Goal Setting & Getting Organized

I'm the opposite -- I'm a holistic thinker, so I don't think sequentially. At work, I bounce from project to project, though I do try to group like things together so I'm not opening and reopening the same software. With the story, I bounce from scene to scene, sometimes even writing things out of order.

I don't play well with lists, so I rarely use to do lists and never use grocery lists. The only exception is if I come back from vacation and am trying to deal with the backlog. I just list things that I don't want to forget.

I also don't play well with time and schedules. I can easily get involved in a project and lose track of time, so if I have anything the requires an appointment I need to shift focus mentally so I don't miss it. If I have a writing deadline, I finish way early so I don't have to deal with a deadline. Writing I mostly write every day at the same time, but it's because that time is generally available.

I live on the edge of chaos. I do have rules about my food, though. Nothing can touch something else on the plate and always eat least favourite to favourite in order.

My daily schedule is non-existent. BUT...I do need to arrive everywhere I go a half an hour early. Drives my wife bonkers!

I'm organised and treat writing like a second job. I couldn't turn up at my 9-5 when I feel like it so I won't do the same when it comes to writing.

As for goals, I don't set myself a weekly or monthly goal, but I do aim for a rough figure of at least a thousand words each session.

I have a chores schedule as well. People laugh at me for being anal about it, but when they walk into my house they gasp at how clean and tidy it is. I make lists. I like schedules and plans. Lack of organisation makes me feel uneasy.

JinxVelox said:

So I'm just curious - who else out there is goal-oriented, and works through schedules and to-do lists?

I'm a very Type A person and my day is completely organized by a schedule (right down to daily housework, which makes it so much easier to keep up with things), a daily to-do list (often added to in the wee hours if I wake up and something pops into my mind that I don't want to forget), planning dinners and shopping for recipes a week in advance, and setting writing goals for a day, week, month, etc.

Most people wouldn't think of writing as a pursuit where one might necessarily require such organization, but since writing *is* my day job, I work best this way. Therefore, I was just wondering if anybody else is as anal-retentive as I am about how they manage their time, or if I am an anomaly. ^.^

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I'm pretty disorganised so I do lists - stuff for kids, stuff for house, stuff for teaching, stuff for writing, stuff for promotion. Mostly I piddle around wasting time and drifting about until there's a crisis and then I work flat out until it's sorted. It works but it is very knackering.

JinxVelox said:

So I'm just curious - who else out there is goal-oriented, and works through schedules and to-do lists?

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At work? Yes. Couldn't do it any other way.

With my writing? Not in any way at all.

I do get up every day at 4:30am and write for an hour. I guess that's scheduled, come to think of it. (-;

Your smileys are still the wrong way round.

scarletpeaches said:

Your smileys are still the wrong way round.

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No. They. Are. Not. You. Right. Handed. People. Are. WRONG. (-:

JinxVelox said:

A chore schedule really helps you stay on top of everything. 20 minutes spent vacuuming 2 or 3 times a week, means *not* spending an hour freaking out and tidying in a hurry because you're expecting company! It also eliminates a marathon-cleaning session on a Saturday or Sunday - time that could be better spent.

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QFT That's how I view it!

As to answer JinxVelox, I'm the same way. When I was working/going to school, I had very detailed lists and was extremely organized to maximize the use of what little free time I had.

Now that I'm not working *shakes tiny fists of impotent rage at the economy* I find that my time will get away from me and I will achieve nothing during the day if I don't continue to plan, list and organize my copious free time.

Writing is my job, but I'm really not goal oriented, or highly organized. For me, the only goal that matters is how much writing I get done today.

I start writing when it's time to start writing, and I have an alarm that goes off when it's time to stop writing. That's the beginning and end of my schedule.

I don't organize writing time around anything else, not life, not chores, not problems that arise, etc. Writing time is inviolate, and everything else gets done when it can get done.

This, and I follow Heinlein's Rules to the letter.

Unfortunately, my house doesn't clean itself, nor do meals magically appear on my table, so chores sometimes nudge their way into my consciousness.

scarletpeaches said:

Unfortunately, my house doesn't clean itself, nor do meals magically appear on my table, so chores sometimes nudge their way into my consciousness.

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I've been writing professionally since my children were babies. I also teach part time. I can write anywhere and at any time. My writing time has never been sacrosanct but fits round everything else in haphazard fashion. Each to his own.Whatever works.

scarletpeaches said:

Unfortunately, my house doesn't clean itself, nor do meals magically appear on my table, so chores sometimes nudge their way into my consciousness.

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I shall report you for talking nasty.

I am absolutely like this. I have a day job, so writing time has to be squeezed out of what's left, and being really organised is the only way to go for me. To Do lists too, because they get all that mundane stuff off my mind, so I can concentrate on thinking about writing, not about the fact I have to remember to pick up the dry cleaning. I don't have to remember that - my phone remembers and tell me when the time comes! I think this is called the "mind like water" principle in the Getting Things Done organising system.

Goals, absolutely. I set goals for the year and review the progress on them once a month. I set shorter term goals for the month and review them once a week. And I'm careful to make them SMART (Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-bound.)

I love this quote from Flaubert - "Be neat and orderly in your life, like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and creative in your work."

I'm goal-oriented but I have neither a schedule nor a to-do list. I work writing around my paying day-job (for now). The day-job is deadline driven and I need to create and work to a schedule because that's part of the job. For my writing, however, I have a general goal (e.g. I will be done and ready to query my latest novel by November) but no schedule or lists.

This works for me.