Changing Perspective On Task Completion
As an accountant, completing my task list on time means processing a month or more behind, unless I’m doing budgeting and forecasting. When I started writing, and from there, scheduling work ahead of time, it took some adjustment to suddenly be working in advance, and having deadlines which put me further and further ahead. Ultimately, it became a kind of game I played with myself to see how far in advance I could complete a task.
Changing both my career and lifestyle meant reaching a new agreement with myself and task deadlines. With accounting, task completion is driven by both time, and other people. Transactions have to be completed before you can reconcile and close the books for a month or a year, and the calendar drives when that can occur. In a larger organization, there might be 2 or 200 other people creating transactions, and a hierarchy that has to be honored before ending one period and starting another.
With writing, there are no such constraints. That’s not to say there aren’t times when a person or event will dictate completion of a task or project. When writing for clients, you might be waiting for a piece of information, or even a contract or prepayment before beginning to research and write. But once that switch is thrown, the only rule you must follow is to meet or beat the deadline you and the client agreed to.
Setting Personal Deadlines
Unlike accountants, writers often have projects of their own which have neither clear deadlines nor 
submission dates. No one is there to nag you to finish a task by a certain date to avoid delaying their part of the project. In fact, there’s no outside influence pushing you to complete those projects at all. The hardest thing I had to learn was to create deadlines, and treat them like they were as important, if not more so than the ones set for me by clients, co-workers, or bosses. It’s been a process of trial and error, with overwhelming success in some areas, and frustration in others.
In many ways, I had to dig deep and learn about the things that drove me to honor my personal commitments, and discover where I needed to work with others to provide accountability in a place where the lines were blurry, if they existed at all. I finally realized I had to go back to basics.
I started by looking at the overall picture. Where did I want to be in a year? 5 years? 10? What would I need to accomplish in order to get there? What could I do right now to start moving towards the nearest of those goals? What tools could I employ to help me stick to my plan and timeline, and stay on task? And by the way, what was the plan?
Project Management 101
I learned breaking things down wasn’t one of the sharpest tools in my virtual toolbox. Before I could create a plan to achieve my short-and long-term goals, I needed to sharpen that tool. Granted, I could have found a coach or mentor, and paid them to teach me how to do it; how to create and stick to a plan. I did work briefly with one, but in the end, her ideas didn’t mesh well with my work style or personality, and we parted ways. I probably moved a few steps further along the continuum with her help, but not much farther than I’d have moved if left to my own devices.
What helped most was lessons I’d learned from my accounting career. I found a project management website called Trello, and started creating boards for what I felt were my main areas requiring plans, steps, and deadlines. Over time, the boards evolved. I added cards for newly discovered or created tasks, and set up timetables where possible. Initially, I set easily achievable goals. I learned I achieved more satisfaction from meeting or beating my own deadlines than I ever did, doing it for anyone else.
Ultimately, developing my own project management skills beyond what I’d learned managing deadlines for others, I learned the more I achieved, the more tasks I added to my own plate. Essentially, achievement of lesser tasks and goals drove me to reach higher, and raise my expectations. That feeling of accomplishment was never so enervating when the goals I was achieving were for someone else’s benefit.
Honing in on My Audience
It took awhile to shift my focus, and start increasing productivity for my own benefit. As my expectations increase, I’m learning I’m a much harder taskmaster than any of my employers. Not even the ones who micromanaged could come close to how high I set the bar for myself these days. I have increased my expectations for task quantity, and expanded on my understanding of who I’ll write for, and where I’ll write.
Photo courtesy of CountMcVamp via Flikr
Even so, I’m learning I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, and it’s helping me hone in on who truly wants to read what I have to say, and more, who will publish what I write more often than not. Meanwhile, I’m learning a rejection from one site or publication isn’t the end of the world, and a piece I’ve written doesn’t have to drop into a bottomless void. If one site won’t publish it, there’s always another who will. It’s a matter of finding the ones who are looking for the topics I choose to address.
I’m also learning it isn’t always about the sites with the largest number of subscribers because they also have a huge pool of writers. There will come a time when I can swim in the ocean and stand out from the crowd, but first, I have to swim in the smaller pools and ponds, and establish a readership who will follow me when I outgrow the smaller spaces. Like so many other artists, I am not afraid, nor averse to paying my dues. I’m not writing to be a hack or a chameleon. Doing things my way may take longer, but being able to select both topic and task is the reward for my patience and persistence.
About the Author
Sheri Conaway is a Holistic Ghostwriter, and an advocate for cats and mental health. Sheri 
believes in the Laws of Attraction, but only if you are a participant rather than just an observer. Her mission is to Make Vulnerable Beautiful and help entrepreneurs touch the souls of their readers and clients so they can increase their impact and their income.
If you’d like to have her write for you, please visit her Hire Me page for more information. You can also find her on Facebook Sheri Levenstein-Conaway Author. And check out her new group, Putting Your Whole Heart Forward.
Be sure to watch this space for news of the upcoming releases of ” Rebuilding After Suicide” and “Sasha’s Journey”.
