A little over a month ago I began an experiment. Could I accomplish 9 tasks 99 days? For months, I’d been fighting ever decreasing motivation and energy and creativity. I’d hoped this would re-energize me, that by narrowing my focus, I would increase both my creativity and my productivity. I chose tasks that were important to me. Some were long-time tasks that I wanted to finally finish, some were new tasks. Most, but not all, were writing related.
We’ve just passed the halfway point for my 9 x 99 experiment. I thought a “progress report” was in order.
Read the Bible in 91 days. I developed a schedule, about 14 chapters per day, to read through the Bible, more or less in historical order. I stayed right on schedule for a month, but began lagging for a few weeks. I’m still making progress, though. I have read over 300 chapters, about 1/3 of the entire Bible.
Write Cookbook. This is a project I conceived years ago and recently revived. I have the recipes chosen and am in the process of inputting instructions. I’ll probably get that done during this 9×99, but I think there will be more to do to really call it complete.
Write Time Tracker manual. I’ve barely scratched the surface on this project. I have been using the Time Tracker software my husband developed. I’ve made some notes about how to organize the manual. I’ve even written a few instructions, but I have a lot more work to do on this project.
Write “How to pray” booklet. I have a specific format in mind for this project. It is not exactly an instructive booklet on how to pray. There are enough of those. It’s more of a compilation of Scripture verses to lead into prayer, organized around what is commonly referred to as “The Lord’s Prayer”. I have at least a dozen verses listed for each section and have been using them in my own prayer time. This booklet might get finished by September 20.
Reorganize E&M. This is my current fiction project, chosen for this 9×99 because I am determined to finally be done with it. I have been working on this novel, off and on, for over ten years! During that time, the story has changed and evolved and expanded into a gargantuan monument to my gift-curse of finding alternatives to . . . anything! The only details to remain the same in all the different permutations are the main characters . . . and I keep wondering if I should at least change their names. LOL It is time to nail down all those details, compile and polish the story and get it out the door! I have made a list of those scenes or parts of the story that must stay. It’s still a small list. I keep getting new ideas to add. I might need an intervention on this one. LOL
Prepare RFW workshop. Ha! Hardly any progress on this. I have listed and organized a lot of ideas and have a semi-solid idea of how to structure this workshop. I might be able to have a barebones outline and list of lectures by the end of this 9×99, but I hope no one is holding their breath. 
FTHRW duties – PPMs, Membership roster, regular duties. FTHRW is an RWA online chapter. I am secretary and have several duties in that role. I have completed all of my regular duties except those still in the future (keeping minutes and such). I also completed a major task of updating our roster after renewal time. I volunteered to help in revising the PPMs (Policies and Procedure Manual). I’m not doing so well on this one. I have read through it and have started making notes. I’m on track to at least having it read and annotated by September 20.
Tutor a student. Done! At least as much as I can do now. I may be asked to help again, but that will be another task. (Whew! It feels good to have at least one task completed.)
Scan negatives. I want to scan all my negatives and pictures, from pre-digital camera days, so I will have everything on my computer (or DVDs). I moved the scanner to my desk, where I can easily access it. The negatives and pictures are there, too. That’s all I’ve done.
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How successful, so far, is this experiment? Potentially very successful. If I take the lessons learned and use them to better myself, I have succeeded, even if some (many?) of the tasks are incomplete.
What are those lessons? The most glaring, to me, is that I need to more clearly define my goal. I need to know what exactly is involved to complete the task and I need to be able to know when I have achieved it. I thought I’d done that, but in a few of these tasks, it is not obvious. For example, when is the cookbook finished? When the recipes are chosen and input into the document? Or when all the accompanying stories and anecdotes and advice are added? Or when I find a way to publish it? What about the workshop? When is it finished? Or the prayer booklet? In fact, it seems as though the only clearly defined items were reading through the Bible and tutoring the student, and that was only clear because it had a time limit attached.
I think also that any tasks listed need to be listed out in steps, again with clear, objective ways to determine completion. I know exactly what to read next because of the schedule I created. I’m not so sure how to proceed with the PPMs because I haven’t listed steps. I’m just reading through it.
My newest assignment? Clearly define the “finish line” for the remaining 9×99 tasks and list the still-needed steps to accomplish them.
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It seems to me, Steph, that one of the other things you’re learning by default is how much time things take and how much of your own work you can do in a certain period of time (outside of your family and other responsibilities). One of the biggest issues for a writer is to figure out a schedule – we often don’t really know how long it’s going to take us to finish a book, but editors and agents are going to hold us to the times we say we can produce a finished work.
I’m finding that I can’t do as many different things during one time (99 days or a weekend or whatever) as I think I can. Good to know as I prepare to go back to school – I won’t be able to do much else but schoolwork and writing. No horse time, no musical commitments, no church commitments. It’s difficult to say no to things, but better than disappointing people. And far better than risking your reputation by not turning in a book on deadline.
What do you think? Are you seeing the same thing, that you can’t do as much as you thought you could in 99 days?
Maybe. That’s actually a lesson I’ve been learning all my life. I regularly think I can do more than can actually fit in a given time span. I’ve gotten better at estimating the time I need to finish things, though, so that’s only part of the issue.
I think a bigger part of the reason these projects are lagging is because I “set them in stone” so to speak. I said I couldn’t change projects until the end of the 99 days. Right after committing to that, several things happened that took my time away from these tasks. Appropriate things, such as a mission opportunity and a cousin moving in to take over the Lodge, but things that left little room for my stated committed goals.
Lesson? Leave some “flex” room in my plans.
[...] This week on Routines For Writers I posted an update of my 9 x 99 in 2009 project. I’m behind, but I’m getting things done. I don’t want to give the same update here, as this [...]
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