Are you ready to address priorities? They’re the second step in the APODS process and one of the most important, so let’s get started.
In his best-selling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, Stephen Covey advises us to “organize and execute around priorities.” While that may sound simple, many of us find it difficult. Why? In order to follow Covey’s advice we need to:
- Establish those priorities
- Understand the opportunity cost
- Accept the fact that we cannot do everything.
Over the next few months, we’ll address each of those points. Today let’s talk about establishing priorities.
Brian Tracy, author of Time Power, points out that behaviors are a matter of choice. What a profound thought! If it’s truly important to us, whenever there’s a choice of how to spend our time, we can choose to write. And if we make that choice consistently over a long enough period, it will become a habit.
But, and this is a big but, choice means change, and change is difficult. The good news is, change can be managed. The key to getting to “The End” is to make writing your #1 priority. The question is, how do you do that?
Last month I encouraged you to track your current use of time and then categorize it. Were you surprised by your analysis? What were your biggest time sinks? Which can you eliminate or at least minimize?
If you discovered that you spent a lot of time running errands every day, can you consolidate errands into a single day, freeing up time for writing on the other days?
Did you discover that your writing time was fragmented by phone calls or text messaging? If so, consider establishing office hours when you turn off your phone. Yes, I know that sounds like heresy, but each interruption costs you not only the time you spend on the interruption but also the time it takes to get back to work on your manuscript.
Did you find that social media took more time than you thought? While I’m not suggesting you ignore your friends, the reality is that time you spend posting your status and laughing at cute cat videos is time you are not writing. Remember, behaviors are a matter of choice. We all need to choose wisely.
What we also need is to create what I call a “culture of writing.” What that means is that reminders of writing are never far away, so each time you have the opportunity to make a choice between writing and not writing, you choose writing.
One way to reinforce the importance of your book is to create a cover for it. It doesn’t have to be an artistic wonder. It could be nothing more than the title and your name. (If you don’t have a title, My #1 New York Times Bestseller might motivate you.) Print out a dozen or so copies and then post them throughout your house and on anything connected to your biggest time sinks. That way, when you go to the refrigerator for a break and a pint of ice cream, you’ll see your cover and be reminded that instead of eating, you ought to be writing. Similarly, if your cover is propped up in front of your TV or taped to the back of your phone, when you’re tempted to watch a show, check messages for the thousandth time today, or search for another funny video, you’ll be reminded that you have a choice.
The key is to remain focused on writing. The reality is, if you don’t make it a very, very, very high priority, you’ll spend your time on other things and will never reach “The End.” You don’t want that, do you?
(C) 2018 Amanda Cabot
Amanda Cabot is no stranger to getting to “The End.” She juggled a sixty-hour a week job with nonnegotiable deadlines and building a house long-distance at the same time that she wrote two books a year. Whether or not she kept her sanity during that time is debatable. Amanda is the best-selling author of over thirty novels, eight novellas, four non-fiction books, and what she describes as enough technical articles to cure insomnia in a medium-sized city.
Her most recent release is A Borrowed Dream, the second in the Cimarron Creek trilogy.
You can find Amanda at:
www.amandacabot.com
https://www.facebook.com/amanda.j.cabot
https://twitter.com/AmandaJoyCabot/
http://amandajoycabot.blogspot.com/
