A Lesson on Priorities

Dio says, "Listen up!"

Last Saturday, I dragged by hungover ass to my 2nd RWA meeting. (It had been a month since I'd had a karaoke Friday and I'd desperately needed it.) Despite my queasy stomach and exhaustion, the meeting was well worth it. I learned so many things about goals and time management and I hope to share them all with you as well as how I do with implementing them. My husband says I have the organizational skills of a cement mixer and he's totally right.

One thing I want to discuss today is this: One author shared a story about another author who had been angry with someone. Later, she calculated the time she spent on being angry vs. the time she spent writing. Naturally, the results were unpleasant. The author sharing the story then gave us all handouts to fill in our goals for a day and a slot to fill in how much time we spent on them.

This really hit home with me. First because only a few days prior, one of my crit partners and I were doing a writing sprint...but then it dissolved into a conversation about an inconsequential matter. It was fun and much girl talk was exchanged, but we were supposed to be writing.

Then, today I had my weekly session with my therapist. Yet another thing had happened which could potentially affect my writing and a bunch of other stuff. My therapist said, "Come on, I know you are dedicated to your writing career. If this does happen, you'll move things around, but you WILL get the writing done. Sometimes it may not be easy, but you will do it. I KNOW you will. Worrying about it will only waste more time."

Then I remembered the lesson of the RWA meeting and I'm all, "Oh yeah, duh."

Moral of the story: STOP letting inconsequential matters get in the way of what you need to do. STOP worrying. Worrying wastes time you could be spending on more productive or pleasant things.