Any Day Can Be A Perfect Day

I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty obsessive about my To Do list. Like, yeah, I enjoy making lists and crossing stuff off and whatnot, but if I don't FINISH my list...I get cranky. I get mad. The more productive I am, the more fulfilled and happy I am. The less productive I am, the more angry and down on myself I am.

I know that I can't do everything, all the time. I know that sometimes things come up, or something takes longer than I'd anticipated, or I'm just feeling blah and don't want to get to certain things on my list that day. I know it's not always in my control. But still. Not completing The List can turn a relatively good day into a bad day.

Especially when it comes to writing.

If I don't make my writing goals, I'm instantly in a bad mood.

But the thing is...that kind of ruins everything else for the day. Obviously, I try as hard as I can to reach my goals and complete my List, but if I know something isn't going to get done, being in a bad mood the rest of the day won't fix it. It only steals the good moments and turns them rotten.

It's hard for me to let some stuff go, to not complete EVERYTHING that I set for myself to do. But it happens. And I'm learning that it doesn't have to ruin everything else. In fact, whether everything gets done on my To Do list or not, it can still be a wonderful day. A lot of it is about mindset and stealing those perfect moments--finding them and holding onto them, and not letting guilt or anything else get in the way.

So today, this ordinary Tuesday, is going to be a good day. Maybe you have work, or chores, or word count goals, or other responsibilities. Let's try our best to get it all done, but if something slips through the cracks, it will still be a good day. Today I'll savor my coffee, enjoy the warm weather, spend time with my husband,  and re-read The Hunger Games (Oh yes, I'm preparing for this weekend!). And I won't feel guilty about letting myself enjoy these things if I don't get everything done. Like the quote says, today is a perfect day for a perfect day.

I'm determined to enjoy it. :)

Do you ever get down on yourself for not completing everything you want to get done?  What are you going to let yourself enjoy today, no matter what?

MaRcH MaDnEsS!

Happy MARCH! Can you believe it's March already? This year is flying by and I'm trying desperately to keep up with my writing goals. I did end up making my February New Novel word count goal, which I'm quite pleased about, but only started a short story so I'll have to finish that this week. But I do have plans for this month. Writing goal plans. Plans that I shall call:

MaRcH MaDnEsS!


I've been talking about MaRcH MaDnEsS (can't type that out without the alternating caps) with a friend of mine who is joining me. Basically, I'm giving myself a crazy (well...not SO crazy) goal for the month...hence the MaDnEsS! The goal is to really push myself and what I think I can do, and add a nice chunk of word count to the New Novel. But it is NOT meant to make me feel like a failure if it ends up being too much for me. My minimum goal is to write 15,000 words this month, just like my past monthly goals, but I'm going to strive for my MaRcH MaDnEsS goal really, really hard.

Here's a little list I made for myself, which I'll be filling in every weekday (and possibly adding some lines for weekends if I feel like doing more or if I need to catch up from the week):

It's going to be awesome, guys! I'm really excited for a productive month, even though it's going to be super hard sometimes.

Is anyone with me?

Let the MaRcH MaDnEsS begin!

January Round-Up

Happy February! I can't believe we're a whole month into 2012 already. Cray-zay. So, remember that post I wrote about goals? Well now that January is officially over, I'd like to reflect on how the goals went. Obviously you don't need to obsesses over every monthly goal, but this is a good way for me to keep myself on track for the year. I think I'll make a LIST. (I'm only talking about writing/reading-related goals right now, but there were more!)

1. Write 15,000 words of New Novel. I did this, but just barely! Made it by the skin of my teeth. (I never understood this expression. I mean, teeth don't HAVE skin. Is that...the point? I don't even know.) I literally wrote the last 1,000 words yesterday. I really had to push through them, but I'm glad I did.

2. Write 1 short story. Check! But again, JUST BARELY! I actually started it in the second week of January, and then forgot all about it until two days ago and finished it last night. I've actually never written a short story before so it was different to have to end a story so quickly, but I think it's good practice. I had a lot of fun with it though! Perhaps I'll share it with you guys. PERHAPS. I might be too shy about it :)

3. Read 2 books. I actually read 4 books, so ha! Here's what I read:

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Lament by Maggie Stiefvater
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

I highly, HIGHLY recommend The Fault in Our Stars. It was not what I thought it would be. I laughed SO much throughout the entire book--like, serious laughter, where I had to put the book down sometimes just to soak in some genius lines--and I also cried. And let me say that books NEVER make me cry. Never. So this was truly rare. If you know what's good for you, you'll read it!

I'll also share something that I failed at, that is not writing-related: Learn a new song on the piano. I literally did not touch my piano the whole month. My goal is to learn 6 new songs this year, so I still have time. I'll just need to be more disciplined in adding it to my schedule.

Did you guys have specific goals for January? How did you do? If not, did you read any good books or get a good bit of writing done?

Catching Up

Last week I got behind on my word count. WAY behind. It was one of those, "I'll catch up tomorrow" kind of weeks, until it was Friday and I realized "tomorrow" already came and went four times. Ah yes, the joys of procrastination. I tried to catch up over the weekend but I'm still 2000 words behind. That's not too bad, as long as I'm on top of it this week. WHICH I WILL BE.

That's right. I'm posting it here and now for all to see. This week, I am going to write 5,750 words. It WILL get done. If not, there will be serious consequences. Hmm, consequences, consequences...NO! Consequences aren't even an option, because it's getting done. See? All about the mindset :)

But I will have a reward for reaching my goal: I'm going to visit the place that inspired New Novel this weekend. I'm SUPER excited!! It's in Manhattan, and I've only been there once, and that one time I was so inspired by the place that I whipped out my notebook and started taking notes. It'll be fun to go back now that I have a whole story in my head. And no, I'm not going to reveal what it is. I know, I'm so lame! But I do write better when I'm being all secretive and I feel like I'm "alone" with the story.

So really, I can't NOT reach my goal, because I already have a reward planned, and that would just be cheating.

Do you guys set word count goals? What are your weekly or monthly goals? How do you stay on track and beat procrastination?

2012 Goals

Hard to believe that the end of 2011 is already here! This time of year, I like to write down my goals for the next year. I think it's infinitely important to have goals, and to actually write them down on paper. The act of writing them longhand seems to solidify them and make them more real (at least for me). I like to write them in big, fat sharpie, too, so they are nice and dark and bold.

A lot of people make New Year's Resolutions around this time. Resolutions are good, but GOALS are great. Resolutions tend to be vague, and tend to be forgotten. For example, before I really understood goals, I would have a New Year's Resolution along the lines of, "Get in shape" or "Write more" or "Save money". These things are all good, but they aren't defined. How do you define getting in shape, or writing more, or saving money? Without having a defined GOAL, resolutions are useless. How will you ever cross off "Get in shape" if you have nothing to define it by? By defining these resolutions, you turn them into goals. "Get in shape" becomes "Lose 10 pounds" or better yet, "Exercise five times a week". Do you see the difference? It goes from vague to specific, and when you have a specific goal, you know when you achieve it. "Write more" becomes "Write 12 short stories" or "Write X amount of words every day/week". "Save Money" becomes "Save X amount".

So this year, instead of writing New Year's Resolutions, write Goals, and be specific. Also, don't just think of your goals, WRITE THEM DOWN. Seriously. Get out a sharpie and a piece of paper, and write them down. Now they are concrete, tangible. Now you can cross them off as you complete them. Ahh, the satisfaction.

Here are my 2012 Goals:

1. Write New Novel
2. Send out query letters
3. Learn 6 new songs on the piano
4. Read at least 24 books
5. Do crunches, squats and push-ups/weights 3x a week
6. Write 12 short stories
7. Get student loan down to X amount
8. Go to Disney World! (Just to throw a 'Gimme' in there)

Once you have your Yearly Goals defined and written down, you've completed Phase 1. Yay! Oh, wait, you thought you were done? HAHA. No.

Yearly goals can seem big and daunting. My "Write New Novel" goal seems big and daunting even to me. How do you tackle these goals? Easy. You break them down into Monthly Goals. This makes your big, Yearly Goal into a smaller, more manageable Monthly Goal. Again, write these down on paper.

For example, here are my January 2012 Goals:

1. Write at least 15,000 words of New Novel
2. Learn a new song on the piano
3. Read 2 books
4. Do crunches, squats and push-ups/weights 3x a week
5. Write 1 short story
6. Pay X amount toward student loan

That's not so bad, is it? It's still defined, but it's smaller. Do this for every month so that all of your Yearly Goals are broken down into Monthly Goals. Phase 2 is complete.

On to Phase 3. Weekly Goals. Yup, you guessed it--break your Monthly Goals down into Weekly Goals.

For example, the first week of January will look like this for me:

1. Write at least 3,750 words
2. Choose a song to learn on the piano and practice on Tuesday and Thursday
3. Read a book
4. Do crunches, squats, and push-ups/weights on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
5. Start a short story
6. Set aside X amount for student loan (this is really a monthly thing for me, not a weekly thing, but I'll put it here just for example)

Then, I make a daily To-Do list based on my Weekly Goals. I usually do this at the beginning of the week. I guess you can call that Phase 4.

Why do people usually forget their New Year's Resolutions by February? Because their goals aren't defined and broken down. They don't have a map to follow, so they stop trying. Making defined Goals and breaking them down like this is essentially making yourself a map, something you can follow to finish your Goals. Saying you're going to write a book sounds lofty, but saying you're going to write 3,750 words a week sounds doable. It's all about bite-sized pieces, one piece at a time. And you just keep going.

So with that,

Happy New Year!!


See y'all in 2012 :)

Time Is A Tricky Mistress

The passage of time is a strange thing, isn't it? We all have time, and we all chose what we will do with it (though sometimes it can feel like we don't have a choice, but really, we DO). Right now it's 12:33am on a Sunday, and I'm thinking of the new novel I want to plot out and hopefully start to write tomorrow. But of course there's the day job which takes up 9 hours of my day. And my general lack of early-rising ability (let us remember it is 12:33am--I am a night owl apparently). Let's also remember that dinner must be made, and that usually takes about an hour. Oh, and the laundry. Monday is laundry day in the Olivieri household. So let's say that after the day job, dinner, and laundry duties are over, it's about 8pm. The husband and I have our nightly TV watching routine that cannot be broken (okay, sometimes it is broken), which means that by the time I get a moment to THINK about my novel, it will be around 10pm. Oh, dear goodness. Where did the time go? I don't LIKE going to bed late, despite my previous statements. It just seems to happen that way because nighttime is the only time I can do stuff, like write. Although I have found that my best writing happens during the day when I'm not falling asleep over my laptop at midnight.

Anyway, time.

It passes whether we like it or not. It pauses for no one. It makes no exceptions. It doesn't care what our circumstances are or whether we have a 5 YEAR PLAN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD or if unexpected things happen or if we have direction for our lives or if we don't. It just. keeps. going. And we can either DO SOMETHING while it passes, or not.

I tend to complain about no having enough time. I'm sure you do too. Time is a valuable thing which gets filled with many invaluable things, and when that happens and we notice it we tend to get upset. The trick is not to let it get filled with invaluable things. And that trick is tricky.

Like, even though I would prefer to write during the day and then go to bed at a decent hour, I need the day job to pay the bills. So, that needs to stay. And even though I wish dinner would magically make itself while I write, that never seems to happen. So, cooking needs to stay too. Same with the laundry. And, uh...the TV time...because...you know. Sometimes you just need to watch some good evening television with your spouse. And so the THING that is VALUABLE to you is somehow pushed down the line of things to do, and by the time to get to it, there's not ENOUGH time.

So, back to the trick that is tricky, which is to say, filling time with things that are valuable. You'll never get to erase those chores and necessary things that aren't fun from your schedule, but usually you CAN find time in between these things. For example, although I find it TORTURE to wake up earlier than absolutely necessary, I could, COULD wake up an hour early and get some writing time in. I COULD also write during my hour lunch break instead of...what do I do on my lunch break anyway? Obviously it is nothing important if I can't even remember it. I COULD also set aside an hour before TV time, which is probably wasted by browsing the internet. And then I could write for one more hour after TV time (which, again, is usually wasted on the internet) and go to bed around 11-12 which is much earlier than I have been. Did you see what I did there? I took the larger chunk of time I would normally write (which can end at 2am sometimes), and I broke it up into smaller chunks throughout the day, where normally I would be lollygagging on the computer or hanging off the side of my couch acting like I'm bored even though I have a million things to do or pretending to be productive by folding laundry but really I'm procrastinating writing. I mean I didn't actually do this in real life yet, but I COULD. I really could. And then I could fill my time with value and actually get some SLEEP. Sleep is good. I wish I was sleeping right now, in fact. My bed is insanely comfy, by the way. Literally, almost every night when I climb into bed, I think to myself "This is the most comfy bed in the world." No, I'm not joking. I really think that to myself every night.

Anyway, what was I even saying? Something about trickery? Time is a tricky mistress? DO YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON'T SCHEDULE YOUR TIME? You end up writing delirious blog posts at 1am (did I seriously, SERIOUSLY just spend a half hour writing this? Time has evaded me once again!) that start out sounding all mystical and interesting..."Time...what is...time?" and then you end up going on a tangent about your schedule and your heavenly bed then you forget what you're talking about and a half hour has passed and you don't know how because it feels like you just started typing this three minutes ago. And then you write an entire paragraph out of one long run-on sentence?

So the moral of the story is that time is a tricky mistress and you must schedule your time properly to fit the important things in, lest time get the best of you.

And now I'm going to schedule this post before I re-read what I wrote and decide against it. And maybe I'll make a to-do list for tomorrow so I can have some semblance of time management after writing this.

To-Do Lists

Happy Monday slash Halloween!! Firstly, an announcement:

**FUN ALERT!!** For a special Monday treat that I had absolutely nothing to do with, I'd like to direct your attention to one of my favorite blogs for a SERIOUSLY COOL contest! Prizes included signed copies of super-fabulous books. And the best part is that the contest rules are incredibly easy. Now, go HERE to check it out! And also, you should follow this blog because it's awesome.

Now on to the regularly scheduled program:

I guess today might be slightly more fun for some of you with costumes and candy and festivities and such, but generally, Monday's have a bad reputation. You know, the whole work week, stress, and responsibilities thing. I get it. But Monday is quite important to me because it's the day that starts my weekly To-Do list. And I heart my To-Do list.

Some people have asked me how I managed to finish my first draft. Writing really looks different to everyone, and all writers have their own way of pushing through the draft. There's no "right" way to write a novel, but one thing is common in all writers: Persistence.

I mentioned in my profile that I'm obsessed with To-Do lists, so I figured I'd explain why. As a writer, I DEPEND on my list. I need it. I love it. Maybe that's a little too "structured" for some people, but it's how I do what I do. If I didn't have a To-Do list, my novel would never have been written. And without it I will never complete my revisions. Why? Because my list is comprised of GOALS, and goals propel me to keep a forward momentum. I like to work toward things. I like to complete tasks. I especially like to see check marks next to said tasks. It's like a signal to my brain that says, "Good job!" And it gives me the warm fuzzies. :)

My To-Do list is actually broken down into four separate entities. My yearly goals are the largest part of the cumulative "List". These are generally made around December of the previous year, kind of like New Year's resolutions. I break my yearly goals down into monthly goals. This makes them easier to tackle. My monthly goals, as you might imagine, are written on my monthly calendar which hangs on the wall by my desk. The monthly goal is then broken down into weekly goals, which are written in my weekly planner. This sits on my desk. Finally, my weekly goals are broken down into daily goals, which are on an app in my iPhone. With this app you can check off tasks as you complete them, and it actually shows little check marks! Those check marks are like PRIZES. I want to collect ALL the check marks! It's like a game! Sort of.

I know this sounds a little OCD, but if I didn't do this I would probably never get stuff done. I'm one of those people who suffers from the PROCRASTINATIONS. My lists help me overcome this debilitating disease.

So that's my "secret". That's how I keep myself going with my writing. I set goals, I break them down into smaller goals, and I DO THEM. I don't always get everything done on my To-Do list. Sometimes life happens and I fall behind. Sometimes I get lazy. Sometimes the motivation is just gone and I need to take a break. But the point is that I don't take a break forever because my list is waiting, and the satisfaction of completing it far outweighs the temporary satisfaction of being lazy.

With that said, it's time to get stuff done. I hope everyone has a wonderfully productive Monday!

How YOU do keep yourself moving forward?