Tomorrow morning, I have to email my latest manuscript to my editor. Normally, I'd be happy dancing about now. After six weeks of staring at the same characters, I'm usually ready for the two week or so break I'll get while Sally, my editor, reads it.
Today...not so much.
Why? Because I'm supposed to do a final read through on the last 80 pages and after two hours of reading I only got through 60.
Not only that but I found two places/scenes that need some serious tweaking. (Read: revisions!)
So after reading 60 pages of hard copy, I have all my little grammar and sentence structure changes to input into my document on the computer.
2 major scene revisions.
20 more pages to read and fix in the computer.
And I have a sinus headache.
I was sitting here thinking, "how the heck am I ever going to do this ..." when I remembered something from my time management workshop THE TEN MINUTE SOLUTION. Increments and Little Bits.
What the heck is that? Simply put, it's dividing up your work into manageable bites.
I can't sit here for the two hours it will take to finish inputting the changes on the 60 pages I read and fix those two scenes. But I can sit here to six 20-minute clips. Or even 12 ten-minute clips of time.
In other words, I'll do 10 minutes of inputting, then go wash my breakfast dishes. Once my eyes are rested and my shoulders aren't so tight, I'll come back and do another ten minutes.
Then I'll vacuum. (For those of you who don't know, cleaning relaxes me. Lucky, huh?)
Then I'll come back and do another ten minutes. etc. etc.
It won't be the quick, easy finish to the manuscript that I had hoped. But it will get the book done in an organized fashion. I will meet my deadline and everybody will be happy.
So the next time you're faced with a big project that you worry you can't finish, try cutting it up into manageable bites of ten-minute tasks.
I'll bet you get it done!
And, if you're interested in the whole ten-minute solution idea...the workshops on my website susanmeier.com, click workshops.
Happy Monday...
susan
Happy PS...the cover for A BABY ON THE RANCH is up on Amazon! So all three covers for the Babies in the Boardroom series are up! THE BABY PROJECT will be released in April, SECOND CHANCE BABY in May and A BABY ON THE RANCH in June!
I can't wait! I think readers are going to love these stories! And I've posted a prologue for THE BABY PROJECT in the What Came Before section of my website...There'll be a Happily Every After for that one posted around April 15.
We're gonna have some big fun this year!
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2 comments:
All of the covers are beautiful, but I have to admit I'm partial to the first one because that baby looks so much like Luke, my youngest grandson that I swear your editor gave a pic of him to the cover art dept.
I'm glad you remembered to break big projects down in small bites. I heard you say that in a workshop discussion one of the first times we met and I've used that method to get through some very difficult tasks and days.
I can't wait for this series to hit the shelves, lady!
so excited about your baby in the boardroom books! Thanks for the tips on the time management. I'm still struggling with that! LOL
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