Last quarter I started a new way of organising my to-do list for my writing and creative projects. I’d been inspired by the writer Sarra Cannon of the YouTube channel, Heart Breathings, with how much she achieves, how she was so focused and the way she organises herself. On her YouTube channel Sarra described the way she would focus on just a few goals each quarter. Then, in order to achieve these goals she would break them down into projects then divide them up even further into tasks. Her tasks she would write on post-its and place them on her kanban board in her office. Once a task had been completed she would transfer to the other side of the board.
This looked genius. So I investigated further and so began my own system where I organise myself in terms of goals, projects and tasks.
Now this was something I’d been doing naturally with my notebooks but not in such an organised, methodological or structured way. And I certainly hadn’t been looking at my deep goals OR breaking that massive goal into smaller, less overwhelming ones that were achievable in just a few months. I was also trying to do everything all at once. And getting in a muddle, overwhelmed and stressed. In addition if I had a break from my writing I would be put off getting back to it as I would lose where I was in the process and soon it would feel like a huge mountain I had to climb - so I’d put it off some more.
Going back to last quarter I set up my two goals. To gain 1000 subscribers on YouTube and to get my novel ready to send off to agents and my essays written monthly so by the end of the year I’d have enough to self-publish. I talk about how I got on in detail on my latest video below but this method of breaking it all down into tasks meant that I achieved my YouTube goal with just a few days to spare! I didn’t achieve my writing goals but I have made massive progress so I am delighted with that.
This quarter I am setting myself three goals. But my writing ones are not as big as last quarter as I’ve learnt from that! I’m looking forward to the work I’ve set for myself over the next three months - have a look in the video below.
