This is a traditional time of year for evaluating what we’ve done and looking ahead and planning the upcoming year. I think this is true regardless of whether you happen to be the type of person who makes resolutions (or who keeps them).

I’ve been spending some time thinking about my writing year and planning what I’d like to accomplish next year. Much of this amounts to what I’d like to do differently.

I’ve spent much more time writing this year (nearly every day), but not nearly enough working on the novel. Too much of my time has been taken up by small projects, non-fiction, and my two blogs. Yes, I’ve made a little money and enjoyed myself, but my goal is to finish, and publish, the two novels I’m working on.

Lost Time is complete but still largely in rough draft form. I like this novel very much, but it is rough, and I can see it taking some time to prepare for publication.

The Resurrected is still incomplete, but it’s much cleaner than Lost Time. Once it’s completed, I expect it will take half the editing time than the other.

The blogs are gradually attracting more readers, so that’s another project that I want to continue on with. As for the non-fiction, I don’t know. I enjoy doing it, but it takes up an inordinate amount of time for the amount of work I put in to it. I’m not prepared yet to say I’m giving it up, but I’m certainly leaning that way.

Now, to get to the point of the post…. How do I determine that I’m doing the work that’s most important (the novels) while still allowing time for the smaller, but still important, projects?

As I’ve mentioned on this site before, I’m a fan of the flylady website and her method of getting organized. While she focuses on housework, bill-paying, etc. the principles can be applied to just about anything. So, if you’re like me and a bit (or more than a bit) disorganized, check her out. Trust me on this, check her out.

So I got to thinking that I can do something similar for myself and my writing. After all, it’s all about getting organized, right?

My first step is to list everything I need to do in a week for my writing. This is novel writing, editing, blogging, marketing, etc. If it’s easier for you, you might do this on a semi-monthly or even monthly basis.  For me, weekly makes more sense. Keeping that list in mind, I then need to think about how much time I need to spend on each task. Work on the novels should be paramount, say roughly 50 percent of my time. Blogging and marketing are next, followed by non-fiction, if at all.

I’m not big on scheduling out things night by night. So something like writing on Mondays, blogging on Tuesdays… just won’t work for me. I need something that’s more flexible. And here’s what I’ve come up with.

I make a weekly list, starting with the most important things. I list finishing The Resurrected on there four times, which schedules me for four nights of writing on that novel. At this point, I’m going to choose not to split my noveling time between the two books. I’d rather concentrate on finishing the one while I’m still excited by the plot.

Then, I give myself two nights for blogging. That’s enough to put two to four articles up a week, depending on their length. Finally, I plan to schedule two to three half-hour marketing sessions. For now, the marketing focuses on the blogs, but later it will be for the novels as well.

So I make a list that looks like this.

• Writing The Resurrected
• Writing The Resurrected
• Writing The Resurrected
• Writing The Resurrected
• Blogging
• Blogging
• 30 min marketing
• 30 min marketing
• 30 min marketing
• Non-fiction work

I put this list aside (or keep it on the computer) and check off each night when I finish one of the tasks. The advantage is that I keep a balance between larger tasks and smaller ones. Also, I’m not committing to any certain time frame for any particular job.

As another bonus, if I have a busy week and don’t get to write each night, I continue working through the list until it’s complete, even if it takes more than a week. This ensures that I don’t inadvertently neglect part of the work.

If you think this system might work for you, please post a note in the comments and let me know.