ROW80: Sometimes, there really isn’t enough time

I kept my load light again this week, knowing it would be a busy one with two web design project to do outside of my day job. But Wednesday, I still wasn’t where I wanted to be, so I re-evaluated how I was spending my time. Surely there was something in there, somewhere I was spending too much time taking “breaks” to play Solitaire, etc.

But there wasn’t. That night I accounted for every 15 minutes, and only one 15-minute segment was spent on a game break. Otherwise, every bit of it was spent plotting my next book, exercising, reading/answering email/blogs/social media, or working on web design (two hours there).

Sometimes there really isn’t any extra time, and we have to admit that we can’t do it all without sacrificing sleep (not a good idea, health-wise or productivity/quality-wise, for me). Here’s how the week went:

  • Work halfway through Lesson 8 of How to Think Sideways – almost! But not quite.
  • Initial design for the builder’s website – started, but not enough to show him. Hopefully tonight!
  • Publish and host the massage therapists’ website – Done! And she loves it!
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts – Done!
  • Work back into tracking exercise and consumption – minimum four days this week – uh… no. Maybe next ROW80.

Here are the overall goals:

  • Release Time’s Fugitive, in both ebook and print – Done!
  • Complete Holly Lisle’s How to Write a Series workshop – Done!
  • How to Think Sideways workshop – complete through Lesson 8 – on track!
  • Get Times Two (Time’s Enemy/Time’s Fugitive box set) ready for release as an ebook – not going to happen, but since I’m delaying the release, that’s OK.

Next check-in will be my last for this ROW, as I don’t do Wednesday check-ins. So here’s this week’s plan:

  • Finish Lesson 8 of How to Think Sideways
  • Initial design for the builder’s website
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts

How are you doing in this round of ROW80 – are you on track for your overall goals?

ROW80: Cheating… sort of

I knew I’d need to go easy on the goals this week. I did manage to meet all of my pared-down goals, so it all worked out. It wasn’t easy – I had a push on one yesterday, and it was hard to motivate myself to do my workout, but I did it!

  • Complete Lesson 6b of How to Think Sideways – Done, although I sort of cheated on a couple parts. One involved reviewing my WIP to the point I’ve done it, and I haven’t really started it yet, so that one was a gimme.
  • Cover design for Times Two – Done!
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts. Done!

Times Two Box Set, coming this summer

Hangar 18 is not going to be ready for release this ROW, as it’s still with beta readers. I’d planned to release either it or Times Two, but decided to participate in a promotional opportunity in mid-June that doesn’t make a release feasible. So I’m changing my goal to get it formatted and ready for release, but won’t hit Publish probably until mid-July. So here are the overall goals:

  • Release Time’s Fugitive, in both ebook and print – Done!
  • Complete Holly Lisle’s How to Write a Series workshop – Done!
  • How to Think Sideways workshop – complete through Lesson 8 – on track!
  • Get Times Two (Time’s Enemy/Time’s Fugitive box set) ready for release as an ebook – on track!

This week’s going to be another tricky one, as I have taken on a couple of side web design jobs. One is for my massage therapist, whose site I designed several months ago, but who didn’t provide me any content until yesterday. The other is a new site for a builder who did a second-story addition for us about 10 years ago. So with working those in, here are the plans:

  • Work halfway through Lesson 8 of How to Think Sideways
  • Initial design for the builder’s website
  • Publish and host the massage therapists’ website if she gets the rest of the content to me
  • Three interval workouts and two shorter workouts
  • Work back into tracking exercise and consumption – minimum four days this week

How are you doing in this round of ROW80 – or if you’re not a writer, or not doing the ROW, for this spring?