It’s Good Friday today, so we’ll already be on our annual Easter break. However, here’s one I prepared earlier…
How can it be March wrap-up time already? This month has flown. Probably taking an extended break for my birthday weekend threw a spanner in the works. Plus we had 2 dental appointments that took chunks out of our days.
On Thursday night, after I packed up work for the day, the poet made a point of asking if I had an work that needed finishing before today. I didn’t, really, but I did have some jobs that would’ve been nice to be done and out of the way, specifically that proofreading job that came in late on Thursday.
On Friday morning, before he left for work (at 6:50am!), he asked me again, and said could I try and finish everything by the end of the day. Hmm. I wonder what he’s cooking up…
So, I made a cup of tea, started today’s blog, did a quick whip-around on friends’ blogs, and prepared blank templates for the first 4 blog posts of April. I already had a couple of topics I wanted to discuss, so I jotted down some notes for those while I still remembered them. (How organised!) Then I settled down to look at that proofreading. Less than 2 hours later, it was back with the client. That’s more like it.
The trouble was, with that job done and sent back, I felt like I was already on holiday! But I still had stuff I wanted to do. I made a sandwich and read F IS FOR FUGITIVE at my desk while I ate. It was no good, though. I still felt demob happy, and it’s been a long time since I felt demob happy.
I managed to force myself to get back to work, starting with the plan for April. I’d already done the deadlines and appointments earlier in the month, so the wall calendar went back on the wall. I turned to TickTick to play around with the schedule, but that had already been done too. Apart from the dental and vet appointments. So down came the wall calendar again and I added those to TickTick.
One of yesterday’s jobs was ‘next week’s diary’, but I skipped a week, having already written in HOLIDAY in big red letters, and I transferred the concrete deadlines and appointments from TickTick to the diary. Even with a wall calendar and TickTick, I still like to write things down in my appointment diary, giving them estimated time slots and ticking them off as I do them. Ticking them off is very satisfying.
I skipped ahead to write up a handful of blog posts for next week and I created the graphics for them. Then I scheduled just 3 of them. If I feel like jumping on and writing/posting any more, I will.
By the way, while I remember, as it’s Easter this week, and as it’s also 200 years since John Cadbury opened his shop in Birmingham, here’s some perfect Easter reading for anyone who doesn’t already have them:
March wrap-up!
Actually, there are more ticks below than I thought there would be, and only 2 crosses – although that’s really 2 too many. Still, it’s better than last month.
Here, then, is how March went:
- new month wordcount & progress spreadsheets for March ✔
- THE SECRET OF WHITEHORSE FARM ✔
- produce a newsletter ❌
- (week) daily blog post ✔
- weekly tech scan ✔
- weekly backup ✔
- weekly diary work ✔
- proofread naval book ✔
- consolidate proofreader’s, author’s and my amendments for naval book ✔
- return naval book to client ✔
- start editing new Afghanistan book ✔
- Monkey Dust admin just once ✔
- Diane’s gig list admin every Thursday ✔
- write a short story for anthology closing 31 March (in progress)
- write a short story for 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS ✔
- finances for April (I do this on the last day of the month)
- take dog to vet ✔
- monthly schedule planning for April ✔
- start work on annual tax return ❌
- go away for big birthday ✔
- celebrate big birthday ✔
- start Easter break ✔
Extras
- dental appointment ✔
- take the poet for dental appointment ✔
- theatre trip ✔
- Monkey Dust gig ✔
- hair appointment ✔
- 3 new blog features ✔
- start Story Immersion Project course ✔
- revise Writing Mastery Academy course ✔
- start How to Create a Mini-Course course ✔
- final pdf proof for Naval Mutinies book ✔
How was your March?
Have a wonderful Easter, whatever you’re up to. And if you’re travelling anywhere, I wish you a safe journey.
I assume you’re traveling for break? I need to plan a break for myself. I need the headspace. Maybe I’ll figure out something around Memorial Day, even if we don’t go anywhere. Traveling in the US has become a nightmare.
The plan was to go out on day trips and stay away from the office. Then I started to have a dental emergency…