Mid Week Check In: Still organizing

On Motivation for your Monday I shared what I now kindly call my time keeper. If you missed that post you might want to hop on over and take a peek especially if you are embarking on a new and very busy school year. With three kids in sports and other extra curricular activities, a full time job, and a marriage to cultivate I needed some place to put the "where's and when's" of the week so that I could plan other things like the menu, housework, and fun events with friends and family.

Photo Courtesy: UNKNOWN but  not used to infringe copyright 

Being a blogger with that same schedule, and now .... a soon to be published author, I needed to map out my writing week as well. Now I know as well as you that all things do no go as planned but having a goal is nice and makes it a bit easier to remember when I really would rather sit around and watch tv. My family is no longer offended by the constant use of the laptop while engaging with them both in conversation and tv watching. In fact, now that can see the end result of hard work they are all very supportive!

So.. I wanted to introduce my "writing budget" and how I am utilizing a simple day planner (student planners are really easy to find AND are pretty cheap with the back to school supplies) This is just an example of another way to use it in your own day to day for whatever it may be. As a homekeeper you could use the different colored "flags" to make what days you clean what area of your home. As someone who is TTC it is easy to use those flags to mark your cycles, hormones, shots, etc. If your really working on your finances it is a GREAT way to map out your finances for the month between : Spending, Household, Savings, Entertianment, and Investments.

Here you can see the same "Post it" flags. I love those things because they are removable and they don't leave a sticky residue.

Pink = This blog One Pretty Little Box. So, as you can see for the month of August I now have it set to write Monday - Friday. This leaves the weekend free to either "free blog" or not worrying about it.

Blue = The Ladies Of Cotton Lake Series blog. This is the blog where I will keep everyone updated on changes happening with that series from little writing snippets, character development, plots, and release dates. Book one is soon to be released so stay tuned for that!

Green = This week God has really impressed upon me to start writing a few "lessons" for keynote speaking and for sharing  when the calls come for speaking at Women's Ministries Events. The one I am currently working on indeed may include a small study but I am not sure where God is leading on that.

As you see I still have Purple and Yellow to work with. For now those are unassigned.

I completely understand while this brings calmness to my day ~ for some it may stir anxiety. If that is the case then this method is not for you. I am HIGHLY encouraged to continue to chase my dreams and goals and for me if they are not written down or at least visible at some point they are often forgotten or in the least made to seem less important in my life than they really are.

In fact one of my favorite verses for this out of God's word is :

28-30 “Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn't first sit down and figure the cost so you’ll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you’re going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: ‘He started something he couldn't finish.’ Luke 14: 28-30 (MSG)

I LOVE that because that is indeed what I am doing. I am mapping out my month so that by the end of the month I am not just sitting on the foundation and wondering where the heck did my resources go? (Time, energy, words written down, etc.) For a writer these things ARE very important especially when you also have a full time job, a full time life, and are chasing dreams all in the same day!