I’m having one of those months, apparently, and it’s my own fault.
I’m someone who isn’t crazy about doing the admin stuff. There’s always a pile of stuff on the floor beside my desk that needs to be filed. (Ugh. Filing.) There’s always another pile beside it of things that need doing – guest blog posts to be dreamed up and written (Greta’s Q&A completely ROCKS! That one got done first.), questionnaires to be filled out, reader letters for this or that, promo stuff to book or to mail, databases to be updates. There’s the publishing stuff that I always leave to the last minute, like writing synopses or sample chapters or excerpt chapters or proposals. My To Do list – which gets to live on my desk – is always huge.
I write first. Then I knit second. So, all that other stuff languishes, and piles up.
This is the month that I decided to be rid of those piles and to clean things off that To Do list. The list keeps getting longer – I think people can sense that I’m working through the line items and that there’s space available on the list! – but I’m getting there.
I’m not getting here, as much as I’d like to, but now you know why.
On the upside, there will be lots of blog posts the week after next, when I do a bunch of guest blogging to celebrate KISS OF FATE’s release. Looks like there will be prizes, too…
How do you manage the admin stuff? Do you stay on top of it, doing a bit at regular intervals, or are you like me, saving it up for a marathon To Do run?
Deborah Cooke: Author 
4 responses to “Flotsam & Jetsam”
I’m trying to learn to be less of a procrastinator. One thing is that if it takes less than two minutes to do something – you should go ahead and do it.
Another trick I try when I have to whittle down the list is to pick one thing a day to do. If (in your case) you have six guest blog posts to create, just do one a day. Then in a week or so, they’re done and ready. Which beats spending all day on the same task.
But, that’s always easy to say – harder to do.
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I like to think I am someone who stays on top of things. **quickly closing the laundryroom door before the piles are spotted**
I’m prety neat. **shoving paperwork under the sofa**
and I always finish one project before starting another. **looking at knitting and writing***
Ok I might not be so good at that last one. *BG*
Looks like I have a marathon in my near future.
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I process everything that comes through the door immediately, which means it gets put in the appropriate place. Bills and things get dealt with every two weeks. Urgent things get stuck to the inside of the front door with magnets. Not neat or pretty, but important things get done first.
Less important things that still need doing are the trouble children. Lists combined with calendars work well for me, as long as I stay on top of things.
Marathon sessions happen sometimes, but I tend to make more mistakes during marathons, so I try my best to avoid them. It works about half the time.
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It’s hard to get to everything all in one day for me. I’m a stay at home mom, I also have 4 kids. Oldest is 11, youngest is 4. I try to get the things on my to do list done early in the morning, but that rarely happenes because i am not a morning person. Most things just get done when i get to them. I also have a pile on my file cabnet that needs to be filed. I started knitting to help with stress about 3 years ago. I love knitting socks, the self stripping yarns are really neat to work with, you never know what you are going to end up with- at least pattern wise. Anyway love the books, can’t wait for the third to come out. Good knitting and will visit later.
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