Impatient where it doesn’t work; Patient where it will. P is for Planning: Part 1.

Happy Monday, folks! Had a good weekend? Ready to tackle this week? I’ve set up my goals and will get them done. I’ve fallen into the habit of “doing” instead of “hoping.” Hope serves its purpose when times prove dark and dreary, but when it comes to my tasks, I don’t want to say, “I hope I get them done.” Just get them done!  If you haven’t noticed already through reading my blog, I’m fired up about goal setting, planning, execution, and achievement. I woke up one day and realized that I was sick of looking for jobs, sick of tweaking my cover letter, sick of emailing and contacting employers back and forth, sick of waiting, and sick of passivity in general! I’ve only applied to positions that my family and friends suggest along the way, but I’ve plugged my effort into looking on my own. Maybe if one or two things pop up that pique my interest, I apply.  

Okay, I'm not that crazy ha ha ha.

Yes, it’s probably an idiotic move to stop searching for work. It’s only been three months since I returned from Korea. You might say I have a problem with patience. But here’s the thing, I don’t like to waste my time on things that I know make me unhappy in the long run because I already know what I want. I want to be a writer, founder of a youth organization focused on civic engagement, and a college professor. Very few of these jobs I’m applying to will lead me to closer any of these goals. Now, I’m not a generalist. Several of these potential jobs to offer valuable experience to be gained, I admit. I could just go back to school, but I want to establish myself as a writer first because when I’m in school, I’m in school. I’ve yet to adjust everything else to school life. So before I disappear from the face of the planet pursuing a PhD in Sociology and Education, I want to first try being a full time writer. School is great, but life outside the ivory walls teaches lessons of equal value, if not sometimes of higher value.

I do have the luxury of living with parents who support me financially despite their gross disappointments in my job search. Right now the desire to find my own space motivates my sporadic efforts to find a job. I’m thinking I’ll either go abroad again or find employment in a school that offers me room and board, which covers all the basics I need to write: a fully functioning apartment with paid utilities, two meals a day, and my MacBook. Seriously, that’s all I need to make it as a writer, along with all my books for reading and honing my craft. Of course, it helps to have some cash, and I am willing to perform what’s necessary to cover other bills and hang out with my friends. I don’t even need a television. Thanks to the Internet I catch up on my favorite shows (about 4) on the weekends, so my weekdays are TV free except Thursday nights when Scandal is on because that show is freaking awesome! Aside from that one night, I highly recommend to stop watching television. It seriously is a waste of time that could spent doing something your really enjoy and worthwhile to you long term. Television is addicting, saps your energy, and makes your brain dull, but you knew that already. However, I digress.

Or else...

Touché, Raptor. Touché 

Let’s take a look at what I’ve come up with the P portion of ESPER. Planning. Now, last week I couldn’t jump on it because this process requires more work than the past two so I’m breaking this entry into parts so I don’t lose your attention with some big long post on planning. I don’t delve entirely into the planning process, so if you want the whole story, go here. Okay, let’s start!

1.)  Develop Your plan right down to specifics. Guiding questions:

a.     What is the full list of tasks to undertake?

                                      i.     Writing 1600-2000 words/day

                                     ii.     Editing one scene/day

                                   iii.     Blogging M-Th

                                   iv.     Staying in touch with other blogs (20-25/day)

                                     v.     50 tweets/day on my writer twitter account

                                   vi.     Honing my craft- research on improving my writing, book, marketing, traditional and non-traditional avenues for publishing

                                  vii.     Reviewing grammar and writing tools

2.)  Fit Your Plan into Your Schedule. Guiding questions:

a.     What is the best time to work on your goal’s tasks?

                                      i.     Early morning to the afternoon is when I most alert to work. I tend to get sleepy toward the evenings around 7pm when my productivity is cut in half. So it’s best that I work in the mornings, which means waking up early: the bane of everyone’s existence, but in my case it must be done if I make a habit out of it.

b.    How are you spending your time everyday? I want to wake up every morning and ask this question, except it’ll go like this: How will I spend my time today? If I’m serious about completing the activities I mentioned above to achieve my goal then I need to create a pretty good calendar that is specific! Specificity is key here because general comments such as “Get this done today” aren’t going to work or last long before I fall off the truck and start back at zero. I have to instead focus on “Conduct research on successful plotting: 00:00-00:00” and so forth.

And that’s all folks for today. Tune in tomorrow for the rest. :)

Thanks for reading,

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