The Blank Year In Front Of Me
I am a huge believer in organizing my plan, organizing my environment, and organizing my schedule so that there’s order around me and therefore my creativity can flow.The more organized I am, the better my life runs. It’s important to me that, as a homemaker, my household runs as smoothly as possible. The way my brain functions means to do that and to also allow that relaxed brain creativity for writing means everything has to be planned and structured.
I LOVE the end of the year because that week between Christmas and New Year is when my mind is hyper-focused on planning the coming year and all those pages are blank.
On a personal level, I build our family’s calendar for the year, plan vacations, prepare all of the birthday cards for family and friends so that I can just stick a stamp on one when the time comes and my writer brain won’t interfere and make me go three months without sending cards. I incorporate my husband’s National Guard schedule and build it into our lives. This year, I’ll be checking our homeschool schedule and see where we are with targets and dates. And, as I do monthly, build the menu plan and chore list around the season and schedules.
On a business level, I evaluate, make lists, set quarterly goals. I create my first KanBan board for the first quarter of the year and start with a fresh calendar. My business planning sheets are blank. I pull out the research I’ve set aside for focused study on business practices and marketing plans. I look at what worked last year and where sales spiked and where I poured money into things that didn’t really work.
My writing schedule is 2 years in advance, so I will be unrolling the 2022 wall calendar and building writing/release schedules in conjunction with the personal family calendar.I have been anticipating this week for months now. I have stickers, markers, blank prayer journals, new supplies.
It’s the best week of the year.
With nearly a million sales, Hallee Bridgeman is aUSA TODAY best-selling and award-winning Christian author who writes action-packed romantic suspense focusing on realistic characters who face real-world problems. Her work has been described as everything from refreshing to heart-stopping exciting and edgy. Hallee has served as the Director of the Kentucky Christian Writers Conference, President of the Faith-Hope-Love chapter of the Romance Writers of America, is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), the American Christian Writers (ACW), and Novelists, Inc. (NINC). An accomplished speaker, Hallee has taught and inspired writers around the globe, from Sydney, Australia, to Dallas, Texas, to Portland, Oregon, to Washington, D.C., and all places in between. Hallee loves coffee, campy action movies, and regular date nights with her husband. Above all else, she loves God with all of her heart, soul, mind, and strength; has been redeemed by the blood of Christ; and relies on the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide her.
As a fellow planner, I really resonate with your statement: ‘It’s the best week of the year.’ Although, as an international aid worker, I find it hard to plan for the uncertainties of disaster response. But after reading this article, and your recent article on Kanban boards, I thought: Why not plan my writing for the year? Looking forward to seeing the difference it makes. I wonder if you have one stand-out tip for keeping discipline when it comes to using planners?
That’s great, JS! Here’s to a great organized year for you.
As far as discipline with planners, it’s about two things:
1) You give the plan YOU created authority. If this is how you want to do it, in this order and in this time, then when it comes to it, do it. I’m lazy at heart, so creating a plan and sticking to it requires intention from me and I generate the intention by letting the past me who developed the plan have the authority to tell me to do it (heh).
2) Generate the habit of checking the planner and doing the tasks. It takes about 2 solid months of doing something for it to become a habit – that thing you do. Make a deal with yourself that you’ll give it two months and see how it goes. By the end of two months, you should have figured out your rhythm with it.
That’s great advice, Hallee, thank you. Especially the part about keeping the lazy me accountable!