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How to Work Smarter for Better Success

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How to Work Smarter for Better Success

Dear Blog,

Last week, I talked about my plan to not take a break. Today, I wanted to talk about what that means and what I actually did.

So, my “break week” – which isn’t actually a break in the true sense of the term – has been focused on editing No Way Out, the next novel in my series The Hexon Code. I’ve had to add a ton of words, delete a ton of words, and I think I have a ton of words left to write to finish off the ending. *panic sets in*

My plan is to have this completed for a February 15 release date and I’m so close to meeting that. Basically, I need to wrap this up by Wednesday of this week. I think I can do it.

Sadly, this also means I’m cutting into my two-week session of focusing on the next project, Breakout, which follows Tessa’s point of view (remember Tessa from Blackout? The girl who went a little crazy in the cafeteria and got herself hauled off by the guards…).

Not to mention, I haven’t been writing for any other projects during this time and that will set me back.

Since I’m new to the plan though, I should still be able to make all this work eventually. The more I write in a single day, the more comfortable I’ll get writing even more – that’s the theory anyway (and a ton of brainstorming will be in order to stay on track).

This is a fun experiment to see how much I’m capable of doing. And again, I went from not even being able to manage 1,000 words a day to writing over 3,200 words a day on a consistent basis. That’s a huge improvement. I can do it if I’m focused.

That’s the difference laser-sharp focus can make.

Instead of focusing on several different projects at once, focus on one and get it done before moving on to the next.

One would think multi-tasking is more productive, but from my experience recently, writing multiple projects at once has spread the creativity too thin. I have a hard time going from one project to another and still getting a ton of words in.

So, focus. That’s the smarter way to work.

As I get farther into this experiment, I’m bound to come up with tweaks. But that’s the beauty of being flexible. And hopefully I’ll be able to gauge more accurately how long a particular project is going to take. It’s not a one size fits all kind of deal.

Until next time…

Jody Calkins
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