Might I Suggest, A Plan?

Let's recap:

1. Time management is key to the life of an indie, self-published author who wants to quit their day gig, and earn a living from their writing.

2. Aside from writing/producing books, the indie, self-published author must make time for marketing said books otherwise...

And that brings us to today's post where I'm going to pull those first two items together and show you how I PLAN to make sure I'm writing and marketing on the regular.

Start Here

I'm a Pantser in just about all areas of my life so sitting down to make a "plan" is a struggle for me. Inevitably, I will at some point find myself chasing something shiny that has NOTHING to do with what I had planned for the day. To combat that, I do a brain declutter first. That's where I get all the ideas, goals, tasks, random mind lint, and plot bunnies out of my head and onto paper.

This declutter happens annually between Christmas and New Year's eve. Then again at the very beginning of each month, then again on Sundays for the week ahead, and sometimes in the middle of the day when I notice I've wandered off track.

Make the List

Once I've cleaned the cupboards so to speak, I can then pull out the goals, tasks, and activities I want to do for the year/month/day/hour (whatever). I do take a few extra minutes of thought to organize and or prioritize things as need be. There are some items that have to be done in sequential order or some tasks that take precedence over others due to time constraints and such - for example, completing work for a paying client is a priority over doing research for potential events I can participate in next year.

*How I determine where a goal/action - task falls on my priority list:

1. The client has paid in full. Of course, there are additional questions to ask when prioritizing more than one client, but paid client work is number 1.

2. It will make me money in the next 48 - 72 hours.

3. It will make me money this month.

4. It will put me in a position to grow my audience (this is all of my marketing efforts)

5. Book production. These are all activities involved in the first five (5) steps of my Simply Self-Published process.

Plan the Actions

I'm a paper planner addict. No lie, I started 2022 off with no fewer than 15 different planners plus a wall calendar.

Now, here we are in August and I'm back to using a dot grid notebook and a few pens to keep track of my days. You would think I'd know better by now, but every now and again the gurus convince me to go against my Pantser nature and plot things out instead.

If you're a pantser like me, then an elaborate yearly, monthly, weekly, daily plan (done up in a fancy planner with stickers, and washi tape, and every colorful pen known to man) may be impossible to stick to. Instead of feeling bad about it, come back next week when I share how this professional-level Pantser finds a way to make and stick to a "schedule". Mostly. ;-).

I'll have suggestions for the Plotters in the group as well, but truth be told, you probably already do the things so....but what the hey. C'mon on back, if for no other reason than to see how the other half lives.

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Really quickly, in case you missed it, last week's YouTube live celebration for my 2 year anniversary of making videos did not happen. Apparently, one does not simply "go live" on YouTube, lol.

So I'm making the attempt again tonight!! 8pm EST, join me over on YouTube with your questions and good cheer.

As always, thank you so much for stopping by. Sending you light & inspiration,

Dana