after two days found I was completely uninspired. Writing the goals down, and crossing them off when they are completed. I apply a large happy star sticker to each day I reach a goal. Necessary, and dare we say – fun.
Armed with this year’s calendar, ask:
What is your project?
When do you want to finish it?
What will it take? Count the total remaining time or essays or words it will take to finish the project.
On the calendar circle the date the project will be finished. For this example – I chose the end of the month. Or rather, the end of the month chose me.
From that date, move back through the days. If a manuscript is 239 pages and you want to be finished by the end of that same month, a little math and voila, your daily goal to review and correct is 12 pages. I take weekends off, you should too.
I mark off the total goal for each day – Monday, finish 12 pages. Tuesday, finish 24 pages.
As you know, breaking down an onerous task into small, daily doable tasks is the first and biggest step to take toward full project completion. A little work a day is doable and easy to fit into a busy day. A little work per day is also far less intimidating than yesterday’s to-do list:
- Laundry
- Groceries
- Dentist
- Finish enormously large and complicated project
- Clean fish tank
Now the list looks like:
- One load of laundry
- Groceries delivered
- Dentist
- Write 200 words on the business plan
- Skip the fish tank, the fish are fine.
You have the calendar; you are ready to start the new week with a new plan.
Now, you cheat.
Write 300 words on Monday, and 500 words on Tuesday. Or instead of editing 10 pages, edit 20. The next day instead of 10 pages, edit 25.
I revise my calendar over and over, it’s part of the joy. Find stickers and mark progress. Find a sticker for work above and beyond. Attach gold stars for completing half, two-thirds, and three-quarters of the project.
To keep the game moving, I now invent incentives for early completion.
I create rewards of escalating value.
- Finish the project a day ahead of the deadline – New hardback book.
- Finish two days ahead of deadline – Book a massage.
- Finish a week ahead of the deadline – Day at the beach.
I do not reward with food or drink.
What do you love to do that will motivate you? For this month-long calendar exercise don’t make your reward crazy big. Yes, a trip to the Galapagos is great, but there are scheduling considerations, and you may not get there until next year. That won’t be effective for this game. The reward needs to be clear and immediate.
- A morning of tea and journaling at the local cafe?
- Hike a new trail?
- Call a friend for an hour-long chat?
- Visit a friend for an even longer chat?
- Shop?
- Museum?
- Trip to the city?
- Trip to the country?
These goals can change every time you need to finish another project. You may even want to create a log of ultimate rewards. Each time you say “I’d like to do that” – be it a movie you’d like to see, a book you’d like to read, or a friend you’d like to connect with, capture the idea so when you need it, you have a list of compelling rewards to help motivate you.
You did it! You finished your project four days ahead of schedule!
That alone is awesome. Time for the reward.
No, you are not allowed to employ the mother disclaimer, “Oh it’s fine, finishing is reward enough. I don’t need to go to all the trouble of rewarding myself. Here, honey, you buy yourself a nice new notebook, I’ll use this pad of paper that came free with our insurance statement.”
Yes. You. Do.
Take the reward the day you finish the project. Unless it’s raining, go to the beach. Schedule the massage. Call the friend. If your life is better than mine, book the trip to South America.
Here is why.
Your subconscious retains patterns and slights more efficiently and with stronger recall than a middle-grade girl. If you work yourself into a frenzy to reach a reward, but then withhold or skip that reward, the next time you try this exercise you’ll experience more resistance than a cat on a leash.
Be good to yourself and keep your own promises, not just for the game, but for a happy life.
May the odds ever be in your favor.
