Just a quick update this week, because… I kind of forgot that I was supposed to post this today, and my brain is fried from trying to meet my NaNoWriMo targets.
The goals:
Clarify my long-term goals, in writing, photography, and in general.
I finally feel like I’m making real progress here. I’m pretty clear on my writing goals, and I’ve got a good idea of what my personal/general goals are.
Photography… is a bit of a challenge, still. Partly because I love it all. (Or most of it—there are a couple of niches that I have absolutely no interest in, and never have.) There’s a big part of me that resists specializing, because I don’t want to limit my options. (Which is ridiculous, I know, because specializing in, say, landscapes doesn’t mean I’m never allowed to take another food photo in my life.)
Right now, it’s hard for me to really know what I want to focus on (pun 100% intended). More work is needed.
Find a way to structure my time in order to support my bigger goals (creative and otherwise).
Well… the whole month has been a revelation when it comes to time management. Not always in a good way, but even the less-successful bits have taught me a lot. Enough that I’m almost ready to consider it done. (On that note: this month’s ‘Sketchbook’ will be posted next week. Something had to give.)
But I’m going to wait, and see how the next few weeks work out, when I don’t have the pressures of November weighing on me, and when the temptation to just slack off for the rest of the year starts sneaking up on me. (I already know that I’m going to take a bit of a break next week to recover, but after that, I want to ease my writing schedule back to something a little more tolerable, while still working… mostly right up until the holidays. I might be a bit overoptimistic.)
Develop workflows for writing and photography. And blogging.
My update from last week still stands: I’m slowly getting there with writing, though it’s an ongoing process and I need to evaluate some stuff. Photography workflows rely on the type of photography I’m doing, so this is going to be on hold until I finish clarifying my goals.
Experiment with productivity and journalling systems, and find something that works for me.
Like my time management, I’m almost there, but not quite.
I’ve been making a few more adjustments to my system; at this point, it’s mostly a matter of streamlining my processes and experimenting with a few less-essential additions as I start thinking ahead to setting things up for next year. (I promise I’ll give you a full tour of all of this stuff as soon as I’m ready.)
Finish the work on the office.
Again: I’m still working on it, but progress is slowing down because of other commitments. I probably won’t be done by the end of the year, but I’m getting there.
Reghan Skerry 